Altadena deserves fairness
In January of 2025 the Eaton Fire laid waste to residential and commercial buildings across most of unincorporated Altadena, but it did not defeat the community's strong sense of identity, its heart and its spirit. Members of the community have been rebuilding Altadena bit-by-bit while still coping with toxic soil, insurance hassles, permit delays and - more recently - speculative developers seeking to make a quick buck and get out.
That same month the Palisades Fire did a similar number on the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles. But being a city neighborhood, and a privileged one at that, rebuilding the Palisades has gone a little smoother. One of the keys to rebuilding the Palisades was a Governor's Executive Order exempting the Palisades from compliance with new state housing laws intended to increase residential density. The Executive Order was needed. The notion was that a wildfire is not a good excuse to remake a community as a developer's pipe dream. Instead, people who have suffered the loss of their homes need to be able to put their neighborhood back together as it was. Doing so enables them to regain a sense of normalcy for their disrupted lives. There was no such Executive Order for Altadena, an unincorporated community of invisible, voiceless nobodies.
So it has been nice that Altadena's local legislators have been pushing through a bill to guide Altadena's rebuilding efforts along the lines of the protections provided for the Palisades. Several diverse groups across the community have agreed on an inclusive consensus of support for the bill. The consensus involved some amendments - minor in the grand scheme of things - that would allow some community-driven affordable housing projects to continue. It also spoke to the need for an urgency clause, as was provided for the Palisades, to stop the speculative development projects sooner instead of later. The bill, SB1090, is nearing its final approval. The current version of the bill does not include the community's requested amendments or the urgency clause. California (un)Incorporated has gone on record in support of Altadena's consensus. Those matters can still be fixed, once the Legislature returns in August from its summer recess.
Still, it has not been helpful that Cal Matters has recently asked whether Altadena should "get a pass" from state housing laws. Complicating things, the Cal Matters piece did not mention that the bill was intended to provide parity with protections already given to the Palisades. The issues are framed as pro-housing vs. NIMBYism and anti-housing. That's not what is going on. Altadena is concerned about density without a plan - when a disaster recovery zone is being subjected to a series of statewide density mandates before recovery is complete and before residents have even been given a clear vision for what recovery should look like. Here's how our Altadena partner, Beautiful Altadena, responded to Cal Matters:
A pass? All Altadena is asking for is fair and equal treatment. The Palisades were immediately exempted, not temporarily, but in perpetuity from all state housing density laws with an executive order. We aren't asking for that. We are a demographically and socioeconomically diverse YIMBY community that has always had diverse housing stock. We are simply asking for the time needed to rebuild and get home since the majority of us are reliant on insurance, payouts and litigation settlements that are still years off. This bill only offers us a temporary reprieve and a very limited one at that. And with the current 180 day vesting language it's going to open the door wide open for the bad actors already rushing in. It should never be easier for speculative developers to buy up our land for for-profit housing that is anything but affordable than it is for fire survivors to rebuild and go home. Beautiful Altadena, commenting on Cal Matters' Facebook page about its "get a pass" article
In 1882 Ambrose Bierce wrote, “All men are created equal. Some, it appears, are created a little more equal than others.” In 1945 George Orwell similarly wrote in Animal Farm, "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others." That's not how things are supposed to work in our democracy, is it? It is neither democratic nor fair when the people of unincorporated communities do not have the same rights and privileges as their counterparts who live in incorporated municipalities. Being unincorporated, Altadena is stuck in a state-created limbo without a say in local matters. Haven't the people who lost their homes there suffered enough already? Senate Bill 1090 is a good start. With just a few minor tweaks, the bill could level the playing field so Altadena's rebuilding can be on a par with the Palisades.
Whether that happens, of course, depends on who has the money and the power. What Altadena wants is:
...time to recover not be pressured into a rebuild without any plan, without any recourse, dictated from on high, and offered up like a “buffet” for investors.Stephen Sachs in "The Early Rumbles" AltaPolicyWonk on Substack (https://substack.com/home/post/p-206625719)
But is that what the people with money and power want? Our hearts are breaking for Altadena because the track record so far indicates that Altadena is being treated like prey for the predators. That's inequitable, underhanded and callous, obviously. But how does a community get what it needs when it has to depend on decision makers who, by their actions, have shown they do not really care about the community?
