In a seafoam blue suit, Bass muscled her way through the crowds and could be heard on a live news feed pushing the agents to leave.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, she sent an underling to join Newsom and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla to discuss fire rebuilding and recovery, as she held an impromptu City Hall news conference decrying the immigration raid.<\/p>\n
This is the delicate dance Bass has found herself doing in recent weeks. Recovering from one of the costliest natural disasters in American history remains a daily slog, even as a new and urgent crisis demands her attention.<\/p>\n
The federal immigration assault on Los Angeles has granted Bass a second chance at leading her city through civic catastrophe. Her political image was badly bruised in the wake of the fires, but she has compensated amid a string of historically good headlines.<\/p>\n
Killings have plummeted, with Los Angeles on pace for the lowest homicide total in nearly 60 years<\/a>. Bass has also made progress<\/a> on the seemingly intractable homelessness crisis for the second consecutive year, with a nearly 8% decrease in the number of people sleeping on city streets in 2024.<\/p>\n A \u201cKaren Bass Resign Now\u201d sign on Alma Real Drive on July 9 in Pacific Palisades.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n But there is a widening gulf between Pacific Palisades, where the annihilation remains palpable as far as the eye can see, and the rest of the city, where attention has largely flickered to other issues. Amid her successes, the mayor still faces harsh critics in the wealthy coastal enclave.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor has been very clear that every day that families can\u2019t return home is a day too long, and she will continue taking action to expedite every aspect of the recovery effort to get them home,\u201d Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl said. <\/p>\n Bass was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana, despite warnings of severe winds<\/a>, when the conflagration erupted in early January. She floundered upon her return, fumbling questions about her trip, facing public criticism from her fire chief (whom she later ousted<\/a>) and appearing out of sync with other leaders<\/a> and her own chief recovery officer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those initial days cast a long shadow for the city\u2019s 43rd mayor, but Bass has regained some of her footing in the months since. She has made herself a fixture in the Palisades, even when the community has not always welcomed her with open arms, and has attempted to expedite recovery by pulling the levers of government. Her office also led regular community briefings with detailed Q&A sessions.<\/p>\n Bass issued a swath of executive orders to aid recovery, creating a one-stop rebuilding center, providing tax relief for businesses<\/a> affected by the fires and expediting permitting. The one-stop center has served more than 3,500 individuals, according to the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Felipe Ortega raises the California flag at Gladstones Malibu on July 2 in Malibu. After sustaining damage from the fire, Gladstones reopened for business earlier this month.<\/p>\n (Juliana Yamada \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n A number of restaurants and other amenities have also reopened in the neighborhood. The Starbucks on Palisades Drive is set to return later this month.<\/p>\n Bass frequently touts the Palisades fire recovery as the fastest in modern California history, though recent natural disasters don\u2019t offer an apples-to-apples comparison.<\/p>\n Sue Pascoe, a Palisades resident who lost her home in the Via Bluffs neighborhood and helms a hyperlocal website called Circling the News<\/a>, said the mayor has made some inroads. <\/p>\n \u201cI think she\u2019s tried very hard to repair relationships. She\u2019s come up there a whole lot,\u201d Pascoe said. \u201cBut I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s worked, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n When Bass visits the Palisades, said Maryam Zar, head of the Palisades Recovery Coalition, residents tell her she has not done enough to hasten rebuilding.<\/p>\n \u201cShe always seems truly mind-boggled by that\u201d accusation, Zar said. \u201cShe looks at us like, \u2018Really? What have I not done?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The issue, in Pascoe\u2019s view, is more about the limitations of the office than Bass\u2019 leadership. Residents traumatized by the loss of their homes and infuriated by a broken insurance system and cumbersome rebuilding process would like to see the mayor wave a magic wand, slash red tape on construction and direct the full might of local government to reviving the neighborhood.<\/p>\n But Los Angeles has a relatively weak mayoral system, compared with cities such as New York and Chicago.<\/p>\n The mayor is far from powerless, said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and a scholar of local government. But he or she shares authority with other entities, such as the 15-member City Council and the five-member L.A. County Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n \u201cTo move things in L.A., you always need mayoral leadership, combined with the cooperation, collaboration \u2014 or hopefully not opposition \u2014 of a lot of powerful people in other offices,\u201d Sonenshein said. \u201cAnd yet, the mayor is still the recognized leader. So it\u2019s a matter of matching up people\u2019s expectation of leadership with how you can put the pieces together to get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n Take the issue of waiving permit fees.<\/p>\n Construction workers rebuild a home on July 9 in Pacific Palisades.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n In February, City Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the fire-ravaged area, introduced a proposal<\/a> to stop levying fees for permits to rebuild Palisades homes.<\/p>\n Pascoe and others cheered in late April when the mayor signed an executive order <\/a>supporting Park\u2019s plan. <\/p>\n But as Pascoe moved forward with rebuilding her longtime home, she was confused when her architect gave her a form to sign that said she would pay the city back if the City Council doesn\u2019t move forward on the fee waivers.<\/p>\n As it turned out, Bass\u2019 order did not cancel permit fees outright but suspended their collection, contingent on the council ultimately passing its ordinance, since the mayor can\u2019t legally cancel the fees on her own. <\/p>\n Park\u2019s proposal is still wending its way through the council approval process. Officials estimate that waiving the fees will cost around $86 million \u2014 a particularly eye-popping sum, given the city\u2019s budget crisis, that may make approval difficult.<\/a><\/p>\n Apart from the limitations of her office, Bass has also confused residents and made her own path harder with a seemingly haphazard approach to delegating authority. <\/p>\n Mayor Karen Bass speaks at a discussion with local leaders and residents to mark 100 days since the start of the L.A. wildfires at Will Rogers State Beach on April 17.<\/p>\n (Carlin Stiehl \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Within a month of the blaze, Bass announced the hiring of Hagerty Consulting as a \u201cworld-class disaster recovery firm\u201d that would coordinate \u201cprivate and public entities.\u201d To many residents, Bass had appeared to give the firm the gargantuan task of restoring the Palisades.<\/p>\n In reality, Hagerty was retained as a consultant to the city\u2019s tiny, underfunded<\/a> Emergency Management Department<\/a>, whose general manager, Carol Parks, is designated by city charter as the recovery coordinator. Bass also brought out of retirement another former EMD chief, Jim Featherstone, who has served as de facto recovery chief behind the scenes.<\/p>\n But based on Bass\u2019 public statements<\/a>, many Angelenos thought the recovery would be led by a familiar face \u2014 Steve Soboroff.<\/p>\n L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and her disaster recovery czar Steve Soboroff, left, talk to media during a news conference at the Palisades Recreation Center on Jan. 27 in Pacific Palisades.<\/p>\n (Brian van der Brug \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Soboroff, a developer, civic leader and longtime Palisades resident, signed on for a three-month stint as chief recovery officer and was initially tasked<\/a> with creating a comprehensive strategy for rebuilding. But his role was soon dramatically scaled back. When he left in mid-April, <\/a>Soboroff said he had been shut out from high-level planning essentially from the start and spoke candidly about his issues with Hagerty.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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