Note: This article is a reprint of a Substack post by one of California (un)Incorporated's colleagues in Altadena, Shawna Dawson Beer, that was published a day prior to the January 7th 1-year anniversary of the destructive Eaton Fire. It is shared verbatim with permission from the author. Altadena is an unincorporated community. Its residents do not have control over their municipal affairs the way the residents of California's 483 cities do. Yet it is is an extraordinary, closely-knit community, as can easily be seen from posts such as this one from Beautiful Altadena. You can subscribe to the Beautiful Altadena Substack here.

PROMISES, PROMISES 

One Year After the Eaton Fire: Still No Plan, Still No Money, Still Being Left Behind

Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself

It’s been a long time since I wrote one of these long Substack posts, and we have many new subscribers here, so before I go any further, let me reintroduce myself, and thanks in advance for making it all the way to the end!

I’m Shawna Dawson Beer, creator of Beautiful Altadena, a decade-old community group that has spawned many subgroups and connections both on and offline. I’ve served on the Altadena Town Council Land Use Committee, chaired subcommittees, and am a community-at-large member of the Altadena Library District’s Measure Z Oversight Committee. Before fire life consumed me, I was a serial entrepreneur—creator of the LA Food Fest and founder and producer of the artisan incubator Artisanal LA that kicked off a movement, and principal of Sauce LA where I helped launch nearly 100 hospitality projects. I’ve always been a booster of small business, even after the pandemic wiped out all of mine.

I am also a total-loss fire survivor.

And I should note something else, because it matters. I am unfunded.

Unlike many organizers and activists in this space since the fire, I have not taken money from foundations, nonprofits, political entities, or advocacy organizations. I am not beholden to any party, donor, institution, or agenda. I don’t do this work to protect access, maintain relationships, or preserve future funding. I operate entirely outside the ecosystem of professionalized recovery leadership and that independence is intentional. I do this work for the community and the community alone.

Since the Eaton Fire burned Altadena unchecked for days, I’ve spent the last year doing what many of us have had to do organizing our own survival. I’ve been consulted on and quoted in dozens of stories and projects. I manage our private group exclusively for Altadena residents that includes over 10,000 verified fire survivors, our subgroups, our social media that reach hundreds of thousands, and our podcast After the Ashes, with my co-host Stephen Sachs / @AltaPolicyWonk and multiple in-person community efforts. Yes, Book Club will be back in 2026. ;)

I’m also still fighting on multiple fronts including with my insurer State Farm, like so many others, and still facing the brutal reality that I do not have enough money to rebuild without either taking on debt or receiving a legal settlement.

The One-Year Media Cycle

We’ve seen a lot of media coverage in recent months. Some of it has been excellent. The Los Angeles Times has consistently stayed on this story, and Steve Lopez’s November 5 op-ed, Bungled warnings hit weary Eaton and Palisades fire victims like ‘a sucker punch’ which I’m quoted in, cut through the spin with honesty. Justin Worland’s TIME Magazine December 8 cover story Amid the Ashes did the same (Stephen and I are both quoted in there). 

As expected, the one-year mark has also brought a wave of media attention.

Coverage has rightly focused on:

• The failed fire response that left Altadena without evacuation warnings and to burn unchecked for days
• The deaths of 19 neighbors, and the hundreds more when you include fire-related health impacts. A reality underscored by Cedars-Sinai’s recent reporting of the spike in heart attacks and general illness following the fire
• Insurance failures, now largely treated as yesterday’s news as the issues are a dead end in a state that is already losing insurers and has a nearly insolvent option of last resort
• The incomplete fire cleanup, estimated to be nearly $1 billion short of comparable efforts like Malibu after the 2018 Woolsey Fire, and widespread reports of illegal dumping of toxic debris in the community
• And the ongoing toxicity of standing homes and structures as reported by the New York Times

We’ve also seen a lot of blame-shifting. The federal government is blamed for not delivering CDBG-DR funds everyone was counting on. Our County Supervisor is now blaming “politics” for why the money isn’t here—politics that, notably, she controls.

Watch: “One year after California wildfires, progress is slow in rebuilding”

Many Promises Made, But Few Kept

In the days after the fire, we were promised by our Supervisor a speedy recovery, no permit fees, that our town would be rebuilt with the same character of what we lost, and that we would be taken care of. We were assured that executive orders—like suspending SB9—would preserve the character of the town we lost.

None of that has happened. Promises were made and many have broken.

A “Marshall Plan” Without the Plan

Just days after the fire, Governor Gavin Newsom stood in front of the cameras and said Altadena needed a “Marshall Plan”, likening our devastation to post-WWII Europe. It was an apt comparison. Our town looked like a war zone. But here we are, one year later, and there is still no plan. Instead, we get boasts about expanded aerial firefighting capacity—equipment that cannot be used in high winds, which makes the point largely irrelevant—more back patting on the “record speed cleanup” (because it’s incomplete) and more finger pointing at the Feds.

Permit fees are now being waived in some cases, but only after sustained community outrage, and even now the County admits it doesn’t know how it’s paying for it. As I was quoted by CBS News:
» Shawna Dawson Beer lost her entire neighborhood in west Altadena. She called on the county to waive permitting fees after LA Mayor Karen Bass took a similar step for the Palisades Fire zone. The executive order still requires approval from the city council. “We are a community of working-class people and historically underrepresented people,” Beer said. “People are getting $40,000 and $50,000 base permit estimates and fees that they are supposed to cough up.” «

We read the stories shared in our groups of people being left behind every day.

• Neighbors still living in cars and even tents on their burned lots
• Families moving dozens of times from one Airbnb to another and spending tens of thousands in the process
• Mortgage lenders using well intended forbearances as a set up for foreclosure when they run out or balloon payments come due
• Renters still couch surfing because they have unscrupulous landlords, can’t afford to go anywhere else, and have already been priced out of their community
• Thousands living in limbo uncertain if they’ll be able to rebuild or if it’s even safe to return to the community without any real post remediation standards or testing
• The ticking time bomb of additional Living Expenses (ALE) that will run out for many this year
• The unimaginable toll this ongoing trauma is taking on everyone’s life that has left too many dealing with crippling anxiety

Resilience is a comforting narrative. To be clear, it isn’t all bad, but it isn’t all sunshine and roses as some would like to continue to make it seem. For every household rebuilding and optimistic, another nine cannot and are not. Resilience is not recovery. We are resilient because we’ve had to be.

I was quoted in The Economist’s story, Los Angeles After the Flames saying, “Hope is not a strategy. You need a fucking plan.” I didn’t expect that to be the pull quote after a two hour interview, but that remains the truest thing I can say.

This is not a partisan issue. Altadena is unincorporated county. Our local leadership is Republican. This is not a matter of left versus right, as much as some armchair commentators would like it to be. It’s a story of bloated, incompetent governance at every level. At this point, it feels like the only way we’ll see meaningful change is if we fire survivors ourselves run for office.

A year in, our elected officials have no plan because they still have no money and they haven’t done the work to get it here. The tools exist. They existed in January and February of 2025. They don’t require waiting on the Feds. So why aren’t they being used?

Where Is the Money?

What is clear is that without money there is no plan. A year in, hundreds of millions—possibly close to a billion dollars—has flowed through philanthropy in the name of fire victims. What do we have to show for it? Fire survivors are still asking, where is the money? It’s flowed from one non profit to another but very little has actually trickled down to those most in need.

Where is the $20+ billion recovery strategy this community actually needs? We gave grace in the early weeks and months. This was catastrophic. But a year later, there is still no roadmap, no funding mechanism, and no urgency. This is what happens when recovery is professionalized but not democratized.

The Conversations We Should Be Having but Aren’t

We know what failed. We’ve been talking about it all year. That’s why accountability matters. But accountability alone isn’t enough—we need forward-looking strategies. That means real conversations about all of the things our mainstream media still are not covering:

Affordability, Wealth Preservation & Creation

Altadena had deep generational wealth. How do we preserve it? What about homeowners who bought 10 or 20 years ago and just lost a million dollars or more in equity, their retirements and their nest eggs, overnight? We need housing and financing solutions that don’t bury people in more debt.

Liquidity for Older Homeowners & Capital Gains Reform

This opens the Prop 13 conversation whether politicians like it or not. Capital gains policy hasn’t kept pace with reality. We are 20 years out from Bush-era caps in a community with extraordinary appreciation. Those caps should be doubled. Without reform, older residents are trapped or, as just saw, wiped out.

Economic Development

Why aren’t we talking about Opportunity Zones, like New Orleans post-Katrina? Why aren’t we using the same tools that revitalized Old Pasadena in the 80’s and 90’s(and later, downtown Los Angeles), created its largest sales tax base, and sustained small businesses? If you listen to our podcast, you’ve heard me talking about Opportunity Zones all year. Why isn’t anyone else? Why are we watching Altadena businesses struggle for crumbs when recovery could and should be structured around how to grow our local economy?

Accountability Is Not Optional

Beautiful Altadena is part of the Altadena for Accountability coalition calling on Attorney General Rob Bonta to compel a real investigation with subpoena power into the failed fire response in Altadena that left 19 of our neighbors to die in their homes. Our September press conference forced the County to reverse course on the McChrystal Report and support an “independent” investigation which we are still waiting for. The coalition deployed a banner on a float at the Rose Parade. We ran a DIY aid station cheering runners at the Altadena Forever inaugural run after our community booth was canceled “due to rain.” We distributed hundreds of stickers and flyers demanding action. We’ll be at the January 7 one-year commemoration at Grocery Outlet standing in solidarity. And we won’t stop until there is meaningful accountability for what happened here and change to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Year Two Is Just The Beginning. Here’s What You Can Do

If telling the truth about systemic failure sounds like anger or negativity, that says more about our tolerance for honesty than it does about my tone. There is still no plan. There is still no money at scale. And too many people are being left behind, which means our work is just getting started.

Take Action

    •    Join us and stand in solidarity tomorrow at the January 7 one-year commemoration event at Grocery Outlet 5pm to 6:30pm

    •    I’ll be speaking at the They Let Us Burn Rally and demonstration in the Palisades on the morning of January 7, representing Beautiful Altadena

    •    Follow @BeautifulAltadena on Instagram and Facebook for daily updates, action alerts, and resources shared in Stories. We post hundreds every month with critical deadlines and events

• Follow my Notes section here for other important information and short form posts including this Quick Guide to Altadena Restaurants & Food Biz!
• Follow and share our All for Altadena campaign with Altadena Rising to help support some of our Altadena families who are most in need

Stay Informed

    •    Listen to our policy focused After the Ashes podcast. We’re 24 episodes in (!!) since launching in September, and Steve and I will be back in the studio this week on January 8 to recap the one-year media takes and community events

    •    Follow Stephen Sachs’ Substack, AltaPolicyWonk. It can be dense, but he covers important issues and offers an excellent primer on the political landscape that will continue to shape our rebuild

    •    Keep an eye on the Altadena Water Wars Substack. Conversations that have been happening in closed quarters are getting louder

…

As I’ve said, do not despair Altadena. There is always hope and we are worth fighting for. There are many like myself working outside of the system to force accountability and we will not be silenced, and we will not back down until everyone in our community who wants to come home can come home.

I’ll end with this. It won’t be so long before I write here again. And I do keep my promises! Stay strong, Altadena!