Pacific Palisades neighborhoods have been closed to the general public for months after a January firestorm devastated the neighborhood, however since its latest reopening, there have been sightings of a brand new, disturbing customer within the neighborhood: catastrophe vacationers. Busloads of them.
“My workplace and others have acquired quite a few experiences about business tour operators conducting catastrophe excursions within the Pacific Palisades,” Los Angeles Metropolis Councilmember Traci Park mentioned at a council assembly this week. “They’re seeking to revenue off of destruction and different folks’s losses. It’s actually gross and it must be stopped.”
In a bid to cease the pattern from changing into routine at any time when catastrophe strikes the realm, the Metropolis Council unanimously authorized limiting “catastrophe tourism” buses from the Palisades fireplace zone and any catastrophe zone.
On Jan. 7, the Palisades fireplace tore by way of Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas, destroying greater than 6,000 buildings, lots of them properties, and leaving 12 folks useless. Though officers vowed to have a speedy restoration, the rebuilding course of for the worst catastrophe within the metropolis’s historical past has been difficult — and sluggish.
Park mentioned the tour buses weren’t solely unsettling but in addition doubtlessly distracting and dangerous for crews persevering with to work within the space.
“It’s additionally … harmful as a result of we’re nonetheless actively clearing fireplace particles,” she mentioned.
Because of the vote on Park’s movement, town’s Division of Transportation will limit tour buses from any space declared a part of a pure catastrophe emergency, and the ban will final by way of the length of the emergency response.
The movement additionally known as on the division to contemplate everlasting tour bus restrictions in sure areas of the Palisades as soon as the emergency expires, given the Palisades’ slender, winding and steep streets — doubtlessly unsuitable for big buses even earlier than the hearth.
