Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass were notably absent as hundreds of Pacific Palisades residents gathered in protest to mark the one-year anniversary of the deadly wildfire with grief and anger.
“I think Newsom should be afraid to be here,” Julia Nielsen Lombardi, a Palisades resident told The Post at the “They Let Us Burn” protest. “A lot of people are mad, but a little support from our Governor would be nice. He’s been a little missing in action. But if he could say just one tangible thing, one thing to help us recover.”
“He’s running for President. Why wouldn’t he want to be involved in this? He only goes places where he can have a nice smile. And we have been taken advantage of every step of the way. He’s a coward,” said Melissa Idelson, her home didn’t burn down, but she’s unable to move back in.
Bass will also be avoiding the public spotlight and instead holding private vigils with residents and city leaders. “This anniversary forces us to face the trauma head-on. As we collectively mourn, the pain remains palpable. But so does something else now: hope and resolve,” Bass said in a statement.
Bass dodging the public eye does not come as a surprise for Hugh Slavic, a hair stylist who is afraid to move back to his Palisades apartment because of toxic waste and smoke damage.
“It’s understandable because she’s so unpopular. This crowd would boo her. Everybody here, their feelings for her are just not positive,” Slavitt said.
Newsom did attend a closed event at Palisades High School in the morning where he viewed fire damaged areas and restored facilities, as well as met with school and district leaders about preparations to re-open the campus this month.
“The Governor’s visit highlighted the state’s ongoing commitment to helping schools recover and rebuild faster — including record-setting debris clearance, expedited permitting through exemptions from CEQA and the Coastal Act for school reconstruction, and continued advocacy for federal disaster recovery funding,” according to a statement from the Governor’s office.
Just a few miles up the road from the school you’ll find the rubble that was once the home of Greg Frost, who called out Newsom and Bass for caring more about their political careers than Palisades residents.
“They’re both responsible, especially Karen Bass for neglecting the fire department and just neglecting the city and the Palisades for years has been neglected,” Frost told The Post. “If Karen Bass or Newsom cared they would have made it a priority for the Palisades to rebuild instead of just giving lip service.”
In a statement, Newsom’s office said it “has taken unprecedented action to remove barriers that slow recovery and ensure bureaucracy does not stand between families and their return home,” while shutting the blame to the White House.
“President Trump’s refusal to transmit a recovery package to Congress to help families rebuild shows his promise to ‘take care’ of survivors was clearly a lie. That’s not just disrespectful, it’s a disgrace – and it’s time for him to wake up and do his job,” Tara Gallegos, deputy communications director for the Governor, told The Post.
The Governor will be in Los Angeles today meeting directly with survivors in the Palisades and Altadena, but those meetings will not be open to the public or available to press.
“To respect and protect their privacy, our meetings with survivors and community members are not meant to be press opportunities,” Gallegos said in a statement.
