With the wildfires still raging in LA, now is not the time to point fingers, but it is the time to learn from our mistakes. And mistakes were made.
While I can’t be sure anyone could have stopped these fires, something could have been done to limit the damage.
The first thing we need to start with is the stupidity of some of our politicians – and their misplaced priorities.
They’ve cut funding for fire and police departments — Mayor Karen Bass cut nearly $18 million from the LAFD budget last year — all while spending money on ridiculous projects.
Take the $100 billion that will be poured into the absurd bullet train from Bakersfield to Merced. That won’t be ready until 2033 at the earliest and by the time it’s done it will be completely obsolete because we will have autonomous vehicles.
Jason Oppenheim has criticized California politicians for abandoning residents during the wildfires
At least 24 people have been killed in the Los Angeles area and about 180,000 people have been driven from their homes
No one is going to want to drive to a train station and take a stupid train for four hours, when they could have just driven there, watched the TV and sat back in their safe, self-driving car.
Politicians are so focused on doing the sexy things that will get them re-elected, instead of doing the hard dirty work of protecting us and keeping us safe.
Forestry is not sexy. Water pressure, retention and availability are not sexy.
Spending millions of dollars on helicopters and firefighting equipment in case something happens isn’t sexy.
But politicians need to put their egos aside and focus on the things that actually help save us in times of need.
I try to do my part.
I donated $100,000 today to the Los Angeles Fire Department and Police Department, largely in an effort to bring some attention to the need to fund them more.
This weekend I called out landlords who were trying to profit from the bushfires by illegally raising rents.
Mayor Karen Bass cut nearly $18 million from the LAFD budget last year
Jason has called out politicians for being ‘too focused on doing the sexy things that will get them re-elected’
They take advantage of the fires and their victims by raising their prices online.
Certainly, landlords have had a tough time in recent years. Often they cannot even cover the costs. But this is not the time to try to take advantage of a situation and take advantage of the 92,000 people who are displaced and facing the worst of it.
So many people have been affected and have lost not only their childhood home, but decades of memories.
Paris Hilton lost her home where she raised her two young children. Bella and Gigi Hadid lost their family home, and Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt lost their home and all their belongings.
Now it should be about giving back: at least offering your property at no more than its market value before these fires.
There may be people who are unknowingly breaking the law, but at this point they should know this: There is currently an emergency order in place that limits the increase in rental prices above 10% of pre-disaster market value.
A number of celebrities have lost their homes, including Paris Hilton, whose Malibu home burned down last week
Candy Spelling’s $24 million home on Malibu’s Pacific Coast Highway was lost in the wildfires
I believe agents have a responsibility to not enable landlords to act in this way and I have sent an email directive to all my agents to clarify our responsibilities.
I also sent a letter to the governor’s office and the mayor explaining some of the things we can do to help the victims of these fires.
In addition to cracking down on price gouging, the state can offer rental properties online and make them available to everyone. That will eliminate the ability of real estate agents to hide properties from the public, known in the industry as “pocket listings.”
Finally, some people who have lost their homes will choose to rebuild the home, but many will end up selling it to developers. I hope they get fair prices for their land, maybe the government can play a role in that too.
These people have suffered enough, and we must do what we can to ensure as real estate agents, and as a community, that they get the right value for their land.
Jason urges politicians to put their egos aside and focus on the things that actually help us in times of need
There are things we can do to speed up development, to make things easier for those who choose to rebuild. We owe it to them.
I’ll close with this: Despite all this tragedy and heartbreak, I am hopeful for the future.
Houses are rebuilt better. Firefighting technology and awareness will improve. Los Angeles will rise reborn from the ashes, but I am not aware of the challenge.
It will take five to seven years to rebuild the Palisades. It will take a tremendous amount of hard work – and the real estate community needs to be part of it.