After the Ashes: A Beautiful Altadena Podcast

Episode 14: The Sound of Neglect – No Policy, No Peace

• Shawna Dawson Beer

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In this episode we’re talking about the silence that speaks volumes — the sound of neglect. As we head into the Altadena Town Council elections (November 1st, 4th, and 8th), we break down what the ATC actually is, who’s running, and why this year’s vote may actually matter. If you’ve ever wondered whether local elections really affect recovery and accountability, this episode’s for you.

We also check in on the Altadena for Accountability campaign and the coalition’s ongoing push to get Attorney General Rob Bonta to do his job by compelling an independent investigation with subpoena power into our county’s fire response, or lack thereof. When leadership fails to act, silence isn’t peace, it’s neglect.

Our small business shoutouts this week go to a couple of local legends:

  • Kismet Rotisserie — who were just days away from opening on Lincoln when the fire hit, and who came back strong, serving the best rotisserie chicken around. Follow them online @kismetrotisserie
  • Ferrazzani’s — where Leah Ferrazzani and team are celebrating 11 years of handmade pasta, gelato, and Italian pantry magic. Find them online @ferrazzanispastaandmarket
SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to After the Ashes, our beautiful Altina podcast, breaking down policy and everything else going on in wildfire recovery. Oh, by the way, we put wildfire recovery in like one of the first episodes, and I'm still like, why are we saying that? It wasn't a wildfire. It was an urban fire. Anyhow, let's let's get anyhow.

SPEAKER_01:

It originated in the wild.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And with all the bears and the coyotes and all the other animals now.

SPEAKER_00:

They didn't set a fire. I love one of the things I saw about in that story about the um SCE. Oh my gosh. It was the thing with the SCE CEO saying it's quote unquote likely we will be found our equipment will be found at fault for the eating fire caught start. Um and one of the top comments said, Well, it sure as hell wasn't mice with matches. I was like, Yeah, no shit. I was imagining my own. That's only the Palisades problem. That's a Palisades problem.

SPEAKER_01:

Which I guess that's oldering. That's gonna be well, I mean, the video of that is bananas.

SPEAKER_00:

That's that's a that one's a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

That's no bueno.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's not. And um there's a lot of reckoning and to be answered for.

SPEAKER_01:

It's amazing how both of these disasters were both uh avoidable.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

It's incompetence at the leadership level.

SPEAKER_00:

And ultim and ultimately bad policy. We're gonna talk about that. Oh, bad policy.

SPEAKER_01:

Don't get me started.

SPEAKER_00:

We're gonna talk about bad policy again today. So this is episode 14, um, which I'm calling the sound of neglect. Um, we're gonna talk about EFRU findings, um, noise ordinance fights, uh, which have has blown up in our group in the last few weeks and again today, um, and election choices because Altadena has an election for its volunteer town council that is absolutely worth talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I guess we're probably gonna have turnout this time.

SPEAKER_00:

We might actually. I mean, yes and no. It's like on one hand, no, because no one lives there, and then on the other hand, yes. But let's wait till we get there and we'll talk about all that. I think we could also call this episode no policy, no peace. I almost titled it that no policy, no peace. Because, right? It's like at the end of the day, with a void in policy, with bad policy.

SPEAKER_01:

I I that's even worse.

SPEAKER_00:

I know. How do we go forward? I mean, we can't just sit around and bitch and complain. In the last episode, talked about the fact, you know, using the example of paradise where people have actually become the legislators, they've become the electeds, those fire victims, because they had to, because no one else is gonna do it for them. And I think, you know, that is um, I think what's it's gonna be very interesting to see who emerges and which leaders continue to emerge in Altadena and where they go with these things.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, there was a piece in It's time. What was it? I I think I I wrote about it the other day in on the on the Substack. Oh, the Liberal Patriots on the 27th. And they were talking about Glenn Plattiner, Gram Plattner, the uh the the candidate, the oyster farmer from uh Maine. Since you were up there, you probably heard about him. But the idea was, you know, it it's about back to the idea of how it's not surprising to see the paradise people m moving their way into politics because they are the ones that sympathize with right now. That's a huge component. Like that's what's missing that that authenticity. Like that, I don't want to say shared experience because I don't think shared experience is the right term, but this idea that you know people feel like government's not meeting the need at the moment, right? And people who have been affected by it are more passionate about it, more articulate about it, and more capable of potentially re you know, at least it's resonating with the voters. And that was what the piece was. It was my um authenticity in candidates matter, something I keep talking about more and more. So that's all I keep hearing about. It's true. And so when you were talking about the the the the idea of the folks in the in paradise, it just it resonates. And I think it'll be very interesting to see the bumper crop coming out of Altadina as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, both for 26 and for 28, as things come up and see what happens, especially as you know, this has been a heavy litmus test for a lot of our new electeds, and whether or not they pass that, we're gonna find out, especially in 28. We're really gonna find out. Um, so you know, with that, you know, we have our own little local election coming up. And I say our own little local election because, you know, historically people have not even realized that we have a town council because it is a volunteer advisory body that, if I'm being entirely, you know, frank, just has not been very effective historically.

SPEAKER_01:

It wasn't meant to be effective, it was supposed to be advisory. Correct. It got elevated because of this fire because everybody was like, Well, who represents Al Tedina?

SPEAKER_00:

That's right.

SPEAKER_01:

And this was a convenient group that was gonna totally be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

And now, and it is exactly that chose the party line and is now being used as a rubber stamp to a lot of um very questionable at best county decision making and policy.

SPEAKER_01:

But um Oh, by the way, did you see how fast they got 782 through the CRD approved?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, because apparently meetings were happening all the way back in September to even well before anyone thought it would go through to actually set up the infrastructure to push it through. Which again, it begs the question if you can act that fast, since you already had all the tools at your disposal and this was a quote unquote emergency, why the heck didn't you do it in January and February?

SPEAKER_01:

Because they'd wanted to get rid of the protest vote.

SPEAKER_00:

No, you and I both know why. I'm just I'm setting it up for the SCE. But exactly that that was it. It was to get rid of the protest vote. So all of this was to get rid of the protests.

SPEAKER_01:

Sorry for all the knack.

SPEAKER_00:

But one more one more time for the chief seats. It's so good.

SPEAKER_01:

The SRP CRD brought to you by SCE. So I mean, we're talking about our town council, but let's be honest, the five-seat CRD is going to really run our town.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And three of those seats are going to be a supervisory and then from the supervisors, and then two are going to be they're supposed to be community, but it looks like well, they're going to be appointed.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, but it looks like those appointed positions are going to be the same rubber stamping lackeys that we see on everything. It's it's say no different than the arc. So again, it's uh it's illusory.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know what other words use your illusions. Yeah, I mean it is. I mean, we're doing all these great musical.

SPEAKER_00:

We are, we are. It's analogy. It's not real, you know, it's it's not meaningful.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not actually but that's the true power.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, it's a puppet body.

SPEAKER_01:

But what is the town council? How is it gonna work, John, in your opinion, with the town council and the CRD?

SPEAKER_00:

Because I mean the CRD is I think this I think the town council is going to be, frankly, as irrelevant as it has been made in a lot of respects. And again, the that is not to discredit. I want to be very clear. There are people on that town council present and past, um, who have gone in with the best of intentions for the community, who have done their best to actually do things that were meaningful and helpful. Um, and, you know, are generally good people who I have a tremendous amount of respect for because, you know, I firmly believe that you don't get to complain if you don't participate. And even if you're participating at that level and it's ultimately ineffective, at least you went and did it. You know, I we've talked about it before. I've sat on a number of town council committees and subcommittees. I've sat on the land use committee myself. Um, it's important to do the work, um, to understand how the processes work, to understand how the systems work, and then understand what works, what's working for us and what doesn't, and hopefully to create change. But unfortunately, given a number of variables, it's been really tough to create any kind of change there. And to your point, you know, this thing that was kind of just at the very far at the back of most people's minds to the degree that like most of these seats historically have been won with like literally I'm not kidding, guys, less than 10 votes, sometimes like two or three votes, even in some cases, uncontested seats that have been won with zero votes. Well, you have to show that no one person cares because it's difficult to vote, but people don't know. And even those who know don't care because they perceive it to not be all that relevant. And, you know, I'm frankly one of those people simply because I know from personal experience and that of the experience of other community organizers, how incredibly effective we are organizing and going directly to the county and circumventing that body, which is again not to discredit any of the work that they have done. Some really good work is coming out, come out, has come out of that, including um specifically our CSD that came out of our land use committee and was the result of years of of tireless work um on the part of a number of people.

SPEAKER_01:

Involved in that land use committee.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh. That was before me. Oh I was a I was around and doing work with the town council at that time, but I was not on the land use committee at that time. But um a number of people worked on that, including Daniel Harlow, Ed Myers. Um there were a lot of our low, you know, Altadina residents who are still in town um who worked hard on that. And it's why it's one of the many things that is disheartening to see the county run roughshod on it with SB9. And you know, we're we're gonna save SB9 for another episode because what's happening with SB9 and the finger pointing, it's another Spider-Man meme of like, oh, no, them, no, them, no, them.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I mean, but it but again, it gets back to this trend of it's not one-offs anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's not. So, you know, with that, um, this town council election becomes a little bit more interesting. On one hand, we may could see fewer votes because there's no one there to vote. 22,000 of us are displaced and we're not even there. It's hard enough to get there in the first place. On the other hand, for those of us who can or who are there, you know, who have a standing home and are still around, um, or have remained in the area, uh, it may be a little more compelling to vote this time because so many seats are up for grabs, and this is such a pivotal time. Um, there have been some other elections like this where we've seen a big, you know, uh sea change where you've had multiple seats go in one in one election like this. I've seen and heard from folks in the past where they've come in, like, hey, all these new people have come in, all this new blood, all this fresh, you know, perspective, great ideas, willingness and desire to bring change, and it never happens because ultimately they get squashed by that system. But there is the energy for the limit.

SPEAKER_01:

So for those of us that don't know a lot about the town council, what does that limitation look like? How does it get limited? It's because it's a purely advisory, correct?

SPEAKER_00:

It's purely advisory, meaning they, but the county does come to it because the county does use it as a rubber stamp. But you know, the thing to understand is that even when, and I know this from my time in land use and in on subcommittees, that even when the town council has, on behalf of the community, um opposed something or made a recommendation contrary to what the county has wanted, um, unless it benefits the county, the county does what they want. Um, so to say that it's advisory is frankly even um a bit of a stretch, um, especially right now. And I think the thing that sat not very well with a lot of folks is that the people on the town council who now have been paraded, you know, by the county because it suits the county, it benefits the county and the machine and the power structure. But they've been parading these folks around. Like, look at these, you know, folks who are doing this job, who are also survivors of the fire, many of whom, like so many of us, total loss survivors, um, and parading them around for awards and documentaries and uh various lunches and and dinners and you know, you name it. Um to say it's distasteful is a bit of a to many is a bit of an understatement. I understand why people are really bothered by that, you know, it's maybe not the the time and the place for that, regardless of your personal loss. But um, you know, getting back to it, we we have an election. Voting happens, as you stated, in person only, and it happens uh next week in um multiple locations. Um so people can vote beginning this weekend. You can vote on Saturday, November 1st from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can vote on Tuesday, November 4th on election day from noon to 6 p.m. And you can vote on Saturday again on Saturday, November 8th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Where? There are six polling locations. Um one of them is the Altadena Main Library. You have the Altadena Library at Loma Alta Park, you have got prime pizza. We have the uh uh Altadena Town and Country Club, which that one baffled me a bit because I was like, wait, must be by the pool. Yeah, I guess. Because there is no country club. Well, there is uh yeah. I'm a little gutted by that building. I was not a country club member, but I enjoyed many events there, and I loved going to Wine Taste there, and it bums me out that like so many of our beautiful historic structures, it's gone.

SPEAKER_01:

But um I had a long conversation with folks there about yeah, we don't know what the rebuild's gonna look like.

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's painful. But um, so you've got that and then the grocery outlet, and then only on election day, Tuesday, November 4th, another option is also the Bob Lucas Memorial Library and Literacy Literacy Center. Um, and it's also that's an opportunity to go see it if you haven't seen it yet since it reopened. They were the library district really did a beautiful job with that. Um, so it's very simple that um any resident age 18 or older can vote, regardless of citizenship status. Um, voters need to bring proof of residency. So that could be a driver's license with your Altadina address, a utility bill, a rental agreement, any official mail with an Altadena address on it. Um, this is one of the many reasons why for a lot of us who are displaced, we're maintaining our Altadina addresses, including on our um driver's licenses for that reason. Um and then you can vote. Now, the important thing to know is that you can only vote for your census tract. So you hear me reference my tract a lot on this podcast, you know, my tract to 4602, because 4602's tract is effectively gone. We were one of the hardest hit by the fire.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so you know, it it's um you need to understand what your tract is so you can see who the candidates are and then decide you know who you want to go and vote for.

SPEAKER_01:

But um to me the whole like there's two candidates per tract. Correct. How does that work?

SPEAKER_00:

Because there are two seats. So there are two seats. It's a 16-member council, town council. All right, there are 16 total, there are eight tracks.

SPEAKER_01:

So we have 16 members representing the town of Altadina, 43,000 people. We have five supervisors representing the county.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct. Correct. Yeah. That math really maths, doesn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I still don't like an IG, but anyway, that's a different story.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Um so well, and I think that the fifth district shouldn't exist because it's an impossible job, but that's that's another conversation. Um so what we have happening, and the way this works, is that every tract has two reps, and within that, with your two reps, you've got um one coming up in every other election. So you're not gonna see both seats flip every election. It's it's it it's staggering. Okay, so you've got one and then the next election will be the next. So right now there are eight seats um open in census tracks 4601 uh through 4603.2 and 4610 to 4613. Um, some of the current town council members whose terms are expiring are Victoria Knapp, who is 4601. Actually, yeah, that's right. Um, Kim Yu, um that's in my track to 4602, Dorothy Raw Wong in 4603, John Carmedy in uh 4603.2, and um Jafina Moosin in 4610, Pat Sutherland in 4611, Reginald Wilkins in 4612, and um Sylvia Vega in 4613. And um, I think again, what's kind of interesting about that is that all those seats are being contested. Um, a lot of times the incumbents just keep rolling from one to the next to the next. There are people who've been on that town council for decades.

SPEAKER_01:

Um there's no term limits.

SPEAKER_00:

There's no term limits, and there are also very little oversight. There are, you know, candidate statements are made. Um, MBBA, neighbors building a better Altadina, have been hosting a candidate forum for uh many, many years, and that occurred yesterday on Tuesday, October 28th, via Zoom. It should be available online for anyone to go and see. Um, but again, because the stakes are so low, hard questions aren't asked. There are not a lot of rules around what must be disclosed. And for example, something that came up in our group this week um and that kind of blew up was the reality that one of the town council members who is um currently up for re-election and who's been on the town council a long time is an SCE consultant. Okay, he works for SCE. Um, and a lot of people were losing their mind over this and they couldn't believe it wasn't disclosed. They couldn't believe it wasn't in his his uh candidate statement or discussed in the forum. Um, but you know, these are the things that people don't really know about what's going on there because they haven't, there's no, there's no incentive to, right? But uh at the same time, I made the joke, but except it's not funny at all. As I said, if people had any idea how many Trump supporters were currently on that town council, they would lose their minds.

SPEAKER_01:

Are we like Huntington Beach?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh not far, to be honest. There's quite a few folks where you'd be like, wait, what? Uh to see one on there, maybe I would go, okay, that's probably maybe in a more accurate representation of our demographics. But um, there are a few. Uh so I would just say, I would say to everyone, for this one, because while hope is not a strategy, and I'm gonna continue to say that because I am a great um viewer, reader, advocate of uh resistance history and understanding, you know, like one of my favorite college classes was one on the Weimar Republic in Germany and exactly how the Nazis managed to wrench control over a democracy with a very clear uh constitution. And if you want to be terrified, go get into that history because it's playing out right now in this country. But um as you dig into that uh reality, um, you know, here we are with this. Um, it's you know, will this be consequential? Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But there are very few places where we have any voice or ability to exert any control. So if you have the time, inclination, ability, take a little time, read through all those candidates. Maybe just, you know, to be honest, uh, if it were me, like I'm gonna go through and make some and really dig in, and then I'm gonna make some recommendations in our group. So if you're a member of our neighbors only, or those of us, you know, who are all locals as of January 7th, you're eligible to join the group. But um take, I'm gonna look really dig in and then make some recommendations. But I think that my general advice on this one would be let's just vote in entirely fresh blood. I'd like to see every seat of the eight flip. And um, not because that doesn't mean that some of those people who would lose their seats aren't aren't solid because you know, some of them are they're really good people, good neighbors. Um, but because I think that it's just time for some change. And the only way we're gonna see that is to really kind of upset the apple cart in a big way. And if we can flip it completely this time and flip it completely again the next time, who knows? Maybe something will change, or maybe it will just become so incredibly irrelevant that we can demand from the county a better, more effective system that actually does something meaningful for us because this ain't it.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh-oh. Anarchists, here we go.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's the truth. It's the truth. So I'm gonna give you a quick and dirty on the candidate roster. So everybody running, Brandon Perez, Courage, Morgan Z Worledge, Kim Yu, Brandon Smith, Dorothy Wong, Heidi Lust. I hope I pronounced that correctly, maybe Lewest, John Carmedy, Matthew Lorscheider, Anton Anderson, Jose Ortega, Nicole Galvin Ortega, Torin Joseph Floyd, JD Angel, Pat Sutherland, Lori Juma, Reginald Wilkins, Alexandra Kirshner, and Sylvia Vega. Um, some of those are incumbents seeking re-election, um, which include Carmody, Vega, and Wong. Um, you know, uh personally, I really like Dot. Dot Wong. She's done a ton in the area of um uh walking safety, bike safety, transportation issues, public safety, um, streets issues. Um, but at the same time, again, I don't think it would be bad for us to flip the entire council. So, and that is that is me speaking as the anarchist. So if you can get out and um and make that vote.

SPEAKER_01:

So oppose Shauna or oppose the council, either way.

SPEAKER_00:

Either way, do something. Just do something. I don't care what you do, do something. Um, I'm gonna jump into one more topic and we're gonna keep it brief as we we get to wrap this episode up today. Um, but I do want to give an update um on the Altadina for Accountability coalition.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I do. I think it's important. So for those who follow, um, a few weeks back we had a big press conference after the McChrystal report dropped. Um, and the demand of that press conference and the coalition of uh community organizations, the community leaguers, leaders, um has been and remains compelling attorney general Rob Bonta to um initiate an investigation into our fire response um with subpoena power. So a real investigation, not the report that we got that is ultimately not all that actionable, even with recommendations and board motions and all of that. It's no different than what happened after the Woolsey fire. Same thing. They got a report, they got a bunch of recommendations, they had motions to enact the recommendations, it didn't happen. So, you know, ultimately it doesn't have teeth. So, what the coalition um has been demanding is that we have a real investigation because, you know, ultimately, what is at the root of this is a civil rights case and it's a civil rights issue. It it a black community, a historically black community, was left without evacuation warnings, left without to burn, left to burn, and was just disproportionately impacted. And um with that, I want to mention that the uh organizations that are leading the charge on this, on Altadena for accountability, um, include the SE Justice Group, the Black Power Network, and Altadena Rising, which is also a Black-led organization. Um, I am one of the few white folks in the room, to be blunt, which is appropriate. Um, and we're and I'm happy to support, and I lend my support full uh in every way to this, um, as does everyone in that room. We were talking about we actually had some new coalition members joining us this week and and are looking to actually continue to grow what we're doing in the space. And I have to say, like it's the one meeting that when these meetings happen and they're long, we meet for three, five, six-hour strategy sessions that are actually effective. I mean, we get so much done and we come out with really clear directives. Um, and we have been very effective and we're gonna keep pushing on that. But I mean, um, the takeaway for all this is that we're not done with our work. We still have not gotten what we are pushing for, which is this independent investigation and any form of meaningful justice for our community, including and specifically for our black community that was really left behind on this one. And um, we're not going to stop until we do. So, Rob, do your job. I think that's the hashtag of our campaign, Rob, do your job. Well, I mean And I'm gonna say to our other elected, do your job too. We've had a lot of elected who are like, oh, hey, I support you. What can I do to help? Let's have a meeting. Oh, like, dude, you you've you know what the demand is, and you're hanging out with the AG. So if you support this, just tell us. Is it is the AG compel the AG to do this, or tell us that he's not going to and why?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, has this been done before? Uh have other AGs or has it been done here in California before?

SPEAKER_00:

And this is what's so maddening, especially since California, we're such a again, this goes back to our our our you know, some previous conversations around uh being ineffective, you know, and and the call coming from inside the house uh in our own party. California is supposed to be leading the way. And where are we? Uh Lahaina, they managed to do this. Lahaina in four days after the fire, their AG compelled an independent investigation. Meaningful change was made. Their report was dropped four months after the fire. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Was their AG running for higher?

SPEAKER_00:

No, they were not.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, just making sure.

SPEAKER_00:

I know, right? And you would think that since Bonta is up for re-election next year, he would care. Yeah, but right now he's unopposed. Right now he's unopposed. But uh, let's hope someone steps up and and we have someone else to vote for because at this point we will. And I don't care what that other candidate looks like. I would vote for them just frankly to get rid of this because this level of neglect and inaction um is criminal on every front. I don't know how else to put it. It's so disheartening and ugh, it's gross when you brought this up. It makes me just ugh.

SPEAKER_01:

When you brought this up to me the other day and we were texting back and forth on this, you know, this is where I think it's a good indication for Al Tedina to understand where we stand in this broader context.

SPEAKER_00:

We don't.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, uh the attorney general is more concerned right now about opposing Trump, about the election monitoring, about, you know, whatever the latest Trump-based, you know, National Guard Michigas, as they say in Yiddish, which means crazy, you know, crazy. That, you know, they're not really focusing on what really matters, which is what's happening inside the communities. And, you know, this is sort of endemic that we're finding throughout the response at this point, and I've been warning the community that this is what was about to happen, is that we don't matter anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's sad.

SPEAKER_00:

Our time came and went, and we weren't loud, we weren't noisy enough because we trusted people we shouldn't have.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and that's why we're now getting the short shrift on all of this. So I think this is a lesson for the community to understand that you know, unless you're making it so that they're gonna pay attention to us. And I I'm not sure what the play is here, to be honest. I I you know the politics on this one are I I think it's a no-brainer, but obviously there's not a need for it right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, and maybe there is, maybe they're already doing it, maybe they just haven't told us.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't that's what we thought, actually. And I don't know. I would like that to be right. I would like that to be right.

SPEAKER_01:

This is one of those I will I will eat my words if I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I have no problem eating my words when I am wrong. I've been married for 21 years. I know how to eat words.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm just okay being wrong because great, I'm happy to learn something. Um, unfortunately, we're not more often than not, and that's the most disappointing part of it all. I actually hate being right all the time because this stuff really sucks. This is not the stuff you want to be right on. It's not the stuff that you want to be right on at all. So, with that, you know, we're still blocked, we're still putting up that fight, and there will be future calls to action for the community to engage in that fight. So stay tuned for that because we're gonna be looking to you for it. We are gonna keep fighting. Um, I wanted to talk briefly about noise, and I'm gonna make it really brief, but um, and refer people to our group. Here's something that's brewing that you would never think about. We have a noise ordinance in Alstena. Um, it is the LA County Noise Ordinance, it is um chapter 12, I or is it chapter 8? Anyone with teenage kids? Forgive me because I don't have it in front of me. I don't have the code in front of me, even though I reference it all the time. But um it very simply um states that construction noise is is it can is acceptable and allowed between 7 a.m. and um about 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and not on Sundays. Um, there have been some complaints from people who have who are living on their properties in RVs, trailers, et cetera, during construction, and from neighboring homes where people have had to return to standing homes in the middle of these burn zones, that they are living in constant noise on top of the trash, the violations, the rudeness, the speeding, uh, the illegal signage. It's just it's insult upon insult. And um there are some folks who are pushing to change our noise ordinance, specifically for Aldadina, to allow this virtually 24 hours a day, um, which needless to say has been met with some serious upset that I understand. I'm one of those total lost people. I need to rebuild. I want to rebuild, but I don't want to do it at the expense of my neighbors who are stuck living in that, creating more environmental mess where they have not even a what break in the dust. Okay. Like if you look at Al Tadena even now from the 210, it's a giant dust cloud over the town. And we know what's in that dust. We know what's in that dust. It's not just silica that you shouldn't be inhaling. So, you know, it's it's to ask people that for people to ask to have one day and a few hours in the evening of peace is not unreasonable. And, you know, I just want to say to everyone like, we have to get through this together with compromise, with kindness, with community. Like this is not easy stuff. And this isn't gonna be going on for a decade, folks. We're gonna be rebuilding this town for seven to ten years. So, whatever it is, you know, uh, I'm just gonna say as we close this one out, love thy neighbor. One way or another, love thy neighbor. Um, I'm also gonna say as we close this one out, if you are, you know, it's Halloween this week. Um, we used to do a big trick-or-treat map that was actually one of my pet projects that I loved. If you want that and you're missing it, I'm sorry it's not gonna happen this year. If only because, well, first, the majority of the homes on the map no longer exist. Too, I don't have the energy and bandwidth to do it this week. But what we do have is a thread going in our group of where to go because there are a lot of standing homes that are really bringing it this. year. There are some little block parties or a number of things. So head over to the if you're a local, head over to the Beautiful Altadina official Facebook group. If you're joining the group for the first time, mention the podcast so that we can bet who you are and get you in and take advantage of all of that information sharing because it's pretty fucking fantastic. Small business shout out.

SPEAKER_01:

Wait, there goes your your swear jar. We almost made it through an entire episode.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't want to disappoint. So I want to do a shout out for um Kismet Rotisseri. And on the same block there, next door neighbor Farrazzani, Leah Farrazzani, who started out as Semolina Pasta. She actually was just posting um on socials that she had um you know a couple weeks ago that she was celebrating her 11 year anniversary with posts of her debut and launch at artisanal LA. And for those who don't know that was my um artisan craft food incubator for more than a decade from 2009 to 2020. And um so I anyhow it was like it was a really it was a bittersweet moment to see that. But again all of our connectedness in that community. So Farazani's fantastic she makes local pasta she makes pasta locally um but also has a number of other provisions some awesome gelatos some treats.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yeah her place is her shop is amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's it. And next door Kismet Ratisserie which is fantastic you know we have an another Kismet um Grand Censor Market. And there's one in Burbank exactly they were getting ready to open and prepping for open just before the fire and instead of pulling out which any lot reasonable person sensible person would have done they decided to stick it out and stand with the community in open anyways and they did um post just after the fire. So they're another one the food is great the ownership is great they've invested in our community go invest in them. So those are my shout outs for the big supporters of them is uh Kismet Rotisseri and Farazzani's both on Lincoln um and also right adjacent um another favorite um I like coffee. Oh yeah and then of course Home State gotta love Home State. So with that um we're gonna wrap it up we're gonna close it out. I'm Shauna Dawson Beer at beautiful Altadena I'm Steve Sacks at the Alta Policy Wonk. On Zubstack.

SPEAKER_01:

Indeed and uh we'll talk to you guys we'll see you next time. All right