Under Investigation. Plenty of Money, No Accountability

We're back! We kick this episode off with an important update from the Altadena for Accountability coalition. After months of strategic organizing, the California Attorney General’s Office announced on February 12 that it has opened a historic and unprecedented civil rights investigation into the failed evacuation and response in Altadena west of Lake — examining not just race, but also age and disability and whether there was a disparate response. As others begin to take credit and the inevitable carpetbaggers arrive, it’s important to remember this was a strategic year-long, Black woman–led campaign that made this investigation possible.

In the Media Roundup, we dig into the latest headlines and the ongoing fight for attention: 

• With Pacific Palisades in spotlight, Altadena fights for attention and post-fire justice
• The Mayor’s cover-up narrative
• Fired Fire Chief Kristin Crowley suing the City of Los Angeles

And we discuss media objectivity vs. clickbait and how quickly the national news cycle has moved on, even as the crisis here continues

Policy, Power & Ongoing Chaos

Steve weighs in on the EDA and the broader financial landscape, noting that LAUSD’s budget exceeds that of the City of Los Angeles, yet both are effectively “out of money.” Our take on the throughline is plenty of money, no controls — and everyone asking for more.

We also touch on:
 • The Governor’s race and shifting political dynamics
• More State Farm issues and insurers continuing to dodge responsibility
• Ongoing Zone 0 confusion and policy noise
• SCE removing some of Altadena’s remaining trees during undergrounding efforts, with what appears to be little to no County oversight
• Kathryn Barger’s Rebuild Authority motion
• And in the Water Wars, Las Flores passes a fire recovery surcharge without notice or shareholder vote following January’s contentious meeting

Shawna comments on the importance of community and creating relationships despite our differences and how, for many, this fire has been super glue holding people together in unexpected ways and shares the launch of Beautiful Altadena Office Hours, now happening weekly on Wednesdays from 11am–1pm at rotating local coffee shops including Unincorporated Coffee, Highlight Coffee and Altadena owned Lavender & Honey. 

This episode’s Small Business Shout-Out goes to Bevel Coffee, celebrating the grand opening of their new brick-and-mortar on Allen. Also happening on Saturday 2/28: 

• Altadena Library Groundbreaking 
• Hands in the Soil, Through the Fire Procession at Loma Alta Park

Editor’s Note

Starting with this episode, we’ve shifted our recording setup and are now remote and on the road instead of in-studio. It was a heavy month of travel, sickness, and life, which is why episodes have gone up later than usual. The podcast is not going anywhere and we fully intend to get back to a more timely cadence! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey there, welcome back to After the Ashes. This is your host, Steve, with my co-host Shauna, and it's episode nine, season two. We oh wait, we don't have a title, do we?

SPEAKER_03 0:14

I know, I told you, no title yet.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

I know. I I just you know, I I it's muscle memory now.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Oh my gosh, I know. Um so um we're just changing things up. So we've been gone for a couple weeks. Um, I got COVID for the first time and s after avoiding it for six years. So that was a super fun title. I know, yeah, I never had COVID.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Oh, I thought you've had it before.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

No, that was the first time. I was actually part of like the UCLA embark study for people who've like somehow never had COVID, despite a lot of known exposures. So um, yeah, that happened and uh it kicked my butt, but it was not as bad as it could have been. So that was that was a good thing. And then, you know, Steve's been traveling and um we both had some life stuff. We we ended up with a few weeks off, and then we had a little bit of a uh scheduling issue as a result with our usual recording studio, who we know and love, and which is where we've been uh recording our podcast since last September. But um, you know, as you as people will see, uh you wouldn't necessarily hear the difference, though you might, but we are actually recording um from our respective offices. And my office right now is my kitchen. Steve is in his office. Um and it's very different, but we still get to see each other face to face on video. And there is going there is some video content that we will um figure out posting probably to our YouTube and um Substack. But yeah, just changing it up, trying something new.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Well, I guess the muscle memory, this is gonna be different because now we get to create new muscle memory. Yeah. It is different not being in the same room though.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

It is different. It is a little different not being in the same room. Um you know what this makes me think of though is it's like, you know, we went to the pandemic and we all had to get into Zoom meetings and like, you know, be prepared from the waist up. Um I feel like I should totally have like pajama bottoms on. I'm wearing proper pants, but wearing pants. I am wearing pants.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

I'm not gonna mention what I am.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Hopefully you're wearing pants. And now everyone can also, for those who watch video, oh that's awesome. Well, you're usually in shorts and like running shoes. People don't know that, but like Steve runs. He is a runner, so well he tries to.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

I won now.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

I just um I love that for anyone who gets to see the video, they'll get to see that I am I think I don't realize what a wild gesticulator I am, but I am a wild gesticulator, and then I'm like, oh, if I don't have anything to do with my hands, I'm like touching myself, like scratching my face and things. I can't I can't help it. It's probably a nervous tick. Well, just drink your coffee. I will drink my coffee.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Because coffee totally mellows you out.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

I will have you know that this is decaf with my cashew milk, right, sassy? So shall we dive in? All right, let's dive in because it's been a few weeks and we have a lot to cover, like so much to cover, we weren't sure to where to begin, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Um, usually we just kind of go at it.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

I know we do go at it. Let's kick this episode off with um another media roundup because you know, we have some big news to talk about in the few weeks that we've been off. Um I'm gonna take the first big news because it's in it's, you know, I get I got to be part of that news. Um, that was the announcement that California's attorney general is opening up um a civil rights investigation into the disparate impact um that the result of the lack of uh response to the Eaton fire in Altadena, specifically in West Altadena. Yeah, thank you, Steve. You can't, I don't know, for those who aren't watching, Steve was applauding. So that was the result of a solid year of campaigning and outreach and work um by the Altadena for Accountability Coalition, which I'm very proud to be a member of. And it's really important to note that that is a female-led coalition, it's largely a black woman-led coalition. Um, and what was accomplished by this group of people um cannot be understated. Uh, the if for those who did not watch, or if you did watch the Attorney General's um online press, or he ended up doing a virtual press conference on this uh with a number of media outlets present and asking questions. Um, he, you know, very specifically said that he, you know, was how compelled and how moved he was by meeting all of us in person. He's referencing our coalition when we had our in-person meeting um about a month ago now. Um, and we found out about a week following that they were going to to open this investigation, and then we had to sit on that news for quite a while until they made their uh announcement. But, you know, he just said, you know, we came with such compelling um evidence, facts, stories, um, that it there was no it was undeniable. There was no denying that this there was a disparate impact in this response.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

And you know, I've I've had a few people it's still an investigation. It's not a law, it's it hasn't moved to a lawsuit yet. So it's not a civil rights suit.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

No, it's not it's not a lawsuit. It is an investigation with subpoena power.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Um but I think there's a reason why I'm saying that because it's important to distinguish that.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

It is important to distinguish that. Um I want to just speak to the fact that, you know, we've had again a few people who are like, well, you know, we didn't get what we should have, you know, east of Lake, or why are we making it about race, you know, the whole town lost. And you know, we've had a lot of conversation in our group about this, that, you know, it's not the pain and suffering Olympics, right? We're not, it's not a competition. Um, but when it comes down to facts, there are a few things that I think are critical context for people. And that is that, you know, while our entire town was failed, and there's no doubt about that, you know, our entire town was failed on January 7th and 8th, uh, 2025. But, you know, there was, without a doubt, disparate response and impact west of Lake. That's just facts. When we got all of that transponder data from the county regarding fire trucks, there was one engine west of Lake when there were dozens to the east. There were, you know, we had 19 deaths as a result of this fire. 18 of those happened west of lake. One of them happened right on the border on lake. Um, you know, you and when you really want to dig into it, it isn't while it is about race, because we are talking about a historically black community west of Lake. Um I think it's really important in framing this that people understand that when you're talking about civil rights, it isn't just about it's it's not exclusively a race issue. This is also the impact of age and disability. And when you again, when you look at those deaths, when you look at the demographics of our community, especially that community, it was largely elders and a number of disabled people. And these are critical issues, you know, we have to look into, you know, we should know. I I said this in my my speech at our Altadina for Accountability press conference, which was so powerful and everyone had so many incredible words that day. But the thing I wanted to really impart was that, you know, this is positive for all of Altadena. This is ultimately justice and accountability for all of us. And this changes the narrative for all of us moving forward. Um, and that, you know, the bottom line is when the most underserved among us, when the most vulnerable in our communities are actually taken care of and safe, when your neighbors of color are your neighbors who are of less means than you, when their parents and their children are safe in their homes. So are you. It's that simple.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

So Shauna, I mean, what is the what is it that the suit is is driving at? Who's the who's the the investigation?

SPEAKER_03 8:04

It's my suit.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Sorry, the investigation. What is the investigation going toward? I mean, when I think about this, there there has to be some other party. So what is it that they're driving at?

SPEAKER_03 8:17

I think that we have to see where the attorney general takes this and how this progresses. I think it's, you know, it's important to s to state that, you know, for us, uh, the coalition, you know, our work is not done, right? We know that, you know, we will have we'll be um support doing, you know, the support that we can independently, however we can. And and, you know, some of that may be making sure, for example, that the attorney general's office uh has a mechanism to take consumer uh I say consumer, but you know, in this space, community um input, right? There's a lot of firsthand community stories, community reporting, community evidence. You know, this is gonna be a process. And, you know, this is very much, this is the AG's investigation. It's their investigation and it's a historic investigation. It's a precedent-setting investigation. This is the first time ever in the US after a disaster that there has been uh an investigation through a civil rights lens.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

So I think it's who were they investigating is really where I'm going with this.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Looks like anyone and all who were involved. I mean, for now, you know, they're the primary for or I don't want to say primary, but it from my what we understand, and again, I clearly don't speak for the attorney general's office. And this is, you know, again, if you understand how this works, they sometimes don't even announce that they're investigating. When they do announce that they're investigating, they announce that they are, and then that's it. And you don't hear anything else until they have a, you know, a result or findings to discuss or next steps, whatever those may be, maybe it's public hearings, who knows, right? So, which may, which sometimes happens, sometimes don't. So I don't think that we know, but I think it is safe to we know, I think what we can safely assume is it is the fire department, it is the sheriff's department, it is OEM, the Office of Emergency Management, and it is the county, you know. Those ultimately are the entities that were responsible for our emergency response, both planning and execution. And those are the entities that failed us significantly.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Okay, so it's the county, is what you're telling me.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Well, it is absolutely the I don't see how is the county not culpable, you know? I mean, we're not incorporating, so it can't be a town council. Exactly. I'm like, we're not a we're not our own city. We don't have our own representation or maybe it's our town council.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Maybe they'll be an indictment, you know, investigated in this.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Yeah. Well, it's also interesting that it's gonna be very interesting to see what this happen what happens next and how this goes, right?

unknown 10:51

Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

But it was a huge win. A huge, huge win.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

It goes investigation, and then if there's findings out of that investigation that predicate a you know uh some form of legal action, then illegal action occurs.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Yep, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

What do you make of the county sue investigating, I guess, because they haven't decided to sue SCE.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

What do we think of SCE suing the county? Because that's happening too. Uh, you know, we haven't talked about this, but we it's you know, we're we're now recording this. Today's February 26th. So record date for this episode. And, you know, Steve was reminding me uh in a casual conversation last week as like lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit kept coming up. It was like, who said it was gonna be the 2026? Who called it in December and said 2026 was gonna be the year of the lawsuit, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Wasn't me.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

Um No, it was me. I I said, Hey, I think it would just knock my microphone. I got so excited. Um, I said, you know, I think this will be 2026 is gonna be the year of the lawsuit. And um, I think you know, that's exactly what we're seeing, right? It's like we're just litigation lining up, lining up, lining up, and there's going to be a lot more. Um it's gonna be very interesting to see how all of this shakes out. Like I talked to a neighbor yesterday who's like, you know, we're suing SCE, we're suing CFP. We potentially have a, you know, a third lawsuit uh against the more our mortgage company for for like their nightmare. And it was like, how how much like this is a full-time job, like being engaged in multiple lawsuits, right? Um it's exhausting.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Secondary trauma.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Right? Oh, I know. Yeah, I know. I I didn't even know that term. And then I was like, oh, you know, someone asked me if I was, you know, addressing my secondary trauma. And I was like, what? And they were like, you know, well, you're carrying trauma for your whole community on top of your own trauma. And I was like, oh, yeah, I guess so. I don't know. I've lost track of the trauma. Trauma is our brand.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Indeed. Indeed. It's oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

So, you know, anyhow, um, that was kind of the big news that, you know, that we were sad that we couldn't just like, because you know, I was sick, Steve was traveling, we couldn't just jump in and record an episode of this on the fly because, you know, it would require getting in a studio, which we couldn't do, especially with me with COVID. And now um, this is like I I can't, I'm gonna say to all of our listeners what I was sharing with Steve this morning is like, oh my gosh, I'm so delighted we have a mechanism to just record our podcast on the fly ourselves anytime. This is the way.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Let's let's let's work out the kinks. I mean, I'm sure we're gonna have to.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

We're gonna have kinks. Like, I'm looking at your video and it's super blurry, and I don't know what the heck is going on.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

You have the same on I see you all blurry.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

Oh, interesting. I wonder. Well, we're gonna find out. It's a grand experiment for everyone, including us. We're gonna see how it works out. My biggest. So yeah, so that was a big one. That that was a that was a huge a big one. Um there was, you know, for anyone interested, you know, I won't get into all the media that covered because all the media covered. We we did, you know, some legwork to ensure that New York Times, LA Times um was on this morning of the announcement with the attorney general. And um, but then every virtually every outlet out there covered this following. And there's been some really great follow-up coverage. And I've no doubt there'll be more stories as this evolves and develops. Um Grace Toey, who's one of the reporters who's been just doing, you know, really extensive, excellent coverage of um of of both of the fires. Um, she dropped another follow-up piece um a few days ago um in the Times that said, you know, the title of it was was uh with Pacific Palisades in the Spotlight, Altadena Fights for Attention and Postfire Justice. And it was a really great piece. I I recommend people go find that. I'll link it in the show notes. But um, you know, it's just this again, just a really great um thought piece on how the Palisades, you know, did kind of take the air out of the room for us, right? Well, and we have talked about that a lot. That it's like Palisades.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

We're gonna talk about that a little later because Well, and we will.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

We'll talk about it. We will absolutely come back and talk about it some more. But I mean, uh, you know, what else do we want to talk about on the media front? Do we want to talk about, you know, media objectivity, objectivity, clickbait?

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Oh, I mean, that was our conversation this morning, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:10

I know. Yeah. Um Yeah. Steve called me this morning before we were recording and was like, Sean, I want to ask you a question about your your industry or your former industry PR and you know, media world. And I was like, okay, Steve.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Well, but is that I mean the readers will know, but the readers will know that I've been kind of dancing around this. I think I talked about it. I wrote a piece on it, what, two days ago, about just the reflection of, you know, as I was looking back on it was the year reflection, and you know, this point a year ago, I was trying to figure out how to amplify the message, right? You know, we got the piece on real clear politics, we wrote the thing on my sub on the uh the website and it hadn't come to the sub stack yet, right? It was sort of this weird bridge, and I was sitting there going, well, why you know we're we're sitting here talking about how there's no plan, nobody knew what to do. And I'm like, but we do. We have a bill, we've got this stuff moving. Why is the media not picking it up? And it was uh you know, if you don't understand the media space, like you think the man on the street, I call up a reporter, the reporter's gonna listen to me, you know, almost like and then you have the idea of like this. We were talking about this this morning, the idea in my head, you know, the whole uh Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, you know, chasing down the story, finding the, you know, doing the investigative journalism. But I mean, that's 50 plus years ago. Um you know, and and the media landscape has shifted dramatically. I mean, the fact the LA Times has been able to hammer as hard as they have on the mayor and her cover-up has been, I guess it's exceptional considering the the the media environment we live in today.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

True. And I mean, and part of you know, our conversation this morning is like it's exceptional, but you also have to think about, you know, how much uh bias exists even within our most trusted news sources at this point and the forces, the outside forward forces that are controlling those outlets. I mean, you know, if we're looking specifically at the LA Times, you know, I think there's it's I don't think there's any coincidence that we are seeing the excellent coverage of these issues that we are, but I think that that is the result of the fact that we have a more right-leaning publication owner and publisher who, you know, has, without a doubt, some interest in dismantling and discrediting Democratic.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Have you read the California Post? It's crazy. I never counterpoint. Not everything they're saying.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

The California Post has always been like the New York Post is kind of it's like it may as well be page six, right? It's kind of a um uh like a trash rag. It's a gossip rag. I know well it's entertaining. Page six is entertaining.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

What what did it have one about Gavin? Uh I can't even remember. It's like they made fun of his hair. I I I see the ad. It's my ad shows up in my LA Times.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

The man has good fucking hair. I'm sorry. He does. Sorry for that bot. I'm jealous. I'm trying to be able to get away.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Well, I have my you know, my wild, you know, white and blonde locks here that are half under a hat today. But um, yeah, I hear you. No, um it's not gonna be I'm not gonna begrudge a man good hair. He's got good hair. Good for him.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Good for him. Like, you know, we all genetics works certain ways.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

So exactly. At least he doesn't have a bizarre, uh bizarre, you know, six-hair um comb over that's carefully orchestrated and structured with like 1980s fucking aqua net.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Oh, I gotta find, I have my bumper sticker here. I should pull it. I gotta find it. The one with the uh everyone needs a good hand uh comb over with Donald Trump on it. It goes back to like 2015. It's on my I have filing cabinets in my office. I mean, like literal filing cabinets.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

I know. I used to have literal filing cabinets. In fact, I was watching a show last night and they had these like uh vintage, like pale avocado, like between like avocado and mint, but like a really pale matte version of that color in these vintage um filing cabinets. And I was, you know, feeling wistful for the ones that I lost in the fire that were vintage in that color. And I was like, oh man, I miss my filing cabinets. Do I miss having papers to file? No. Do I have a stack growing in a box that I almost do need a filing cabinet now a year in? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

I'm not even gonna show you what the floor behind my desk looks like.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Well, you know, this is where we get to be thankful for, you know, friendly backgrounds, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Indeed. Indeed. You see, they can't tell if I'm wearing pants and they can't see the mess in my office.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

But now they can see me itching my ears because I have itchy ears today, because um, oh, Steve, I do not want to disappoint after three weeks and uh without a perimenopause comment. And today it is like my oh my gosh, everyone we all we heard about growing up or from our mothers and grandmothers is like hot flashes. But a lot of us never have hot flashes. That's not the thing. It's like random joint pain, random rage. Uh, for some women, it's depression. And also, it turns out itchy ears are like a thing. So, like there is a national shortage of the specific estrogen patch that a lot of people, including myself, use. And so I have not had it in weeks while I wait for a different prescription and you know a workaround because they're not expecting this now to come in stock until like April at this point, which is insane, by the way. If this were for men's health, that shit would be available on every street corner. It would be at 7-Eleven and the gas station. Okay. And you know, I'm you know it's the truth. But anyhow, I'm not arguing, I'm not arguing. For those watching me, for those who get to see video watching me itching, itching, itching my ears, that's what's happening. I have itchy ears. Oh my gosh, it's so wild. Um, do we want to talk? I think like we have some other big stories that we should quickly cover. Uh, you know, what's happened in the last few few weeks? Oh, I don't know, a little uh Mayor Bass cover-up, a little um, you know, the fired fire chief Kristen Crowley suing LA City for wrongful termination and and you know, character uh assassination, you know, which I don't see if it's shoe foot, wear it.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

I mean, the the CEO did it, and then I mean uh right?

SPEAKER_03 21:12

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

She'll get a settlement. She'll get a settlement.

SPEAKER_03 21:14

I mean, what well, I mean, I don't blame her. I yes, she'll get a settlement, and okay, fine, and this is where all of our money goes and it shouldn't. But how about let's just be accountable, right? We could fix this. Let's just be accountable. Uh multiple parties fucked up, right? Uh let's just own it, fix it, get on with it. Instead of like cover up, cover up, cover up, lawsuit, lawsuit, lawsuit. Come on. Well, I just own it.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

I I think what you're talking about is something interesting. And I think, you know, I was having a conversation, I had lunch with um a very well respected person within the city and somebody who's been around for a very long time and run multiple levels, uh, you know, involved with various agencies and boards and commissions, and you know, just somebody. Was a great resource to sit and talk to. And basically what we were saying is just when you think about the city, right? The budget of the city of Los Angeles is just under$14 billion, right? Yep. LAUSD itself is$18, almost$19 billion. You elect a mayor, you elect city council, you do not elect the person who's head of the school district. Now we all know about the who the head of the school district is because you paid attention in local news lately. He just, you know, the FBI raided his house and his offices and has to do nobody really knows what it's about. But I mean, like, chalk it up to California. I mean, what happened in November? We had the governor's former chief of staff, you know, raided by the FBI and indicted. I mean, LA City Council. I mean, how many city council? Let's look, let's do a bingo card of how many of them have been indicted, you know, over the last five years. Like, it's just a constant reframe. LA DWP. I mean, there was that whole billing scandal. And then the guy was, you know, talking about buying Ferraris and you know getting kickbacks who is the general manager. I mean, it goes on and on and on. And I think this gets back to that where do we reach the point where there's accountability? And I think, you know, and you can knock the California Post all you want, but I think what their presence is doing is forcing more established outlets like the LA Times to be a bit more, I don't know, uh, you know, judicious in what it's going after because there's so much money here, Shauna. That's like it it just begs and there's no controls.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

It's like I mean, this is the this is the conversation that we have repeatedly, you know, again for anyone who's been listening to this podcast for a while, about the fact that there's enough money here. Is we want to always be quick to be like, oh, the feds didn't do this, they didn't send us this money, they didn't do this, they did this to screw us. Well, we kind of screwed ourselves too, like uh for a lot of things like having a complete cleanup of Altadena post-fire, which gentlemen, if you've been listening to this, yeah. Like with uh well, that was for testing. That's what they were short to do post-remediation testing. They were shy, just shy of a billion dollars short on the cleanup itself, which is why we didn't get that thorough, complete um cleanup that past fire zones have had in California, which was lot line to lot line with a six foot, six-inch scrape, lot line to lot line. None of this like ash footprint, leaving burnt concrete, leaving ash and debris everywhere. I mean, because it's all over the community. I mean, if you go into our commercial districts and commercial corridor right now on Lake where businesses are standing, go look in the bushes. There's toxic fire debris just sitting there, like, oh, nothing to see here, no big deal. It's cleaned up. No, it wasn't cleaned up. But the point is that, you know, we have that we have money. It's like I like to say, you know, in a lot of contexts, we have the technology. We have the technology. Shut up. Why aren't we using it?

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Well, what's interesting and fascinating.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

It's easier to blame other people.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

But it's it's well, because the politics work. I mean, look at our governor right now, who is, you know, living off of everything is Trump's fault. And look, it worked for Prop 50. You've got, look, the polling came out this morning about the Billionaires Tax Act. They're at six out of 10 voters because it's Trump, Trump, Trump. Nobody's going and looking at the numbers and saying we have$50 billion more in Medicare, Medicaid today than we did in 2019 when they, you know, when COVID started and all this stuff began, and we're 50% higher. And they're gonna cut, we actually we're at 100, we're at 80 billion now, and we're gonna cut back 30 billion of that 80 billion and still be 50 billion higher. But that's you know, it's all the the the nobody's doing the math. Nobody's doing the math. It was fascinating when you hear that and you hear that we're gonna have a half cent sales tax increasing, or they want to try to do that here in Los Angeles County to pay for health care because of Trump, not because there was things that were gonna get cut by Biden anyway. And because the there's so many small nonprofits and community organizations that I bet you if we consolidated them, put them under the county, and had the county run this as a county-run organization, we can get rid of a lot of redundancy. And I'm sure that number would come way down. By the way, it went from a$700 million shortfall to a billion dollar raise, which somebody wrote that in their Substack that that's what was gonna happen. Um but if you go back and you look at the LAUSD and LAUSD and their staffing and their budget, they're gonna cut 700 staff. That was in last week's LA Times. It was fascinating to read because they added 6,000 staffers with COVID money that was temporary. They're cutting 700. There's still gonna be 5,300 staffers higher. They're at a they're staffed higher than they were when they had 40% more students. They've had a 20% drop since 2019 in terms of students inside of LAUSD, which is still a continual decline that's been happening for 20 years, yet they're staffing higher and they have more money coming in than they've ever had before because the state's revenue is higher. And the union said that. So on the one hand, you have the union saying, No, no, we have more money than ever. Why are you cutting any staff? We should be hiring more people. On the other hand, you have them like, we don't have any money, we can't afford to do all this. And I'm sitting there going, Whoa, whoa, whoa, guys. Now you want more tax dollars for what? We have record revenue right now. We have more money than we've ever had in this state, and nobody knows what to do with it.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

And yet now it's like, oh, well, they know what to do with it, figure out ways to get it in various pockets.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

Well, and that's the problem. And we and and and bring it back to Altadena, we are a microcosm of this. Yeah, we know it. The money, the machine, the the this holding out for the CDBG. We want money for free. We want to do things for free. We don't want to have to be creative. It hasn't changed. It's just everywhere right now. And I just honestly, I'm throwing on my hands here, Shauna. I I know I'm scared about what's happening.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Uh, I mean, again, it you know, we're always quick to illustrate.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

There's no accountability.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

It's not it's not it's not a Republican thing. It's like just it's unchecked. It's unbridled, unchecked.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

And it's dishonest because nobody's giving us the truth. They're just stuck in the world.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

And the few places that you do, the few places that you do have checks and balances, you know, they don't exist for LA County. But the few places that they do exist for LA City, they're doing their best to eliminate those. So, you know, for those who are not familiar, um, and I I think we've touched on this a few episodes so ago um once before, LA City has a controller who is a city auditor and who release, who goes through and audits spending, audits where the money's going, who's getting it, who has what budgets. And, you know, there they still have limitations, but the current controller is Mejia, and um, you know, his social media is excellent. It's worth following. He breaks down so many, you know, difficult issues so well and effectively. And I think it's also worth noting he's like one of the youngest who's ever been um uh elected to that position, and that he got it without any of the usual funding mechanisms, entirely grassroots, and doing it the way that he did it, grassroots, has got received the most votes any city controller ever has. He has done an amazing job, has a ton of support. He has uncovered fraud, he has uncovered waste, he has, you know, shown light and plays in dark corners that people would like to see remain hidden. All of that said, he is now having to fight to be re-elected. And on top of that, because it looks like he'll do just fine getting re-elected, they're now trying to completely eliminate his role. A motion was put forth that's going to be voted on actually today at 4 p.m. by LA City Council. A motion was moved forward to eliminate his role and to replace it with something like what LA County has with a CFO role that has no oversight, no transparency, no accountability. They don't want us to know where all the how much money is here and where it's all going, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:15

It goes back to absolutely insane. But Proc 50 was that. I mean, yeah, it was couched in this idea of you know taking back Congress, but it's not about that. It was about moving, getting rid of the barriers to controlling the redistricting for the federal seats. It's it's a joke.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

So I'm gonna I'm gonna loop us back because I it's it's we have uh managed to go 30 minutes just talking about our media roundup. This is not even we're not even diving into the meat of the topic yet, of our topics that are scheduled for today. But I um but actually we we did because the AG part was big. But um I'm gonna I'm gonna circle us back to the conversation that you and I were having this morning about media objectivity and and you know the stories that get told and those that don't, and who defines the narrative, right? Where that narrative comes from. Um and we we were having that conversation both, you know, in the context of a national uh perspective, but also like big very much here in this local microcosm, you know, that that we exist and live in. And um, you know, I felt like I was actually sharing with Steve, and I want to share with all the listeners like a really great example just this morning. So for anyone who follows LA Taco, and if you don't follow LA Taco, you should. It's like some of the best um kind of gorilla gent journalism um out there for our local stuff, but also because of the fact that, you know, their editor, there I believe he's the EIC, um Javier Cabral, who some of you may know from the past from the food world. That's how I know Javier and his lovely wife Paola. Um they are also, she's from PV, from Puerto Vallarta. And so they spend a lot of time in PV. And so they did a lot of um on-the-ground journalism about what was happening um a week, you know, last Sunday, um, when the the cartel boss was taken out in an American supported and sanctioned uh move. And they, you know, the made a made like the way that they, you know, showed their dissatisfaction was like going after American, you know, like chain places, right? So they in tourist town. So like there was, you know, cars vehicles set on fire in PV. For anyone who isn't following this, you know, um the I think the reports were that like the Costco was on fire, but in fact it was just cars in the parking lot. But the point was that Javier has been reporting from on the ground while since while all of that happened and was very quick to go, hey, a day later, it was already being cleaned up. People were starting to come out, you know, people are and like by now, by today, people are on the beach. It's, you know, like it happens. And, you know, are people afraid to go back? No, they're not. It's like there was, you know, there was an incident, it happened. It's no one was no civilians were killed or harmed. It's over. And um, the most fascinating part of this was Javier talking about all of the national and even international outlets that have approached him to tell the story. And he wanted the story, they all want the story based on this narrative that they're stuck there. They're stuck in PV, they're stranded. And he's like, Yeah, no, we're not. Like, we could go home tomorrow. We're just not because this is our second home. And that the minute he did not want to share that clickbait false narrative, it was like they were not interested or just straight up ghosted.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Are you telling me that we haven't seen this in Al Tedena and the anniversary?

SPEAKER_03 33:24

That's my point. That is exactly my point. So, you know, I think, you know, um, as Javier said this morning, you know, you can't even you have to question if you can even believe what's what you're being told by major news house outlets. And um, you know, always, always when you can go to the grassroots sources, go to the gr the, you know, citizen journalists, support that work, support people like Ellie Taco, you know, watch things like this where we're trying to break down issues in a very, you know, real way without any, well, everyone has their inherent bias, but we don't have the baked-in bias of having to do what, you know, our handlers who are s who are funding us tell us because we have no one funding us. And, you know, as we get into that, it's like I've been working, you know, on the on this environmental issue, right? Like this is one of my top concerns, you know, beyond getting justice for our communities for what happened here. It was also about, you know, the environmental justice and ensuring that everyone, everyone who wants to come home has a safe community to come home to. And we don't have that right now, right? And we have been working on that national story for months, and we finally got a green light and then they backed out, not because of our story, because our stories airtight, but because of the fact that they felt the national news narrative had moved on from these fires.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

How wild is that? Which what but what did we say last August? I mean, I remember on one of our I wrote the Substacks on it, and I remember one of the first conversations we had, one of our first podcasts was this. It was gonna leave us by. We were talking about it from a legislative perspective, but it's the same thing. Like we're getting look, we had the same problem with the disaster investment fund. I mean, we we had the bill written and ready to go, and it got shot down up in Sacramento last week. Yeah. And I mean, guess what? We're gonna sit here and complain about the fact we have no money, and then all the tools that we've offered. We got to the governor's desk on AB797, got vetoed. And we got we had another bill ready to go to bring in more money, got beat, you know, got shot down. Nobody wants to do it. The narrative is over.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

Yeah. Yeah, it's a tough one, but it's true. So we're still trying to find some angles to we will get the story out. I I have high confidence we'll do it. But um, it shouldn't be this hard. I hope so.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

I hope so because it it's a derelict at the highest levels.

SPEAKER_03 35:52

Yeah, it it truly is. It's uh it's so disturbing what's happening. And I've spent so much time in the community the last few months, um, in particular, as I've kind of started to do some work on my lot, you know, and slowly make my path forward on a on a rebuild. And um wow, it's bad, Steve. Like I just can't even believe the stuff I see every day. And I've been, you know, like getting video and photos and documenting and addresses, uh very much in like a, you know, I'm taking names, you know.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

I mean, I hate I hate the fact that you may just have to do it yourself and publish it. I know because I know.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

And if it comes to that, I'll do it. That's why I have so much video evidence. I know. I've literally followed some of these, you know, shady uh folks, you know, doing very shady things. Like literally, I'm like the like this crazy person with my video camera. I'm shocked that no one has stopped me yet because they definitely have clocked me, especially when I followed them doing like multiple runs of dirty deeds and um videotaping the whole time from my car and narrating. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe no one stopped me.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

And Shauna, Shauna, don't you have documentation showing visibility at the highest levels of the county? Yep.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

Oh yeah. This is it's not like you know, I'm just sitting at home, you know, twiddling my thumbs and complaining about to myself. We've been documenting this for county who, you know, did a did an investigation. They're like, well, we did a visual investigation and we didn't see anything. So therefore there's nothing to see here.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Like the visual inspections are doing with all three or four people.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Correct. Yeah. Well, I think they're up to like six inspectors now, but building inspectors. Um, yeah, I talked to a couple builders um last week who were sharing with me that they had time to hang out and have these in-depth conversations with me about how bad, like how just absolutely Wild West bananas it is, what's happening up there without any meaningful oversight checks, balances, and uh inspections because the inspectors are so slammed, they're just not showing up. So this guy's like, well, the spec inspector was supposed to be here. I've been here all day waiting. He's not here. So you and I have time to hang out about my build and and talk about my build. And it was great because I got to meet a builder who's actually doing everything the right way. And and the work was beautiful. And then he'd actually done um um a build he just finished um for a developer. And I got to actually go up and tour it because they're getting ready to put it on the market and like look at all the finishes and look at the how the details of the work that was done and see, you know, a real representation of the t the type of building he's doing. And it's beautiful. It's great to see, you know, there's a lot of shady shit going on, but there's also a handful of um really great builders doing really great work to rebuild the community. But I will tell you, uh, construction litigation is gonna be the field to be in for the next decade because um with some of the stuff we've been seeing happening every day and they're just you know, the way things are going up without being properly checked. Oh my gosh, people are I mean, it's it's people are gonna have issues with a lot with some of these homes. Not all of them, but you know, a significant number are gonna have serious issues um and that are gonna come to roost.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

Right.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Yeah, I know. Yeah. Well, just like they'll get involved in, you know, a few years when people start getting sick. You know, I mean, we've already seen, you know, the risk of the data that's come out of um, was it Cedar Sinai that um did their data? And I know I've talked um, you know, anecdotally with people at Huntington who've um Huntington Hospital who've shared that, you know, there was no doubt they saw a significant uptick uptick in cardiac events um following the fires here. Cedars actually really like fully documented um those data points. And um yeah, it's it's you know, it's really sad to see. Um we talk about the 19 deaths, you know, that occurred that night. But, you know, as we've talked about before, when you factor in all of the secondary and tertiary stuff, um, the people that ended up in the hospital right after, people, the elders who just died from the stress, you know, like my neighbor had a heart attack just gosh, in May following the fire, a few months in, and he passed. You know, there's um, and then of course the suicides. We've talked about that before, but there's just there's no shortage of it. And um, I don't know that we'll ever really see the real impact and the real death toll of this, but there's no doubt it will reach into the thousands. It's just no doubt.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Well, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

And then there's gonna be all the people living with chronic illness and chronic, you know, I mean, that's all of us, even just from the stress. It's me. Like, like for everyone who's on video, you can see like this crazy rash. It's like all over my body. I have like crazy rash, you know, that's um autoimmune stuff because of the stress. Like, no matter what I do to manage the stress, like uh, you know, it doesn't change the fact that every day I'm battling something. Like right now it's back to state farm with more state farm fuckery. Did I even tell you what happened to me with my state farm this week? Why can't they just do because they know that they can get out of paying out on these claims and sit on this money and punt it to SCE. That's why I'm gonna do it. It's been it's been more than a year. And they, yep, and they know at this point if they can just hold out for another six months or so on giving us our money, that they won't have to give it to us at all because we'll get it through SCE, and then they won't have to claw it back through their lawsuit against SCE. It's diabolical. Um, but I mean that that is what it is. It's everyone shirking responsibility and and eking out um every dollar they can from our disaster. It's so gross. But yeah, the latest was that my state farm adjuster number 11, who, you know, I once I told them because of all of the inconsistencies and denials, et cetera, I was like, listen, you've proven that we can't just have phone conversations. It has to be documented in writing because you clearly cannot be trusted, especially when we're changing from one person to the next every, you know, few weeks or months. So since you're now contradicting everything that the last two adjusters have told me for four months and telling me that, like, I don't know what I'm talking about, we have to communicate in writing. The minute I did that, guess what happened? No communication. I get these really generic updates, but otherwise won't respond to my emails and nothing. And then I found out last week or this week that my insurance company, State Farm, I don't know who exactly it was, but someone at State Farm with zero contact with me and zero conversation, called my landlord and said they wouldn't be paying my rent beyond April of this year. I have enough ALE funding because it is dependent on what you have. And some people have already run out, and that's a very real thing. I have not. I chose a place with rent low enough that I could float it plus utilities and any other little incidentals all the way through the maximum three years I have in my claim. Okay, all the way through January of 2028. And these guys are now like, oh no, we're just gonna stop paying. And we've been hearing a lot of this. People saying that they, you know, they were just arbitrarily told, like, they just pulled permits, just broke ground, and then they were like, well, we're not gonna pay beyond the end of the year. What? Like, there's no way they're gonna be home before the end of the year. So, or have a home built to go back to. It's insane what is happening. Um, and again, it what's most insane is that there's no regulation, no oversight, no accountability. Again, we know we have a wildly corrupt insurance commission. So, you know, when there's no consequences, why care? Oh, I mean, Bermuda's becking.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Bermuda's backing.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

What's that?

SPEAKER_00 43:21

Bermuda's becking. Like he can head off to Bermuda on another trip paid for by insurance. Exactly. He's done this year. So moving on.

SPEAKER_03 43:30

He doesn't care. He's gonna have a job in the industry, in the insurance industry, and it's gonna be very lucrative. So why would he care? He doesn't care.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Well, why aren't our why aren't our advocates out there that are supposed to be handling this talking about it?

SPEAKER_03 43:40

I know. I don't know. Um, I don't think we have any. I mean, that I think that's it. Like, you know, we we've had like some press around this, but ultimately none of none of it's meaningful, you know, because it doesn't move a needle. It doesn't. Sorry, it doesn't. We can all like you know dance around it and say that it did. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

Well, rule number one of advocacy, don't say Solve the problem, keep it going so you have something to talk about.

SPEAKER_04 44:04

I prefer to solve it and move on. I know. I know that's why you're not an advocate. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:09

Well, it's why I am, but outside of that, that that realm, that circle. It's so frustrating, Steve. Um, but yeah, I had to, I had to get in touch with my landlord, talk my landlord off the ledge that like I can afford to stay here. I will fight the insurance company for that money. Like, hear my bank statements, don't freak out, don't please renew my lease because I need to be here at least another year. Please don't re don't, you know, because they were like, well, maybe we should go month to month, like basically in case they needed to get rid of me if they, if I can't pay. And I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, I shouldn't have to go through this becoming in the in, you know, as my lease ends and I go into another year lease, having to get into like, oh my gosh, I have to, you know, now become personal guarantor on this place again and, you know, justify my ability to to live here, but that's what I have to do. And, you know, I was doing that because the last thing I can have right now is housing, more housing instability. Already moved five times. I can't lose this. And I'm gonna wrap this subject on this point, you know, with the expectation that, you know, I may not be able to work it out with my landlord and I might have to find another rental. I started looking, right? I was trying to be positive. Like, let me just view it like, do I want to move again after a year? After now I finally actually have belongings. You can you can see the lovely glassware below my coffee maker. I have some things nowhere near what I had, not even a fraction, but I have enough, right? Just enough to make a move like a thing, like enough stuff that moving would be a whole thing. And I was like, okay, well, I'm just gonna embrace it. It is what it is. And I go, look, legit, Steve, there is nothing even remotely comparable to my three-bedroom, uh, one bath house that was at almost it was on the verge of being a three-bedroom, two-bath house that had like a big outdoor space and an entertaining area and a little separate workshop out there, right? So it was really kind of the equivalent, you know, of a four-two with an outdoor space. It was, it was a beautiful little property. The only thing, even remotely close, and not even in our neighborhood, but remotely, was like$7,000 a month. The things that were a little bit more like my place were like nine grand a month. And then a lot of them were jacked up to$11,000,$14,15 because they were furnished. I was like, holy shit. The degree of um of uh price gouging that is not that is unchecked, even though again there's supposed to be systems for this, nothing is happening. Um, it's so disturbing, Steve. I'm like, how how is anyone doing this? How are we supposed to do this? Like, uh like my insurance is fucking me, but I'm lucky I at least I have some insurance, you know? I'm not getting it all, I'm fighting. People are leaving. But at least I have something.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

That's why people are leaving. I mean, the Times had an article about this, uh, because I know because Nicole Wirth, who is at my daughter's school, um there was a whole piece about I mean, they'd moved like 20 times or something like that. They were one of the examples in that story.

SPEAKER_03 47:10

That some of my friends have had to do that. If people who are renters who were told if they signed a lease, they would then invalidate their ALE because it was like they were acknowledging that they could never go back. How which is also absurd. So they were having to move from Airbnb to Airbnb every month instead of like just having a lease that would have been a fraction of the cost. They had to keep bouncing from Airbnb to Airbnb, and many of them have moved like 15, 20, 25 times. It's disturbing.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

Well, then they have that that family in there that that had moved to Nashville and how you know they started their life. I it was also interesting because they had this the um the graphic of where everybody's moved to and how you know this diaspora has occurred. So I mean, all those things are very interesting. Uh again, that should have been our immediate roundup. I mean, there's been so much, as you said. Like that's a lot. I just I try to keep on top of it with the Substack, you know, and try to put it in context for everybody, but there's only so much. My brain only works.

SPEAKER_03 48:10

I know. It's tough, even you know, for me, and I'm talking about this stuff in our group in real time daily, and it's it's still so much, it's overwhelming. But um, you know, the other piece I want to add to this before we wrap this topic um is um rentals in Altadena. Okay. So I was like, listen, you know, let me, I'm spending so much time up there, even though I have really mixed feelings about the environmental situation. If I could be in a pocket that didn't have significant uh, you know, burn zone damage, let me go ahead and take a look. And if somewhere was properly remediated, like that could actually be a great option. I would love to be back home in in that respect, right? And um, so I found a place on Midwick and it was 6,100, 6300 a month, which is too much. But I was like, Where? Um, I'll have to find the the exact address and I I'll find it and I'll post the listing. But I reached out to the landlord and asked, you know, can you tell me what remediation was done? Crickets. Talked to some people who were in the know about the property. No remediation was done. They they cleaned the house. Um so how that is not front and center for everyone, that needs to be a disclosure for everywhere in the burn zone. I mean, I found another beautiful mid-century house with a pool way up on in the canyon that was for rent, you know, and that was even more. That was like seven or eight a month. Um surrounded by burn. Okay. Everything around it is is ash and grounded with, you know, incomplete cleanup of lots. And I'm like, holy shit, how are you trying to rent this place for this? Like a place that you clearly don't want to live in because you know how bad it is, but you're trying to rent it out. Oh my gosh. Well, and I don't blame the owner for trying to do what they gotta do, but like you, you know, we there there has to be some mechanism, some safety net for people.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

There's gonna have to be you sell.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

I mean, how can you not have full disclosure?

SPEAKER_00 50:08

I was told that we're gonna I I you know when we did our testing after we had the after we before we moved back in, I was told to save it and keep it because that's gonna have to be disclosed if and when we sell.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

Exactly. Yes, when you sell for sure. And you know, and that's when we're gonna have another um, I mean, that's a whole other topic, right? It's a whole other kittle fish talking about what's gonna happen for property values when we get into that reality and um who properly remediated who didn't, what comes up, what happens when people do ask for, you know, post-reading remediation testing. Um, you know, it's it's wild out there. But anyhow, um we are rounding on to our one hour mark. Should we jump into our small biz shout-out? Please. And wrap ourselves. So we have a lot of small biz stuff to talk about. This is a big-packed weekend of things happening. Um, Bevel Coffee, which has been, um, you've heard us talk about them before. They're they've been a pop-up at the Prime patio for a couple um Prime Pizza, for anyone who doesn't know what I mean, what I meant when I said Prime, um, for a couple of years now. They are opening their first uh brick and mortar um right next door to a couple of other awesome businesses on North Allen, um Altina Beverage and um High Stakes Barbershop. So they're gonna have their own brick and mortar. They open this Saturday, February 28th. Um, a little separate, but I want to mention that the um library, the Altina Library, um, that recently closed for the Measure Z renovation, which I know has been frustrating to some to lose that resource um right now when we've lost so much, but that's been planned for your for many years, and that that funding is critical and it cannot be lost. And if not now, when right? So they have closed to do for two years, about two years to do their massive renovation of that property, historically sensitive reno. Um, the library, and this is the main library on Mariposa and Santa Rosa, um, our beautiful mid-century building. That groundbreaking is also this Saturday, the 28th. And then an organization called Hands in the Soil with support from Alcedina Rising has an event on Saturday as well. February 28th, um, called the Through the Fire procession, and that'll start um at 9 a.m. on at Loma Altar Park. They also have a digital um altar where people were um invited to submit um imagery of their homes that were lost, family, pets. Um, it's really quite beautiful and it's, you know, it it will be emotional for sure, but it's meant to also be joyous and and hopeful. And um I'll I'll personally be there for that one. And I'm really looking forward to it. It's a two-mile walk, but it's it's slow, it's gentle, it's appropriate for even elders and children. Um, and I think that anyone who should who can come to that should come to that because it's shaping up to be a really lovely afternoon. So if you want to have a day in Altadena, come out, hit Altina Bev, you know, hit Bevel Coffees opening, hit the library groundbreaking, hit the hands in the soil for fire uh through the fire procession, and um have a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_00 53:11

There you go. The mayor, everybody. Mayor of Altadina.

SPEAKER_03 53:16

Uh, I wouldn't go that far. There's a few of us. There's a few of us, and thank God for that, right? We're lucky to have so many people step up into um into the into the the roles of uh of of lead, of trying to lead where we can, you know, or at least being positive voices, at least speaking for the community, for the many parts of the community that need to be spoken for. You know, I think that's all we can do.

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Thank you for what you do, Shauna.

SPEAKER_03 53:43

And you too, Steve. All right, on that note, um, we're gonna wrap it up. I just want to remind everybody that um this is the Beautiful Altadena after the Ashes podcast. I am Shauna Dawson Beer, Beautiful Altadina. I am here with my co-host, Steve Sachs.

SPEAKER_00 53:59

The Alta Policy Walk. Yep, on Substack.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

You can find Steve and I both um on Substack. You can also find uh me, Beautiful Altadina, on Instagram, on um our private on Facebook, where our private um neighborhood only groups exist and our subgroups, um, and obviously through this podcast and also a Slack channel. We have uh we have a whole beautiful Altina Slack I've been sitting on for a year and just launched. So that's happening too. Yeah. So until next time, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 54:35

Thank you. I hope this uh all this experiment works out, Shauna.

SPEAKER_03 54:38

I know. Thanks for joining our grand experiment. I feel like this is like 3.0 for us here. So yeah, talk to y'all soon. Bye. Bye now.