{"id":2650509,"date":"2026-08-27T12:37:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignaltadenas-post-fire-rebuild-proves-you-can-have-woke-or-effective-leaders-but-not-both\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T12:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:43:32","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignaltadenas-post-fire-rebuild-proves-you-can-have-woke-or-effective-leaders-but-not-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignaltadenas-post-fire-rebuild-proves-you-can-have-woke-or-effective-leaders-but-not-both\/","title":{"rendered":"Altadena Is Rebuilding Pretty Quickly, But An Unusual Elected Official Can Tell You What&#8217;s Still Slowing It Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignaltadenas-post-fire-rebuild-proves-you-can-have-woke-or-effective-leaders-but-not-both%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2650509&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article highlights the resilience and recovery efforts in Altadena, California, after a devastating fire in January 2025 that destroyed around 6,000 homes.Altadena, a hillside community characterized by long-standing families and older homes, is rebuilding faster than some neighboring areas, thanks largely to proactive leadership from Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the last Republican in LA County&#8217;s major local governments. Barger has pushed for streamlined rebuilding processes, including pilot programs allowing self-certification and AI-based plan reviews, which have <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >considerably reduced permit approval times<\/a> from months to about thirty days. She also credits federal intervention, notably President Trump\u2019s directives and support from the Army Corps of Engineers, for accelerating recovery.<\/p>\n<p>However, Barger addresses ongoing political challenges, especially delays in insurance payouts, which hamper homeowners&#8217; ability to rebuild. She criticizes California\u2019s Department of Insurance and its elected commissioner for inadequate oversight and enforcement. The article also discusses broader issues like California&#8217;s housing laws, which are encouraging higher density developments that are sparking controversy in Altadena, especially with legislative efforts to exempt the neighborhood from thes laws temporarily.<\/p>\n<p>Barger\u2019s leadership exemplifies a pragmatic approach to crisis recovery, contrasting with the political could be characterized as ineffective or performative by critics. Her efforts aim to preserve altadena\u2019s community fabric while navigating complex regulatory and political landscapes.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>This is why you can\u2019t give up on politics.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Like Pacific Palisades, the unincorporated Los Angeles County community of Altadena is a hillside enclave that never quite became what the rest of metropolitan Los Angeles has been turning into. In a sprawling landscape of transplants from elsewhere, it was a <em>place<\/em>: full of families, and even full of families that have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/dispatch\/will-las-fires-permanently-disperse-the-black-families-of-altadena\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">been here for decades<\/a>. Whole neighborhoods were made up of remarkably pleasant older homes, in a county full of those apartment buildings that look like industrial boxes for people. When Altadena burned in January of 2025, destroying <a href=\"https:\/\/localnewspasadena.com\/2025\/sorting-truth-from-ashes-in-the-aftermath-of-the-eaton-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">about 6,000 homes<\/a> in the community and damaging many others, a <em>lot<\/em> of history was lost.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lost Splendor Remembering The 1887 Andrew Mcnally Estate\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7dyRrsGbyLU?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Altadena is rebuilding faster than the Palisades, and just passed the 50 percent mark for rebuilding permits, though it has the same checkerboard pattern: whole lines of houses being built in a row, interspersed with whole lines of vacant lots where nothing is happening. The rebuilding and the empty spaces blend together.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>But it could be much worse, and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/08\/20\/theres-no-easy-story-to-tell-about-wildfire-recovery-in-karen-bass-era-los-angeles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">is worse<\/a> in other places. The rebuilding in Altadena is being <em>driven<\/em> forward, herded by an elected official who sees the moment as a chance for government to do better.<\/p>\n<p>Her name is <a href=\"https:\/\/kathrynbarger.lacounty.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kathryn Barger<\/a>, and she\u2019s a unicorn: While the 15-member Los Angeles City Council has no Republicans at all and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-05-20\/la-democratic-socialists-look-to-boost-their-clout-in-city-hall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">growing DSA presence<\/a>, and the five-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has four <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LindseyPHorvath\/status\/1669877331090112515\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">performance-art leftists<\/a> who don\u2019t seem to be the sharpest little knives in the drawer, Barger is LA\u2019s very last Republican in the county\u2019s two biggest local governments.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Lamb, who has lived in Altadena since 1957, lost his home of thirty-eight years in the fire. Watching the recovery, and struggling to build while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.claimsjournal.com\/news\/national\/2026\/08\/12\/339453.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">litigation<\/a> drags on and he waits for funding, he credits Barger for <em>pushing<\/em>. Altadena is rebuilding faster than other communities, he told The Federalist, entirely because of \u201cSupervisor Barger\u2019s hands-on, take-no-prisoners personality working to force the bureaucrats to do something approaching the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barger is known for speaking carefully, and she gently declined an invitation to blame county bureaucrats for any form of slowness. But she answered The Federalist\u2019s question about her role in pushing for faster recovery this way, which is close enough: \u201cThat\u2019s my job. I made a commitment that the survivors didn\u2019t have to fight the bureaucracy to rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of the fire, the county has introduced a pilot program that allows homeowners and their architects to <a href=\"https:\/\/recovery.lacounty.gov\/rebuilding\/self-certification\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">self-certify their building plans<\/a>, declaring as they submit them that they comply with county codes. The county is also using a <a href=\"https:\/\/recovery.lacounty.gov\/la-county-echeck\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pilot program called eCheck<\/a>, an AI-centered review of building plans. With those changes, and a local one-stop permitting center in Altadena, county building and permitting processes have shrunk from six to nine months to something closer to thirty days.<\/p>\n<p>Barger sees a chance to turn those new processes created in response to an emergency into the new normal, making local government faster permanently and for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Like homeowners in the Palisades, Barger credits the Trump administration with listening and taking action. When the president heard how long it would take to clear burned-out properties, she told The Federalist, he ordered the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.army.mil\/article\/289056\/u_s_army_corps_of_engineers_reflects_on_record_breaking_wildfire_debris_mission\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Army Corps of Engineers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/newsreleases\/epas-eaton-fire-soil-sampling-confirms-federal-cleanup-protocols-effectively\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the EPA<\/a> to add resources and move faster, and dramatically accelerated the speed of the first phase of the recovery.  <\/p>\n<p>But Barger was unusually blunt about a problem that continues to plague the recovery, and it\u2019s distinctly political. The biggest roadblock to rebuilding now is delays in insurance payments, and Barger told horror stories about the insurance claim process. Twenty months after the fire, people don\u2019t have the money they need to rebuild, and some insurers seem to be trying to manipulate homeowners into a state of desperation that might convince them to take smaller payouts. Some of the worst insurers, Barger told The Federalist, are treating the people they insured \u201clike the companies are doing them a favor\u201d rather than meeting a contractual obligation.<\/p>\n<p>This is where the political failure arrives: The California Department of Insurance, Barger says, \u201cshould be ashamed of themselves.\u201d With thousands of homes destroyed, and people fighting with their insurers all over the fire zones, insurance regulators are \u201cnot enforcing, in my opinion, what they need to be enforcing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>California had an appointed insurance commissioner until 1988, when a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1988_California_Proposition_103\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ballot measure<\/a> made it an elected position. So the state now gets a Democrat to regulate insurance, and Californians have been liberated from the burdens of knowledge. The current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurance.ca.gov\/0500-about-us\/01-commissioner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">insurance commissioner<\/a> is proud that he was raised by immigrants, and he\u2019s <em>really<\/em> proud that he\u2019s\u00a0\u201cthe first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michigan-ag-calls-for-drag-queens-in-every-school\/\" title=\"Michigan AG Calls for Drag Queens in Every School\">openly gay person elected<\/a> to statewide office in California\u2019s history.\u201d Ricardo Lara has a degree in journalism and Chicano studies, but no professional background of any kind in insurance. Also, infamously, he\u2019s quite fond of <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/KniOA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lavish foreign travel<\/a>, and seems to drop by his state office mostly as a visitor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you politicize an office like this,\u201d Barger told The Federalist, \u201cthis is what you get.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite President Trump\u2019s intervention, Barger added, FEMA and <a href=\"https:\/\/kathrynbarger.lacounty.gov\/supervisor-kathryn-barger-urges-eaton-fire-survivors-to-take-advantage-of-final-sba-disaster-loan-extension\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SBA<\/a> funding remains plagued by red tape, slow execution, and rules that limit the usefulness of federal aid.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, a growing controversy in Altadena is a rebuilding process that\u2019s turning burned-out single-family homes into high-density housing.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>That\u2019s not a county choice, as Barger notes. The California legislature has embarked on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.org\/article\/2026\/08\/24\/california-has-passed-hundreds-of-housing-laws-why-arent-they-working\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">density crusade<\/a>, and state laws encourage developers to cram in more boxes: \u201cSacramento sneezes, we get a cold,\u201d Barger told The Federalist.\u00a0But <a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/CA\/text\/SB1090\/2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pending legislation<\/a> may exempt Altadena from the state\u2019s housing density laws for a few years, <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/housing\/2026\/07\/altadena-sb9-perez-sb1090\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prompting a predictable outcry<\/a> from activists.<\/p>\n<p>The post-recovery future will echo changes that were already underway before Altadena burned. Housing prices were rising, and families were already being priced out. But Barger sees families that have deep roots in the community choosing to rebuild. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to resemble the Altadena pre-fire,\u201d she told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>If it does, she will have played a significant role in that outcome. In a place where politicians mostly live for <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LindseyPHorvath\/status\/1650587256334467072\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dimwitted theater-kid woke performance<\/a>, that kind of behavior is extremely rare. You can vote for a Ricardo Lara government, or you can vote for a Kathryn Barger government. Californians mostly keep choosing the one that doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Chris Bray is a senior correspondent at The Federalist and a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at &#8220;Tell Me How This Ends,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/chrisbray.substack.com\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Altadena\u2019s recovery shows politics can make a difference<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":2650510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_1613-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[84764,43924,3902,37990],"class_list":["post-2650509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-altadena","tag-community-development","tag-infrastructure","tag-local-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_1613-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2650509"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2650513,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650509\/revisions\/2650513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2650510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2650509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2650509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2650509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}