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PLANNING WATCH: Conservative pols and news sources, like Fox, and their vaguely liberal counterparts, like the New York Times, are spinning tall tales about LA’s recent, devastating wildfires, I will share some of their whoppers, but first my own list of the real underlying causes, which both the conservative and liberal media fail to mention.
In Los Angeles the most scenic areas, especially foothills near the Pacific coastline, are the home of repeated and increasing wildfires. The chart below demonstrates how the frequency and size of these wildfires has increased in recent decades.
There are several reasons why LA’s wildfires have become more destructive.
- There is more private home construction in severe fire zones, a result of intensive lobbying by developers and their hired representatives.
- Climate change has made the impact of LA’s perennial wildfires worse.
But instead of articles about the underlying causes of LA’s repeated wildfires, we are told by the media and the politicians that the real causes lie elsewhere.
The beacon of militarized liberalism, the New York Times, identifies poor planning, delayed evacuations, and strained resources as the culprits. The paper also lists treacherous conditions as a factor, but never explained how climate change was responsible for these more dangerous conditions.
The “liberals”, such as LA Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom, have called for the quick reconstruction of torched homes. To do this they want to eliminate the California Environmental Quality Act and local building codes. Not only will this solution allow for even worse wildfires in the future but it implies that local governmental regulations were somehow linked to the latest wildfires.
In fact, dangerous fire zones are NOT appropriate sites for contractors to build and sell homes, as revealed in this map from CalFire, the State agency responsible for coordinating responses to California’s wildfires.
CalFire’s map of dangerous fire zones in California
The conservatives, such as Fox news and Abundant Housing, point their finger at arsonists and looters, suggesting that bone dry conditions and annual Santa Ana winds are not a factor. Funny how the arsonists and looters are only active in wildfires areas, and only when wildfires are raging.
These conservative media also blame Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass because of her supposed budget cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department. They don’t mention, however, that the Los Angeles City Council approves the budget, not the Mayor, and that already approved raises were excluded from their stories. Had they been included, the LAFD’s budget would have increased. Furthermore, there were over 5,000 firefighters at work trying to stop the Palisades fire, some from as far away as Canada and Mexico. After a week of mild weather, these firefighters have still not succeeded in extinguishing the fire, the same story for the past 90 years regardless of who was Mayor.
Another boogie man for the conservative media is DEI (Diversity, equity and inclusion programs) in the LAFD. The policies began in 2023, yet dangerous wildfires have plagued Los Angeles for the past century, many decades before DEI finally appeared at the LAFD.
Another conservative target the Wonderful Company. It has a majority stake in the Kern County Water Bank, and its critics claim it withheld water that could have been used to fight the Palisades and Eaton Canyon fires. Yet the Kern County water bank is 100 miles north of Los Angeles. and it has no connection to LA’s water supply.\
What about climate change? The Mayor of Los Angeles and Governor of California have something in common with the conservative media. NEITHER OF THEM DISCUSS TO ROLE OF CLIMATE CHANGE in making LA’s annual wildfires much worse. For example, they both avoid mentioning studies from UCLA’s Climate and Wildfire Research Initiative. For example, the Initiative’s recent study, Climate Change A Factor In Unprecedented LA Fires, argues that climate change in the Los Angeles area is responsible for a 25 percent increase in the destruction causes by the region’s regular wildfires.
Where can you go for accurate analyses of the wildfires? In addition to scientific studies, such as the above, there are videos on YouTube and reports in alternative media, that, in my mind, accurately describe the role of real estate development and climate change in wildfires. If you want to know what is really going on, this is the best way to find out.
In the meantime, CityWatchLA writers, like me, will do their best to fill inthe information.
Dick Platkin ([email protected]) is a retired LA city planner, who reports on local planning issues. He is a board member of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA). Previous columns are available at the CityWatchLA archives.)
