One might think that the best advertisement for a presidential candidate would be a record of past success. But not Newsom: he seems to think he can continue to fight the national culture war without doing his actual job at home.
Here are eight items that need his immediate attention:
1. Make a debris deal. There is not enough landfill space in the L.A. area to accommodate the millions of tons of concrete, steel, and other debris that must be removed from the thousands of burned lots in the Palisades Fire and the Eaton fire. Newsom should immediately engage with Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) to arrange for the debris to be deposited there, and work with trucking and rail companies to make sure it can be transported cheaply and safely.
2. Fix the traffic problem. The daily lines of trucks and cars to enter the Pacific Palisades are a huge drag on debris removal and rebuilding. Residents and contractors must sometimes wait for an hour at the only two portals to Palisades, on the Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) and Sunset Boulevard. Both checkpoints are run by California National Guard personnel, who often stop vehicles to check ID (which, ironically, the state won’t do at voting booths).
In a state that is the world’s leader in high-tech innovation, there must be a better way. The governor should separate residential traffic and vehicle traffic, and have the Guard install QR codes or license plate readers to speed up traffic.
3. Clean the beaches and build a pier. The sheer volume of materials entering and leaving the Pacific Palisades is too great for existing roads to handle. Newsom should use state authority to clean up the beaches — now polluted by fire runoff — and should have a pier built, perhaps near the site of the former Long Wharf, to allow the swift import of construction materials. The pier can be dismantled after the rebuilding is done, but the rebuilding needs to begin.
4. Reform insurance. California’s insurance rules are forcing insurers to leave the state or drop policyholders. Many were dropped in the weeks or even days before the fire. The state needs to change its rules and regulations to allow a healthy insurance market to flourish. Moreover, homeowners who lost their insurance, through no fault of their own, need to be made whole. The governor should tap into the state’s rainy day fund to help in this emergency.
Moreover, he needs to intervene, where Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has failed, to push major insurance companies (notably State Farm) to give homeowners 100% coverage for personal property losses due to the fires.
5. Drop the anti-Trump lawsuits. While begging the Trump administration and Congress for $40 billion in federal funds, Newsom signed $50 million in spending on lawsuits to fight the administration’s new policies and to provide legal defenses for illegal aliens. His stance is not just a waste of money, but also generates resentment in the administration, meaning that California residents are less likely to receive help. Newsom needs to be cooperative.
6. Release the texts and emails. California residents deserve to know what happened to make the L.A. fires the massive disaster that they became. But L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has deleted her text messages, and now the governor is refusing to release his texts and emails with L.A. and Los Angeles County. In the interest of transparency, and to help Californians avoid future disasters, Newsom needs to come clean and release all of his communications about the fire.
7. Improve the water, forestry, and emergency services. It is inexcusable that, after more than six years in office, Newsom has not managed to build any new water storage (despite funding for the Sites Reservoir). Moreover, he has failed to clear brush from forested areas, and the coordination among emergency services in L.A. is dismal. He should not wait until the next disaster; he needs to spend every moment making sure California is ready for it.
8. Declare a moratorium on tax increases. Some long-time homeowners in Pacific Palisades and especially in Altadena, who may have bought their homes decades ago, fear that they will face much higher property taxes because their land — even with ruined homes — is worth much more today. Newsom should guarantee that the only tax reassessments will be for those whose property has lost value — not those who will face higher bills on new valuations.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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