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ALPERN AT LARGE - Spare me the political cover-your-hiney nonsense, Mayor Bass, Governor Newsom, and the Legislature. President-Elect Trump may be a jerk and a trash-talker (to his own discredit), but this disaster was on the watch of L.A. and CA.
The empty water reservoir that could have mitigated the immediate damage of the Palisades fire is but the tip of the iceberg. If Mayor Bass had any decency, she would resign, or at the very least quit smiling and start getting serious about those proclaiming our City policy.
Ditto for you, too, Governor Newsom—your political ambitions for 2028 are NOT the priority of Californians.
Here ARE the priorities of Angelenos and other Californians, and in a nutshell they involve telling the Leftie do-gooders and paid-off lobbyists and politicians representing FAUX-Environmentalists, Climate Change Theologians, Developers, and Gaslighting Politicians:
1) If we don’t have enough water for our current residents, why are we developing and pushing for more “affordable” or any other housing?
2) If Southern California is habitable for so many people because canals and water from the Sierra Nevada snowpack were created a century ago, aren’t we frighteningly overdue for more reservoirs and redirecting excess water to pump up the water table and allow for sustainable, environmentally-friendly development?.
3) There will always be wet and dry years for this state—can we please tell the misanthropic anti-reservoir zealots (and they ARE misanthropes, and they ARE zealots) to stand down, or at least recognize that their way of controlling conversations and policies needs to end?
4) Can we please require sufficient water, energy, and other air/livable requirements before we develop, as per all reasonable environmental policies we keep ignoring?.
5) Climate change is bad, and human climate change is real, but can we please recognize that we’re doing things wrong (and inefficient) with respect to our response and resultant environmental disasters?
6) Can we finally please recognize that—expenses be damned—all utilities need to be undergrounded?
7) Can we finally please recognize that controlled fires to remove the tinder buildups from dead trees and other forest floor fire risks when they inevitably occur, as we USED TO DO for decades?
8) Can we finally recognize that if we want affordable, cost-effective, and sustainable amounts of energy, that it’s time to go nuclear with respect to supplementing fossil fuels (because solar is just a nice supplement, and wind is just about useless for energy with respect to NUMBERS of energy creation)?
9) Can we please let (If not force) the hordes of homeless individuals who are NOT from this state go back the states dumping them upon us?
10) Can we please stop focusing on making this a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants, because we obviously don’t have the resources for those here legally (including legal immigrants)?
As I stated in my last piece:
Until we pursue a 21st Century water, fuel, and transportation/infrastructure plan we will see more nightmares such as that we’re going through. Sacramento’s leadership and city/county leadership have long abandoned what was politically, economically, and scientifically necessary to create the 20th Century utopia that was California.
There will continue to be unavoidable disasters, but what we’re seeing now could have been partially mitigated and prevented.
Don’t blame Trump, and perhaps don’t even blame Newsom.
Until each and every one of us gets with reality, and confronts what built this fair state from the desert it once was, we’ll be avoiding what’s needed to “make California great again”.
Or even just “livable” again…
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
