LA Public Press reporter Phoenix Tso joins us for our first podcast of the year. Tso covered mutual aid efforts immediately after last January’s Eaton Fire in the Altadena area of the San Gabriel Mountains. Marking the anniversary of the 14,000 acre fire that destroyed 10,000 structures and took at least 19 lives, Tso checked in again with small business owners rebuilding their lives back from the disaster.
Struggles are plenty: insurance claims, fire remediation, lost income, lost neighbors and customers, and real estate development. The stories Tso shares with us are somber, but remind us why the community needs support from the San Gabriel Valley at large.
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Chris Greenspon – This is SGV Connect 145. I’m Chris Greenspon. This is our first podcast of the new year. We hope you all had a good break. Quickly, before we begin, though, I just want to remind you that Streetsblog’s San Gabriel Valley coverage is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the A Line Stations across the foothills and commuter express lines traveling into the heart of downtown LA. To plan your trip, visit Foothill transit.org. Foothill Transit “Going good places”.
Today, we’re looking back at the one year anniversary of the Eaton Fire and recovery efforts to keep the community intact. Here as our guest, we have Phoenix Tso reporter for LA Public Press. Phoenix, welcome back to SGV Connect.
Phoenix Tso – Thank you for having me.
Chris – So earlier this week, you filed a story checking in with business owners in Altadena who’ve been able to reopen a year after the fire. How are people holding up now, a year later?
Phoenix – Yeah, I just did a story on small business owners whose businesses were affected by the Eaton Fire in Altadena one year later. I think it’s kind of a mixed bag. I talked to a bunch of people who were able to reopen. Some, like, just a couple months ago, reopened. One person actually, technically never closed. She said she was the only person in her shopping plaza, without a working air conditioning and a patchy roof, all burned up.
But the building was luckily intact, and her store was luckily intact. She runs a print and copying shop. So, yeah, it’s a mixed bag.
Some people, their businesses burned down completely. It’s a total loss. One person I talked to runs a martial arts studio, and she actually bought the land that her studio was standing on. She’s trying to rebuild, trying to raise the money, and she says that, like, it’ll probably take three to five years for her to come back and for the community to really come back. Yes, there’s businesses that have reopened, but there’s just not as many people back in Altadena one year later.
Chris – And what’s the mood?
Phoenix – It’s somber. I would say.
I think there’s still a big community feel, though. A lot of these businesses were pillars of the community, and they’re where people gather still…or gather even more. For example, Fair Oaks Burger, they closed during the fire, and they didn’t reopen until June, basically because of smoke remediation issues and debris and everything like that. But they kept doing mutual aid operations in their parking lot. They worked with the World Central Kitchen to distribute food, and they ended up partnering with different groups to do grocery distributions. So they’ve still been around in Altadena, and there are a lot of community events there, and a lot of the community really gathers there. Business is slower than before, but people did come back after Fair Oaks Burger reopened.
Chris – What kind of community is this and why do people want to preserve it? Obviously, every time a community has a tragedy, we hear some of the same descriptors. But what makes Altadena Altadena?
Phoenix – I think Altadena is special because it’s technically urban. It’s close to LA but it really does have a small town feel. I wonder if Altadena residents would agree with me…of like a Gilmore Girls type of feel. It’s right by the mountains. It’s beautiful up there. It’s a little isolated and out of the way.
People who like a quiet, sort of nature…very close to nature, type of community that still is also close to urban amenities. I think they love that. As has been said it’s a historically black community. It’s one of the few communities where black people are allowed to own homes for a long time, and that community has been affected heavily by the fire.There’s a big question whether they’ll be able to make a comeback, especially with a lot of corporate developers buying up lots that have burned down.
So it’s actually a very diverse working class community as well. It’s kind of unique in that sense, very different from the Palisades fire. Where the Pacific Palisades is one of the wealthiest communities in LA County. The diversity, the mix, but also like a very tight knit community. I think when you go out to community events, there is a small business fair on Small Business Saturday, right after Thanksgiving, you could definitely see a lot of the community out there, and people knowing each other, and really breaking bread together.
Chris – And it still has a little bit of that ‘Dena’ cultural feel with the hippie stuff and the art galleries.
Phoenix – Yeah, definitely. And in fact, I talked to an art gallery owner who started dedicating his gallery to artists affected by the fire in Altadena and Pasadena. And he said, “Yeah, the support that people are showing those artists is really amazing.”
Chris – So you spoke to a range of different types of businesses. You spoke to the gallerist. You spoke to somebody who’s trying to get a martial arts studio back up and running, hopefully in a few years. You spoke to somebody who owned a print and copy shop and I think a restaurant or two. Overall, what are the challenges that they spoke about in getting reopened?
Phoenix – Yeah, I think their insurance companies were a big challenge.
I interviewed a lot of business owners at Mariposa junction, which is one of the few shopping areas where one of the buildings burned down, but one did not burn down. So those businesses have come back. So I think that’s a big challenge.
Oh, the gallery owner I talked to. His name is Ben McGinty. He said that the biggest challenge for him is being back when everybody else has lost everything and it’s a very like sobering thought, for sure.
But also, people said that the challenge was getting their shops remediated in a timely manner, they had to wait months for that to happen. I think some of them did it themselves and still need to get reimbursed by their insurance company. I guess some insurance companies were understanding. Some, just gave an attitude, like, “why are you asking?” It’s like, “oh, I’m a policyholder. Like, why wouldn’t I ask for this, for, you know, this to be paid out?”
Yeah, I think having the money to be able to reopen and rebuild, having a good landlord who would like not charge rent while you’re not in the store and an insurance company to help with repairs. Those are all challenges.
Chris – So how are folks surviving, or is it? Are they getting grants? Are they getting help from the city? Are they getting community buyouts? What’s going on?
Phoenix – Yes, there are a lot of grants. Fair Oaks Burger, it’s kind of interesting. You know, Rick Caruso, the billionaire businessman, his foundation has issued a good amount of grants. Interesting to see his name in the mix there.
There are a lot of grants from corporations, different chambers of commerce. There are low interest loans, or no interest loans that people have been able to get another challenge is the red tape it takes to reopen in LA County.
The owner of Fair Oaks Burger talked about that a lot, and she said that, if they make the process easier with a little less red tape. She thinks more businesses will be able to come back more easily.
Chris – So where are we seeing real estate movement? You alluded to this a little bit.
Phoenix – Oh, yeah, I haven’t looked at this in a lot of detail, but I’ve seen a lot of reports.A lot of the lots, I think it’s several hundred residential lots that have a lot of people have put their lots up for sale because they aren’t able to rebuild.
That’s a similar challenge. The insurance companies have not come through for people who lost their homes, which is really horrible to hear. So they’re selling their lots. And a lot of corporate developers, LLCs, are buying up those lots. It remains to be seen what they’re doing with them.
I saw a report where one of them is being constructed right now, and it’s kind of interesting. The home they’re building is for sale for at least a million dollars, or something like that. I don’t know how a lot of people can afford that. So, there are a lot of community groups who are really tracking that and are really trying to advocate for community land trusts and for community minded people to buy up these lots and to be able to sell or rent them to working class folks, just to preserve the diversity of Altadena, to let allow people to be able to come back.
I read last year, groups had asked for, maybe $500 million from the state, which they didn’t get. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re trying again. But so far, I think there hasn’t been a lot of support from, you know, from the state to actually do something to preserve Altadena as it was and has been.
Chris – Yeah, it sounds like an uphill struggle. So what should we keep an eye out for as we’re wrapping up this interview going forward with LA Public Press, with Altadena and your reporting?
Phoenix – Oh, I’ll keep covering Altadena. I’m covering calls for a state investigation into the evacuation response by LA County. I will be looking into who’s buying these residential lots and what they’re doing with them as a whole. We are still covering everything LA County, especially the immigration raids, police accountability, housing, organizing, you name it.
Chris – So thanks for joining us once again on SGV Connect.
Phoenix – Thanks for having me again.
Chris – That’s Phoenix Tso reporter for LA Public Press covering all things Eaton, fire, mutual aid, Chinatown and more. Check out hers and all the other fine work from LA Public Press, and if you can donate, they do good work. And if you have anything left over, donate to Streetsblog. I’m Chris Greenspon. Thanks for listening.