After the Ashes: A Beautiful Altadena Podcast

Episode 15: From the Ballot to the Burn Zone – Post-Remediation Realities and Post-Election Reflections

• Shawna Dawson Beer

Share episode

Welcome back to After the Ashes, a Beautiful Altadena podcast where we dig into what’s really happening in our foothill community — from rebuilding after disaster to rebuilding trust. In Episode 15, we unpack a full slate of local headlines and hard questions:

Election season brought us decisions on Prop 50 and new faces for the Altadena Town Council — but what do these results actually mean?

EFRU’s latest findings on post-remediation contamination have many homeowners — especially renters, seniors, and those without funds — facing troubling realities. We break down the press conference, media coverage, and what it all means moving forward.

The Dawes benefit concert for the Altadena Foundation for Rebuilding (through PCF) sounds inspiring — but community voices are asking: where exactly are these dollars going?

Plus, we talk SB9, finger-pointing, and the county’s quiet push toward densification under the banner of “growth.”

And before we wrap — our Beautiful Altadena in person events are making a slow return. Don’t miss our Beautiful Altadena Friendsgiving Pie Night at Adelaide, November 23! RSVP through the Eventbrite link shared in our group and bring your favorite pie to share.

This episode’s small business spotlight shines on EZ Halal Market — part of the Hen’s Teeth Plaza at Los Robles and Woodbury (@ezhalalmarket), alongside dym Books & Boba (hosting tons of community events, including Mahjong Mondays, @dympasadena) and Kings Breakfast & Burgers (@kings_bnb). Follow them all on Instagram, and catch more of their opening stories we wrote last year on our Beautiful Altadena Substack.

After the fires, after the headlines — we’re still here, still asking, and still rebuilding.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome back to After the Fires or After the Ashes. Sorry. It's been a while. It was a couple weeks off, Shauna. It's episode 15 from the ballot to the burn zone. Post mediation realities and post-election reflections.

SPEAKER_00:

It was. I was on a roll, and then I couldn't remember what I'd said and what we were talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

You should go in PR, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh really?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm maybe I could do okay in PR. I don't know. I'll have to think about that for future.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I need all the help I can get with that. So anyway, it's it's also Veterans Day today. We're recording on the 11th. So for those of you that are sitting there going, why is Veterans Day falling on a Tuesday when we should have a three-day weekend? Well, a little bit of history about this is this Veterans Day is yes, we're celebrating all those who have sacrificed for our country. And thank you to all those who have served and volunteered to do so or not. We we are so grateful to have the freedom that we live under because of you. Um but Veterans Day actually is Armistice Day. If you go outside the US, that is what it's called. And it's celebrating or commemorating the end of World War One or the Great War, depending on which uh continent you're on. And so we also want to say, you know, thank you again, veterans.

SPEAKER_00:

I I know I I would second that as a thank you for to everyone who served for their service, um, which I think is especially poignant now. I mean, even for me, um, you know, uh in my family, everyone served. Um, my uncle, my father, both of my grandfathers, um, in multiple, you know, my my grandfather was Navy, my uncle was army, my uh father and his father were both Marines. His father, my paternal grandfather, um, was actually career military. He was an officer in the Marines. Um, both he and my father had full military funerals. Um, so yeah, there is a lot a lot of appreciation for those who put in that time and do the service. Um I also want to say, I think it's especially poignant to think about that service now at this stage, where I think that we're so removed from what, especially as we hear, and I don't want to go too far, but I just want people to think about this as we as we hear an entire political party, you know, trying to blame things on Antifa.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, here we go.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, like our our fathers and our grandfathers were the anti-fascists, like folks. I I'll we'll save it for the next the next episode. But I think it is a good setup for that reality of how far we have come. You know, our grandfathers are rolling in their graves, and our great grandfathers for considering what they fought for for us in this country. Well, this ain't it.

SPEAKER_01:

I I think, yeah, I think this sense of history has been lost in a lot of these things, and I think terms are used today that probably shouldn't be to used when looking at historical references or historical allegories. But we'll leave that for another episode. By the way, I just got back from Washington, D.C., and that's what Sean is looking to poke the bear a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

We will re we will poke that bear in our next episode because there's so much poking to be done here.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, but let's start with. We have lots of poking to do. Let's stay more local and let's focus on what's going on.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, let's so actually let's focus on the things that are. Well, that's uh, yeah, in a lot of ways. I I don't even want to say not give a shit, but I think all of us in Altadena don't necessarily have the luxury of being as engaged in national politics as we perhaps typically would be or would like to be, right? Because we kind of have our hands full with our own lives and with local politics. Um, and you know, that's a good segue actually into some a topic we wanted to cover that is a little bit more timely. Actually, we'd planned to talk about this on a couple of our last episodes. In the last couple of episodes, we had so much to talk about, we didn't get to it. But it was um last week's um drop from EFRU, the Eaton Fire Residents United, which is another uh local community org run by, um started by, operated and run by um more fire survivors in Altadena, um, who've been specifically looking at issues related to standing homes and specifically looking at those issues, you know, as it is related to people trying to come back to standing homes or who have never left standing homes or already back in their standing homes and are having you know really serious issues, feeling um wondering are these homes safe or not? And so, you know, the EFRU group staged um a big press conference last Friday um at a neighbor's home on Tannoble, which I mean I'm gonna I am the queen of the non-sequitur random side.

SPEAKER_01:

Tinnoble or Tannebal?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know if it's I call it Tennoble. I might be wrong, actually.

SPEAKER_01:

I I call it Tannoble, but I know there's some old set older older residents here in Altadina that call it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh. Um, I don't know. Potato, potato, tomato, tomato. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's for those that have moved in versus those who have lived here longer.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh shit, Steve. You want to make this you want to make this an old school, new school conversation? All right. I I see you. I see what's going on this morning. Um I share it because it's that stunning craftsman on the corner of the street spelled T-A-N-O-B-L-E and Alcina Drive. It's kind of set catacorner on the lot in the most kind of uh just really visually striking way. No, the dark, the craftsman. And it's actually if you watch Beverly Hills 902 and out.

SPEAKER_01:

That's not Tannoble, that's Porter.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, it is Porter. It is Porter. I think you're right.

SPEAKER_01:

You're talking about Brandon or um Dylan McKay's house. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

I was gonna say, if you were to watch, everyone knows that the 9021 house is a few doors down on Al Tina Drive. That was the Walsh house in the show. But that stunning craftsman, this always cracks me up because Dylan was like, you know, from the wrong side of the tracks and lived with his single mom. And didn't he live in the door or something? Like, didn't have any money, but you know, PS were living in this multi-million dollar historic home in Los Angeles in this nondescript area. But the press conference happened to have been um conducted there. We were in the back in the driveway that is up off a porter. And um, it was really striking that there was still quite a bit of burn debris standing there, including like the remnants of a fiberglass uh ladder, um, a lot of burnt plastic, things that were burnt onto the driveway that you cannot eliminate without removing the driveway. And I don't know what the specifics were for that homeowner, but um, it was kind of interesting to see just that glaring, very, you know what we saw in January, seeing that right there of just glaring fire debris. So, what the EFRU wanted to bring to light was um some of the data that they have been looking at. And um what they can what they found larging largely was that all of these standing homes that had been remediated were being found to be contaminated at numbers above EPA thresholds, above the federal accepted numbers.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, a portion of them, not everyone.

SPEAKER_00:

Not everyone, but we're gonna we're gonna get into that.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, I just want to be careful about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, post remediation, in some cases, after two remedi two professional remediations or two professional cleanings, still having levels in those homes that were not considered safe, especially if you had children or pets. So that what they came up with was that 50% of homes received um uh access to asbestos testing, and of those, um 38%. So 38% of the homes tested for asbestos post-remediation, post-cleanup, were found positive for asbestos. Um and 96% of homes tested were found to be positive for lead post-remediation. Ultimately, only four out of 10 remediated homes reached what they called, you know, clearance levels for CAM-17 heavy metals, um, specifically lead and asbestos. And I say specifically lead and asbestos because there are a number of other CAM-17 heavy metals that are known carcinogens, known, you know, uh contaminants of concern that were not even being tested for at all in the first place. Six out of 10 remediated homes effectively are uninhabitable due to those lead and asbestos levels. So, you know, it's this is not, as I like to say, and I found it interesting that when they took this information to the Department of Public Health, the response was that yes, they were aware, no, they did not dispute this, but that they didn't want to issue a public health order because they quote unquote didn't want to panic the community. But I think what is really important to press upon with this is the fact that, you know, the numbers are scary, they're concerning. We should all be concerned if this is happening to your neighbor, it's happening to you. If it's not happening on your property now, it will be. And we've talked about this a lot, like, you know, the position that some of the legal firms are taking, for example, um, in the litigation against SCE, you know, as we see they're not doing specific lot-by-lot testing. And people are like, oh, well, you know, my attorney group is testing my lot for contamination. Why isn't yours? And the reason why they're not in many cases is because they don't feel they need to. There's such a preponderance of data showing the entire community is contaminated and is an environmental disaster on so many levels that there's a very easy picture to be painted that the entire community is a problem. If it's showing up in this many places, it's a problem for all of us long term. And I think that is true. But again, the takeaway I think needs to be not panic and fear around this, but rather acceptance of our reality and knowing that this is actionable, right? This is actionable. People can continue to, you know, the and what it means though is we have to continue to fight with county, fight with our insurance companies, that, you know, everything remains insufficient. It just all remains insufficient. We need a real meaningful cleanup. We we've already talked about the fact that our fire cleanup was incomplete. We know that compared to past because it was underfunded. They were a billion dollars short of what they needed to do the full cleanup that would have been on par with past fires like Woolsey and Malibu. Was it Malibu?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, uh Woolsey is Malibu.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Was Wolsey was Malibu. To make sure that guy's so many fires, my brain is.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, okay, let me ask you a question. Yes, I know. You are extremely versed in all of this. So everyone's gonna sit here and say, okay, I get it. How do we solve it and who's to blame? Those are the well, first of all, I think the first thing we go to is who's to blame, and I think you know, everybody's gonna point the finger at the federal government.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So I know the governor is gonna say, I asked for it, I was denied it. Um are people playing politics with Al Tadena? Like, are are we upon in all of this? Like, this is people's livelihood, this is their health. Like, at what point do we say and and more important to me, okay, you know, I I'm I'm a solutions guy. You know, I like to talk about the problem, but I like to find a solution. Who is advocating for the solutions and what are those solutions that we're looking to get to? You know, like you're talking about insurance. There's a lot of people that are talking about insurance, but who's pushing insurance to get this done? And who's pushing the insurance commissioner? Who's leaning on our electoral?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't have an answer to that because I don't see it happening.

SPEAKER_01:

So there's nobody in the community picking this up right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Not in that way. You know, as we know, people are have been hammering on the insurance companies and on Lara, even calling for Lara to resign, which, you know, I mean personally, I think is a bit of a fool's errand because he's termed out. He's termed out, he's out next year. It's he's already out. Like in the time it would take us to organize a recall vote and vote, he's gone. So what's the problem?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we don't have$300 million to do about it.

SPEAKER_00:

That too. Guess what? He sucks. He's out. Fuck him. Vote him out. Guy, he's he's terming out, but you know, uh, just vote. Um but ultimately, yeah, it is. Like who's who's gonna do this? I think unfortunately, it really does come down to the county needing to actually, and I want to say like county do your job, but it is like county do your job. Um well because county ultimately, great. It would have been great for the state to support this, it would have been great for the federal government to support this. They haven't, they didn't. So now what? Well, but guess where we're back to? Where's the money, Steve?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I mean, I this this is a segue to our meet our conversation next about DC, but we'll we'll that's the next uh episode. But uh I mean I'm going back to this whole idea of you know, everybody's expecting that that money's gonna show up. Why are we not spending it? Like it what's more important right now, us or the money coming in? Like this is a community that's been devastated. And if it is an environmental disaster zone, if it's a super fund site or whatever, you you know, how real is it? And that's I think part of this too is it's it's it's distorting at least people like I'm sitting there going, well, I mean, uh is it for real or is this chicken little? You know, and I've asked you this question many times. You know, are are we are we overplaying it or is it really this bad?

SPEAKER_00:

It's really this bad. And I think if you want to, the canary in the coal mine in this one are pets generally because their lifespans are so much shorter, things turn up in them faster. And I think we talked about this, we touched on it briefly in another episode. People in the community are already seeing sick and dying pets um with rare cancers, with unexplained respiratory issues. Um unfortunately, again, you know, they are the canaries in the coal mine. And uh, I think the the way I look at this is very simply, as you as anyone who knows me has heard me say a thousand times in a thousand contexts, the trend is your friend, right? We know that we have seen rare cancer clusters and respiratory issues in populations years post-they crop up in the 18 to 24 month mark and then go up from there, but um in in other areas post-fire, in paradise and Woolsey, Marshall, all of these, like this happened. So I think it is it is magical thinking to believe that it will miraculously not be us. Um, especially knowing that, you know, our fire burned a lot of because of the historic nature of our community and how much burned those 9,000 structures. We know that we dropped into the environment um a lot of contaminant far beyond other similar urban wildfires. So um, you know, I think the time is now, but unfortunately, it's likely not going to be addressed. And um it's gonna be treated like so many other things are treated in the political landscape, which is very simply I can put my head in the sand and ignore this and pass it off and pass it off because by the time it really blows up, I won't be in I'll be, I won't be in office. Exactly. It's not my problem, it's the next guy's problem.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I take on the hard work.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right. But it is, it's but the it's going to land in our lap. It's our problem. And I and I've told you before, I feel like I've been chicken little. I feel like that on everything. Like I'm like, everybody, the sky is falling. You know, not in like a doom and gloom disaster kind of way, but rather a very, you know, measured um, hey, this shit's happening. Let's fight to have it addressed in our community now. Why can we not address these things in the community now versus waiting and having God knows how much worse these things become, right? As as these issues just continue to compound themselves, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think part of it is, you know, when you're doing this haphazard, when you're building this thing out step by step, it's hard because you you you don't get the full context, right? You know, when you're going from crisis to crisis to crisis to crisis, it feels like everything's out of control. Right. And there's what Shelby Grad did this week in the LA Time in the LA Times, what was it, uh a couple days ago, where he kind of like backed up and got to a 10,000 foot view and said, hey, here's where all these failures evidence themselves. And let's go step by step. And I kind of did that on a Substack, I think, a week ago. I can't even remember. I mean, after going away, it just kind of messes your whole schedule up. But the idea being like, look, let's step, take a step back and let's look at this thing. And instead of trying to like play whack-a-mole, let's build something a little bit more, you know, cogent as an overarching strategy to kind of view this thing through. And I think that that's part of the problem is that you know, we talk about insurance today, we talk about you know, contamination tomorrow, we talk about housing the next day, we talk about the counties and their failures, we talk about the state and its failures, talk about the federal government and their failures, Army Corps engineers, they did their job, but you know, except they didn't, and I have an anecdote to share about that later. Yeah, and and that's my point is that we we we we get back to that point where it's all of these things show up and we say WTF, and we're like, this is where this is where leadership comes in, right? This is where you have to say, all right, I've got my arms around this and all these different areas, and now I'm gonna start to, instead of playing whack-a-mole where they come up, I'm like, I know how I want to get into it, and then solve the problem. And I feel like that's where the fatigue is hitting a lot of us, is that we just it it's like something new keeps coming up every day. And it's a trust factor, right? Like, look at the story that's coming out about the fire in the Palisades, which we were gonna talk about too. And the LA Times has been very open about this, which again, I'm I'm questioning the why on that. But the the idea being that that fire really shows a dereliction of duty that goes all the way back to before the fires even hit. You know, you have a mayor heading out of town when the fires are coming on the fourth and the fifth, they know there's red flag warnings, they know there's heat warnings, they know there's wind warnings, they know this is going to be a fire warning, and then you have a fire that never got put out. And who is accountable for that? And at the end of the day, shit rolls uphill as much as it rolls downhill, and the person at the top is the person who has to be held accountable for all of this.

SPEAKER_00:

The fish rots from the head, Steve.

SPEAKER_01:

So I where I'm going with all of this is we're reaching a point where we we we need to start getting our arms around this and stop just saying, okay, these are just problems that keep coming up on the one-offs. And I've been saying this for weeks now. These aren't one-offs, these are a pattern.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh this gets into, and we're gonna go off to I don't want to venture too far off topic because there's so much more we want to cover in this episode, but this gets into the issue of accountability and the lack thereof, and this idea that, like, oh, we don't need to point fingers, it's not, we're not going to be able to do that. But there's no trust. Correct.

SPEAKER_01:

This is the problem, is that now we don't have trust in them being equal to that that we're getting the full story, and then the solution that's being provided is not even, is it real? Or is there something else? Is there another story that's gonna come up in six months? It's gonna tell us about another fire that was smoldering that you know everybody just ignored and said, Oh, oops, sorry, we're gonna burn down 43,000, you know, 40 the homes of 43,000 people in the Palisades. Right. Oh, and we're gonna take all those resources that were necessary to fight the Eaton fire and push them out there so that there's nothing available.

SPEAKER_00:

And then just say, oops, oops, sorry, sorry, we let your town burn down because you were collateral damage, which again, if you're in our group, you've heard me say that a thousand times because it's the truth. And it's not the first time this has happened. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you remember the La Cañata fire? Exactly. And RPV was going up in flames, and everybody went down there and they're like, well, just let the La Canyotta one run its way through. And it was extremely it was a it was a precursor to what happened here.

SPEAKER_00:

It was. It's not like we don't have evidence um to see what's happening here to understand contextually that it's going to happen again, and that's what we keep kind of hammering home. Again, I'll say it again.

SPEAKER_01:

The trend push a button.

SPEAKER_00:

The trend is your friend, right? I mean, that is it. And um, if it's it's Altadina today, this is what just happened. It was the Palisades, it is going to be La Cagnata, it's gonna be Sierra Madre Sierra Madre, or Duarte, or Monroe. Exactly. It just pick a fit foothill community. La Crescenta, I think, is probably the one most likely to go up next. Um, but it's going to be you. It's us today, and tomorrow it's you. And if we don't all demand accountability and answers, and this is why, again, you know, I don't want to go too far off of our path, but you know, why myself as beautiful Altadina and so many others have been working together through the Altadinans for accountability to demand an independent investigation by Rob Bonta with subpoena power, something meaningful that is just not another report that says to your point, oops, sorry, we fucked up. Um, let's brush that under the rug, continue to pay people half a million dollar a year salaries and move on. Half a million dollar a year salaries that come out of our tax money, by the way, uh, which is galling because I I, for one, would love to know where the hell our money, where is our money? What does our money pay for? It's a$50 billion budget.

SPEAKER_01:

Half a million dollars is it's nothing.

SPEAKER_00:

So, anyhow, uh the takeaway is um we did want to actually talk a little bit about what was happening in the media. Steve and I realize that every day we're texting back and forth talking about the stories that have dropped, the stories that he and I have been being interviewed for or talking to journalists about at most of the people. Well, you're being interviewed for us. Yes, he does. He's a fibber. Yes, he does. He did he only he talks to the the big national pieces. I do the local stuff. So, you know, we we talk about those things, and we realize we don't always have time to talk about them here, but I think it's you know interesting to dovetail off of what was happening with the EFRU findings and their press conference Friday. And they did a really, like I said, they there that group did a fantastic job presenting all that evidence, presenting what was some personal stories. Um they they had their data scientists there, they had a doctor there who also is an epidemiologist who was like, hey guys, this is scary and bad, and and no, we're not here to create panic, but this is as bad as you think it is, and actually probably worse. And um, we just the bottom line is we need to do something to address it. And I was really glad to see so many media that were there and that this issue continued to be covered. I also thought it was great, and I know that you did, you've already brought this up, that LA Times continues to keep us at the forefront. They had a piece yesterday, another piece today, talking about all of these failures in the fire response, which I think you know it's critical that this continues to be brought to the forefront because, to your point, no accountability, no trust, and also no accountability, no resolutions for the future, no fixes, no corrections, no meaningful action. And until that happens, you know, it's not just the time, politico's got a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01:

No, absolutely. Politico, too.

SPEAKER_00:

I think we've got a time, we've had some time. We just had a piece of Time magazine coverage. There's more Time magazine coverage coming, I believe.

SPEAKER_01:

Hopefully.

SPEAKER_00:

Hopefully. So, you know, this is definitely. I I was just asked to be interviewed by Lamont, which is uh France's largest national.

SPEAKER_01:

The world for those of you that don't speak French.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct, which is uh is France's largest paper, and they're getting ready to do their um one year. Um, the New York Times still has a reporter assigned specifically to this, a local person whose uh beat is specifically following the fire cleanup and the fire uh rebuild. So I think you know it's it's fascinating to see what's what's going on. Another story I think we're talking about, um, even if very briefly, was uh yesterday's LAist piece on the SCE offer plan, the quote unquote final plan. And I won't get too deep into that because we've already spoken about it and we've covered it.

SPEAKER_01:

It's not SCE. It's not their money.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's our money. It's like, let's talk about how to give you your money, how to get your money. This is what I start I've started saying to people in our group when they're like, well, I want my money from SCE. I'm like, no, you want your money.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, SCE is gonna kick in a billion dollars.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct. And our money funded the other$22 billion and will continue to.

SPEAKER_01:

So And then that money is gonna be used again to stockpile.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's gonna stockpile for the next inevitable disaster because this is their business plan and it works. And when you have a governor and a bunch of electeds who sign off on it, why not keep it going? But I think the the biggest takeaway from that piece um was you know the reality that they straight up said in this story, um, the SCE media reps, you know, their goal is and their intention is not to make anyone whole. Like this this offer that, like in other words, our offer is shit.

SPEAKER_01:

Wait, wait, time out. Hold on, hold on a second.

SPEAKER_00:

Steve didn't read the piece, guys.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I didn't. I I I I So Steve, welcome to the party. Okay, so the McChrystal thing a couple weeks ago, what they well, I don't know, somebody forgot to push a button. Was the the line from that McChrystal report? Right. The person who wrote it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean they literally uh I'm just wondering who I know can they just hire you to do the PR?

SPEAKER_01:

Because I mean, seriously, Sean, like somebody screwing this up. Major.

SPEAKER_00:

I know. I've never seen so for anyone who does not know uh the jokes about PR is that I for a decade plus had a hospitality-focused boutique marketing and PR agency.

SPEAKER_01:

Google her, you'll find it.

SPEAKER_00:

And did a lot of PR. Okay, so I get it. And let me tell you, whatever they're paying for the crisis PR that they're getting, they should get their money back because it fucking sucks. And um, the goal is not to create a new crisis with your PR.

SPEAKER_01:

Unless they're trying to do that so people don't take the settlement.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh to what's not a strategy, that's not a thing.

SPEAKER_01:

I just got back from Washington. Logic doesn't make sense anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

Let me to say that that math doesn't math is an understatement.

SPEAKER_01:

I get that.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, let's talk about why. So this is the quote, this is a direct quote. I love this quote. The program is structured to minimize financial impact to the company while providing mean meaningful support to those affected. Said Edison spokesperson Gabriela Omelas in an email to LAST. In an email? In an email. It wasn't even a phone call. It wasn't even a phone call. Wow, she thought about that. But also, it's you thought about it and you put it in writing. Oh my god. Holy shit. S C E, call me. We can talk about my number because holy shit, this is embarrassing. Um, yeah, straight up. The program that we it's they just confirmed that if you offer the incredulousness is filled the room. Everyone in the studio is like, what? Um, because people haven't read this and seen it, and it's it is disturbing.

SPEAKER_01:

I I can't I'm just sitting here trying to figure out how you could actually say that with a straight face? In writing. No shit. I mean, I could get it, like at least the McCrystal person was on a phone call.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And you can tell and you could tell that the McChrystal report was like very kind of off the cuff, right? It was like, yeah, maybe they thought they maybe that's what happened. Maybe it was like someone forgot to push a button. Nobody really knows. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

And of course, then the media, you know, then they're able to twist it a little bit and put it into the story, make it fit.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

No, this is a straight up holy shit. Sorry. Premeditated statement. I know. Take it in for a minute. So in case you're debating the offer, um, it sucks. Don't take it. It's pennies on the dollar, unless you're in a situation where you absolutely have to. And I understand that, and there's no judgment there. And if you really you just need money tomorrow, go for it. But if you think that the alternative is waiting five years for money, that's not going to happen. The judge already set a trial date of January 2027 for this. Historically, that means all cases are settled or in process of settlement by that time. And SCE is sure as hell not going to court with thousands of us. They're not. Every one of these will be settled out. So, you know, just do not take this unless you really have to, but at least be knowledgeable about what's happening. Don't be lied to. Don't think that it's a good deal. It's not. They're trying to save themselves money. Every single person who takes the offer will save them money. And that's the one and only thing. This is this is damage control for them because they fucking suck.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Next, I'll tell you how I really feel. Let's move on.

SPEAKER_01:

On that note, Shauna's a little wound up today, by the way.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh Shauna just maybe had a little too much caffeine in short order on a s on an empty stomach. So Shauna's gonna step away from the coffee for a minute. But um, let's talk about um let's talk about the elections.

SPEAKER_01:

Which ones?

SPEAKER_00:

Let's all of them.

SPEAKER_01:

All of them. Let's start with Al Sadina town county. Let's talk about our local ones. Let's talk about the very, you know, uh important ones that we've got.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean, I laugh the it's I don't know that I would call it important considering i the majority of Al Cedina had no idea it happened.

SPEAKER_01:

Um anybody driving up Allen saw the vote here thing and cool.

SPEAKER_00:

So those of you who live in town still knew that. I or in that particular part of town. But I was I was actually a little surprised by how many people were like, I had no idea this was happening. Actually, a town council rep who's in our group specifically, who um won their they they had an incumbent seat that was contested, but they won. But we're talking about the fact that, you know, it's a hot mess. Those are the words, like the election process here is a hot mess. And my takeaway from it, or my take on it, was that it is treated like everything else county in Altadena. It is not taken seriously. There is no funding. That town council has a zero-dollar budget. So no wonder we have no local comms, even though they're supposed to set it up.

SPEAKER_01:

It's an advisory board, Shauna.

SPEAKER_00:

Like advisory board or not. Let's, if we want to take it seriously, let's at least give it a little money for basic functions. Let's let people know that there's an election. So here that for anyone who's curious of how many people vote across all of our. Tracks across all of Altadena are 43,000, 44,000, depending on which census you go with residents. And of which you need to extrapolate out how many of those are over 18s and can vote, not children in the household, which takes that number down significantly. But if you look at that and the reality that more than 20,000 of us are still displaced over three days across multiple locations, there was voting at the library, voting at Prime Pizza. They counted a total of 890 ballots cast, and that was a record number for the town council.

SPEAKER_01:

Historically, that's even more than we have permits issued.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, Steve. Sorry. Steve's doing my job today. Um, we are gonna talk about that in the next episode, so get ready. We're gonna talk about rebuilding stats in the next episode.

SPEAKER_01:

But um Well, that was a teaser.

SPEAKER_00:

It was a teaser. Um nonetheless, that number of 890 was a record turnout. That was more than double the usual turnout. So get your head around that for a minute. That barely 2% of our population voting was a record turnout that was up from the typical less than 1%.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you, Gavin. You got us all energized.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh. Uh, it's shocking to me. But anyhow, um uh I was happy to see some people get their seats. Um, uh a new person, in fact, um, gosh, which uh give me a second here. I want to see which he is. What tract are you? What tract are you?

SPEAKER_01:

If it's a point 4610.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not a point, it's uh tract 4610. Um, had four people running, and Anton Anderson got that. Anton was my recommendation. Yeah, it's and I was really happy to see that that he got that. Um it was a really close race for tract 4613, which had some new blood in it. Sylvia Vega was defending her incumbent seat and had a very strong showing from a 20-something in the community, Alexandra Kirshner, who um pulled in just 20% less votes than Sylvia did.

SPEAKER_01:

So he got she so okay, so she got eight votes instead of 10.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it was actually um 86 and 55. I'm just teasing. No, well, but I mean you're teasing, but for real, people have won those seats on literally zero votes, and on average it is like less than 10 votes. Well, that is truth. I mean, these numbers are extraordinary when you see people getting, you know, like the what some of the top, like here we go, Morgan Worledge, who is someone else, he's untracked 4601. Um, Morgan is again one who I was recommending that I would have voted for if I could have. He got 99 votes. That's that's the like a huge number. I don't know if anyone's ever cracked a hundred votes for this. So um, and again, it it is historically like five votes, three votes.

SPEAKER_01:

Um But the important thing is the new town, the town council is gonna have a new leader, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and no. Most of the executive team um are not up for re-election until next year.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So you have just one person, the chair, who's out.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I mean, that's a pretty significant change.

SPEAKER_00:

It is, it is. But the rest of the that body And thank you for leading us. So much leadership. No.

SPEAKER_01:

Look, it's been a tough job. It's been a tough year.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh if it were a job, I would agree with you, but it wasn't. I mean, I guess it was tiresome going around having all those photo ops and being given awards for doing such a great thing for the community. Because, you know, no one's all no one else is doing that, but I digress. Um, do you want to talk about Prop 50?

SPEAKER_01:

What? The ass kicking that the Democrat the Republicans took? They should have had you running comms on the no side, too. It's funny, I we were at um off the record in Washington the night uh when I went into DC last Tuesday, and it was that evening, and you know, the votes hadn't come in yet. And next to like a table over from me was the senior White House correspondent for CNN. And I had made that um that that that cartoon or AI had made that cartoon that was posted on my Substack of Gavin and Trump sitting like in diapers and with boxing gloves and like the nanny standing over them like in the Muppets where you can't see the face saying, Boys, two wrongs don't make a right. And it was put on like a coaster, like at off the record, they have these great coasters with like these caricatures of all these politals. And we gave it to the senior White House correspondent from CNN and she cracked up. But I mean, I think that was like the highlight of the night from the no-side, like that it was ridiculous in many respects. But um yeah, it's it's gonna be interesting. The the word in DC was either it's gonna be really close in 26 and this is gonna have no effect, or it's gonna be a total blowout and a blue wave and this will have no effect. I mean, that's essentially what I was hearing. So, you know, we traded away our our democratic, you know, oversight for nothing.

SPEAKER_00:

So do you want to talk about why you opposed Prop 50?

SPEAKER_01:

I think because I didn't like the policy of it.

SPEAKER_00:

I think because all of us who consider ourselves Democrats or consider ourselves progressive or any of this.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't see it as a Trump thing.

SPEAKER_00:

There we are, there it is. I think it's important to talk about it.

SPEAKER_01:

I felt that it was a California thing, and I thought that you know, the smart move Gavin did was he nationalized it to make Trump the boogeyman. And I think that the problem was those that were supporting it for the most part were cast as Republicans, and they did a horrible, horrible job on that campaign. Um I mean, it was to me very simple how to run that one, and they didn't do a good job with it. And I I guess my issue really came down to I just thought that we were giving away something very short for a long-term detriment. And it reminded me a lot of what Harry Reid did with the filibuster in Washington. I know the filibuster is a bad word, but it preserved minority rights. And, you know, when you're not in power, it made sure that there was still some ombudsman. And that's the way I felt that that independent commission worked. I mean, look, even down to those independent commissioners that came out in support of Prop 50, you know, in support of the gap the governor's position, they ultimately were talking about how the policy was the right policy. And to me, it was about preserving the right policy. And I just feel like the further we erode these checks that we put in place, the closer we get to something that we don't really want. And, you know, anybody who's read my Substack knows where my opinions were and what I feel the effects are gonna be. And I never thought this was a national issue. I thought it was very much gonna be a California issue. It was nationalized, and that was a smart play. But ultimately it's going to come back to California and control of California and our$330 plus billion dollar year budget. So, you know, Mazletov to the governor. I mean, you guys did the job, you won, you you ran up the score. But you know, it was interesting too is I was texting back and forth with a prominent political writer here in California from one of the publications. And while the governor exceeded Kamala's vote from on the on the yes side, the no side was very similar to the Trump vote. It was 36 to 38 percent, which was right within where it should be. So I mean it wasn't the blowout that it looks like in my mind, because I think that unfortunately, you know, I I think it's it's because it was a binary vote as opposed to you know multiple candidates on a on a on a ballot, it made it seem much more it was it was actually very similar to what we had seen historically in 2024. And it was very much within the norm of what California was. You didn't hear about that in the media, but that was what my takeaway was.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't disagree, as you know. Um, I it was a lot of interesting dinner and casual coffee conversation with friends and neighbors when um I would say, you know, actually, I didn't vote yes for Prop 50, and and here's why. Uh and actually I loved that quote in Politico of um, what was it, the um, oh my gosh. I mean, I can't, of course I can't remember the quote, and now I'm gonna want to look it up. But it was basically like the uh the sugar high? No, no, the never ending, the gerrymandering Palooza, like the never ending gerrymandering Palooza. Like this is what we it sets us up for.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's what it's gonna be. And look, at the end of the day, it's it's marginal in terms of benefit gain. I I didn't I didn't see it. I e look, if it's gonna be a wave, those seats would have been gone anyway. They would have gone Democrat for the most part. So it really wasn't gonna change anything. I guess, you know, look, Gavin We won on a talking point. A an obscure talking point. And I think that I you know, and you go back to the post responses, the post-election responses. Um, I did a post on this as well where the fear that I have is that this is going to encourage further sugar high type politics and performative politics, as opposed to the substantive politics that we really need to address the issues in this country, this state, this community. And that's the fear that I uh take away is that these become the wins the consultants talk about. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about this the next session because Sean and I have very differing opinions on what happened in New York and the shutdown. And so I just I thought it was a chance to be more substantive, and that's what that's what bothers me.

SPEAKER_00:

I understand. Um, and I don't I don't disagree with you. Um and I think just in general, and I've said this before, this entire process, the fire, having to kind of fight for our lives on so many fronts, having to deal with our electeds, having to be inside the machine. It's like, you know, going to Disneyland and looking, peeking behind the curtain. Um, but in particular, the Democratic Party, because we are in a blue state, and I, you know, identify as a Democrat. I certainly have for a long time. Uh, really more of a Democratic socialist. But um anyhow, uh the point being that, you know, when there are problems in this state, you we don't have a MAGA government to blame. You can't there we can't blame Trump. The problems that exist in our state, in our county, even with our, you know, having a Republican leader, as we happen to have in Catherine Barger, who is our fifth district supervisor. Um, you know, these are ultimately, we are overwhelmingly a democratic state. So this is democratic policy that's failing. And I think we really have to look inside. I know this has been an eye-opener for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and that's been that's been the knock against Gavin running nationally, is that you know, people love him nationally.

SPEAKER_00:

It's kind of wild.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, the base does.

SPEAKER_00:

That well, yeah, but it's wild how many people are really into him. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, he's got great hair and great teeth.

SPEAKER_00:

You just described a show horse, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_01:

But I mean, until he comes with substantive policy. I know, and you know, that was what made 797 so uh head scratching was that that was substantive policy he could have taken and owned and you know, blasted everywhere and used to, you know, go beyond, but it chose not to. And that yeah, that was the part that I I just uh uh one day somebody will explain to me the politics behind that, but I don't get it.

SPEAKER_00:

I wouldn't hold my breath. Um, let's talk about I'm gonna move us to our next topic because we I know that people are probably falling asleep at the wheel listening to this, and I don't want to be responsible for that. We're heading, we're gonna talk more about this in the next episode too, but you know, we're at the 10 month mark, right? So it's time to really look at things uh and go, hey, it's not just the 10-month mark. That's what I'm saying, we're just the holidays. Correct. That's what I'm gonna say. So we're getting into that.

SPEAKER_01:

You're you're you're it's like a I mean, we have homes in our community.

SPEAKER_00:

It's you know, to give context again, you know, for people who are listening who don't listen necessarily live or didn't live in Altadena, you know, um, the fire happened on January 7th, you know, it was right right around what we call 12th night, um, which a lot of us take down our decorations.

SPEAKER_01:

I hadn't taken down my decorations.

SPEAKER_00:

I hadn't taken down. I had started the pear down, but was preparing that weekend to take the rest. Like I actually took a snap, I took a snapped a quick photo of the house all dark um as I left with you know the Christmas tree just with white lights, the ornaments were down, but the Christmas tree still up and uh garlands still up. And um, you know, if you drive our community, you will still see standing homes with last year's Christmas decorations still on them because those families still haven't returned. Um, and so there's um heading into the holidays, be it with a standing home in that community, in our community, um, or if you're like myself and you had a total loss and you're looking at traditions and things that, you know, like Steve and I were talking about this earlier, like there are like certain photos and things that I would pull out of like past generations at the holidays that would that would actually hang on my tree, or you know, having the cards that your deceased family had written to you and all those kind of things that we all kind of lean in, have and lean into. Um, it's really heavy as we go into the the one-year anniversary that is right around the corner, but going through the holidays, I'm really seeing it in the group, people are feeling a lot of heaviness. It's it's really hitting hard. And the holidays are going to be really hard for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01:

I think so. And I think that that's it's like a double whammy. It's not just the the anniversary of it and the fatigue and just the we're fucking tired. And and then you add the holidays on top of it and what the holidays mean. And you know, the holidays are very special in Altadena. We've got Christmas Tree Lane, yeah. You've got you know Upper Hastings Ranch, which is not far away, but we're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and who was also impacted by the fire.

SPEAKER_01:

They too got, you know, they got impacted. They had homes lost up there too. So like this is it's a time of, you know, I we we were talking about, we were starting to get the stuff out in our house, and you know, we didn't we we got rid of a lot of it because of the fires. And you know, it was just the realization that holy shit, this is happening. And our you know, I I'm I'm working on getting a post up about this because you know, my heart, my heart it hurts for so many, and this is gonna be a tough time. And there's aren't words, I guess, is the best.

SPEAKER_00:

There aren't. There aren't. Nothing will ever be the same. None of our traditions will be kept, you know, we have to make new ones. Um, there are a few events happening that have been organized um by community members and by those outside the community. Um, you know, there are a couple doing ornament things, but I mean, like there's there was one that was like ornaments for Altadena. They opened up their slots for people to register and they were gone the minute they were opened.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm glad that people are still remembering.

SPEAKER_00:

I am too, but so many people were like, oh my gosh, I was like waiting for this and counting on this, and it's it's now I can't get in because there's just not enough for everyone because there's so many of us, 22,000 people impacted, and that's just the total loss.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, that's not oh, oh, I thought that was people volunteering, not people receiving. No, no, for the receipt for recipe. I thought it was people, I thought it was people. No, that would be good. That would be great. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00:

But um, no, for recipients, and you know, I was thinking, and Steve and I were talking about this before we started recording too, is like Hanukkah and thinking about like, I don't have a menorah, I don't have my silver, I don't have my Shabbat glass that even if I only used it once every three to five years, I liked knowing that it was there and seeing it in the cupboard. And um, you know, all of your silver and that you've inherited across generations. Just um it's it is a very heavy reminder beyond uh the everyday reminders that we all have to live with on a day-to-day basis. Um, it's gonna be hard. So I'd say, you know, be gentle with one another and look for all of the various um resources and orgs that are out there, but also like just straight up mental health resources. Um I know I'm looking forward to my therapist appointment tomorrow. I was probably not alone, but there are a lot of uh groups that are that are doing um that are really that have been doing and but and will continue to and are kind of ramping up for the holiday season, knowing how hard this is gonna be for people. Um yeah, it's uh it's it's a lot of heaviness. Well, uh there have been so many stories and posts shared in our group because it's again, it's just really hitting folks right now and it will continue to for the next few months. Um, but like one woman, you know, shared a story in there of like how specific her um collection was of um African American Christmas decorations and like her collection of black Santas and um, you know, the things that are just they're irreplaceable. You know, it's uh it's hard. And and people in the community wanted to kind of support her rebuilding that collection, but it's tough. I mean, I I shared with some people in the group when they were back to the ornament thing, talking about how sad it was that they couldn't get a spot because they were depending on it. I said, you know what? I that prompted me to drag my ass out of my house on a Saturday night and go out and go shopping, not for retail therapy, but to force myself to find a lens to see to view this in that was not just awful, right? It was like I just have to, I gotta start fresh, I gotta just embrace it. I'm gonna pick a theme. I'm only gonna buy things that I love. That theme is gonna be absolutely nothing like what I had before because I cannot stand the comparison. I can't do it. Some people want to try and replace things. I'm beyond that. I just need to just, it's a new chapter. Everything is different, everything is new, it's a new path. And um, and that's what I did. And in my little empty, you know, office or half-empty office room, because I still haven't set up my office, which is a whole lever conversation today. I was like, God damn it, today I'm setting up my printer. Um, 10 months later, I'm like, I really need a printer. Who uses a printer? Uh me, because you periodically have to print things. Or you want to know what I did with my printer? I printed off all of my cake notes and recipes and then handwritte in gram by gram all of my edits. And as we've talked about before, like I lost, I had a cottage bakery, folks, and I did gluten-free, dairy-free cakes and bakes. And um, one of the things that took me months to figure out, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks when it did, was that oh my God, all of my recipes and notes were handwritten, and all of those folders were gone with the fire. I don't have a single cake recipe. And on that note, um, let's talk about you know, Thanksgiving coming up, right? So I'm gonna mention quickly as we wrap up this episode, I want to mention um Adelaide, who you've heard me talk about a few times, because she really needs uh business in Altadina and her shop is so beautiful on North Fair Oaks, across from Fair Oaks Burger. She does floral arrangements um and tons of gifts and things, frankly, that are fabulous for the holidays. And I hope people patronize her. But we have um part kind of paired up to do a beautiful Altadena Friendsgiving event. It's gonna be a pie night, bring a sweet or a savory pie. We're going to have drinks, we're gonna set up a long table on the street. Um, and that's on Sunday, the 23rd. And you can find info for that in our our private uh group on Facebook, which I hope anyone who is a local community member, anyone who's a communicity community member on January 7th, I really hope people um find that info and come join us. Just, you know, it'll be good, I think, for all of us to be in community right now, um, however we can. And for for us, for me, for the Beautiful Altina group, it's Mark's also finally getting back to in-person events, which I've been threatening to do for months. And just frankly, you know, like I'm still I still need to rekindle our book club um and our women's group. Um, I just I want to have time. And I've I can't say I don't know how I've never been an a such a busy unemployed person. For an unemployed person, I have a very busy life between insurance and activism and rebuild and everything else going on. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you for doing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, we're all doing it. Thank you for doing it, we're all doing it. So I'm gonna wrap us up. Um, actually, even before I say that jump into that, is we're saying talking about those resources. If you don't already follow us on Instagram or if you're on Facebook, Facebook's fine too. But separate of our private group on Facebook, our public Facebook page, as well as our Instagram account, both at Beautiful Altadina, have um in stories, follow us on stories. I constantly share every day dozens of resources, events, mental health resources, rebuilding resources, things that are going on, um, food giveaways, food drives, all of these things, especially as we again head into the holidays, especially a lot of people have been really hard hit financially. Of course, the loss of SNAP, SNAP benefits, um, all these things. So if you want, if you're looking for those things, they're gonna be restored. And it'll be restored for the full year. Yeah. But if you want to see those things, you know, find those things. You can find them always there. And uh finally, our small business shout-out for this one, uh, for this episode is gonna be the Easy Halal Market at Hensteeth Plaza. So if anyone's not familiar, there is um Hensteeth Plaza is at Los Robles and Woodbury. Woodbury and Los Robles, kind of catacorner from the Eagles Airy, and is um such a fantastic shop. Aside from being a halal butcher, um, they also um have a lot of um imported food. And so, especially if there's any Brit expats, they always uh keep a lot of chocolate. And um, I think I saw Quality Street there last Christmas. Um, so it's a great spot to know about. Um, they also have a bunch of um awesome neighbors, including King's Burger, um, the chicken joint, I can never remember, but there's a Mexican chicken joint for whole chickens and sides, like really good tortillas and beans and roast corn. Um, and then of course, um Dim Books and Boba. And Dim Books and Boba opened up immediately post-fire, despite, or had they, I'm sorry, they had just opened prior to the fire and were very quick to reopen post, you know, getting their place remediated, um, and have become quite an event hub. They do a lot of little events. Um, in fact, they even have, I noticed, a Monday Mahjong night, which I was loving because I play Mahjong. It's Hong Kong um Mahjong for anyone who's interested. But um, anyhow, there's just a lot of good stuff happening in that plaza, a lot of great businesses. I wrote about both Easy Halal Market and Dim uh in the Substack. So if anyone wants to go to the Substack and do a little search, you can find some great opening pieces and photos um with more info on them. But otherwise, that's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Well, let's uh You want to tell them where to find us? Oh, yeah. Well, I think you've told everybody where to find you. Yeah. Instagram, Facebook, Substack.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

And me, it's just Substack. I'm lame. So I'm at the Alta Policy Walk. She's at beautiful Alta Dina.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, and that's it for this one. This is episode 15, and we'll see you uh soon for episode 16.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, take care.