{"id":402202,"date":"2025-11-24T22:02:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/402202\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T22:02:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:02:26","slug":"la-mayor-karen-bass-called-out-for-phony-palisades-rebuild-after-devastating-wildfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/402202\/","title":{"rendered":"LA Mayor Karen Bass called out for \u2018phony\u2019 Palisades rebuild after devastating wildfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is getting called out for prematurely taking a victory lap<\/a> for touting the \u201cfirst Palisades fire rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n

Locals are calling the latest announcement from Bass misleading, and a glaring sign the city didn\u2019t bother to check whether the house it was showcasing was even a fire-loss rebuild at all.<\/p>\n

In fact, the house Bass used as a beacon of hope for families returning is a developer project that was already in motion before the blaze. The teardown and rebuild were planned well in advance, with nothing to do with the fire that later tore through the Palisades.<\/p>\n

The home, bought by a developer before the fires, was not tied to a fire-displaced resident. Google Maps<\/p>\n

LA Mayor Karen Bass has faced major backlash for her handling of the wildfires that devastated the city earlier this year. Getty Images for Netflix<\/p>\n

Property records show the Kagawa Street home was purchased in early November 2024. The owner received a demolition permit on January 7, just hours before the Palisades Fire roared back to life and wiped out 6,831 structures, including the original home on Kagawa.<\/p>\n

After debris removal, inspections, and the city\u2019s routine reviews, the project cleared final approval in April. When the house passed its last inspection Friday, City Hall rushed to declare it the first official rebuild.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palisades community has been through an unimaginable year\u2026 today is an important moment of hope,\u201d Bass said, presenting the developer-built property as proof that recovery is gaining momentum.<\/p>\n

But for thousands of residents still living in rentals and temporary housing, the announcement felt misleading.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though touted as a fire rebuild, 915 Kagawa had been acquired by a developer prior to the blaze. City of Los Angeles<\/p>\n

Though touted as a fire rebuild, 915 Kagawa had been acquired by a developer prior to the blaze.<\/p>\n

Pali Builds, the resident group tracking actual rebuilds, said this wasn\u2019t just a paperwork slip, it exposed a deeper problem. \u201cIf the City can\u2019t verify whether a single home was or wasn\u2019t a fire rebuild, something anyone can check with one click, how can they possibly manage the complexity of rebuilding an entire coastal town?\u201d the group wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Spencer Pratt, whose own home was destroyed in the fire, also blasted the announcement on social media, writing \u201cRead the data!\u201d and highlighting that the Kagawa rebuild received key approvals before the fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Mayor\u2019s Office defended highlighting the Kagawa project, providing this detailed statement on the timeline to The Post:<\/p>\n

\u201cThomas James Homes, the builder, originally submitted a plan check application to the City on November 8, 2024, to construct a new single-family home at 915 N Kagawa. The rebuilding plan was not approved before the previously existing home at 915 N Kagawa was destroyed in the Palisades Fire.<\/p>\n

On April 1, 2025, nearly three months after the start of the Palisades Fire, the rebuilding plan for 915 N Kagawa was approved by LADBS, and the permit was pulled by Thomas James Homes that same day, April 1, 2025. After passing all inspections, the Certificate of Occupancy was issued on November 21, 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is getting called out for prematurely taking a victory lap for touting the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":402203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2809,5413,2961,224,5337,12176,190258,1154],"class_list":{"0":"post-402202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-wildfires","11":"tag-karen-bass","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-mayor","16":"tag-spencer-pratt","17":"tag-us-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115606935663940187","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}