Governor Gavin Newsom, along with Dodger’s co-owner Earvin “Magic” Johnson, were in Altadena Tuesday to launch L.A. Rises, an initiative aimed at helping victims and businesses that lost everything in the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires.
With hope the foremost theme of Newsom’s message, as he called on both civic leaders and leaders in the private sector to come together to help rebuild fire ravaged areas of L.A., Johnson announced that Dodger’s owner Mike Walter, the Walter Family Foundation and the Dodgers Foundation will contribute $100 million to wildfire recovery and rebuilding efforts.
“My focus is Altadena because those people may be left behind and I want to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Johnson said at the podium.
While news of the recovery initiative and funds pledged sounds encouraging, some Altadena residents, like Samera Arkel, hope some of that money does in fact make it into the once tight-knit, multi-generational community of Altadena.
“Not only have we just lost our house, but we also lost a lot of our work,’ Arkel explained. “There’s a lot of jobs that were lost and that part is hard.”
Arkel, like many other families in the community, has lived there for generations and says it’s important that victims of the wildfires receive financial help.
“It would be nice,” she said. “I would like to see a lot of that come to our area too. We’ll know when we start seeing people getting help. It’s a waiting game. It is tiring. The unknown is what’s so scary.”
As for Gov. Newsom, he believes the L.A. Rises initiative can be a step toward those impacted by the wildfire feeling less helpless.
“I know people feel helpless at the loss of community, the loss of identity, self, place, traditions, lifestyles – all of that. We cannot give way to hopelessness,” he said.
For many homeowners, however, they say the reality is that there is a lot of red tape to deal with, a lot of standing in long lines and while they are hopeful, they are also frustrated.
