Across the Palisades, rebuilding is becoming visible.
Construction crews are drilling foundations, framing new homes and preparing empty lots for reconstruction. Some schools, businesses and restaurants have reopened.
But for many residents, recovery still feels uneven and far from complete.
Some homeowners say they are navigating rebuilding delays, ongoing infrastructure concerns and financial uncertainty tied to insurance gaps and rebuilding costs. Others, including residents of fire-damaged mobile home parks, remained displaced and unsure whether they will ever be able to return.
“Our town was destroyed, and we’re a long way off from being whole again,” said Tom Doran, whose family is rebuilding in the Palisades.
More than 16 months after the disaster, Los Angeles leaders are pushing new wildfire preparedness measures while seeking additional recovery and infrastructure funding. But interviews with residents, city officials and firefighters suggest major vulnerabilities remain unresolved — from rebuilding delays and water system concerns to whether the city has enough firefighters, equipment and emergency resources to handle the next major wildfire.
Doran said construction is moving forward in his neighborhood, but the process has been slower and more complicated than many expected. He said a new Los Angeles Department of Power and Water requirement involving retaining walls and existing power poles delayed his family’s plan check process by about a month.
“It feels like it’s dragging on,” Doran said.
He also pointed to broader concerns about the still-offline Santa Ynez Reservoir, aging water infrastructure, torn-up roads, schools and churches that remain closed or damaged, and a business district that has not fully returned.
The reservoir, which stores drinking water for Pacific Palisades and has a reported capacity of 117 million gallons, was empty during the Jan. 7 fire and was later drained again for ongoing repair work.
“The infrastructure has not been upgraded or even brought back to what it was,” Doran said. “There doesn’t seem to be a priority in getting this town back whole.”
Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, said in an interview Friday that those concerns are valid.
She confirmed that a replacement cover for the Santa Ynez Reservoir is expected to be installed this fall, while a permanent long-term fix could still take years.
“My goal always is to speed up the timelines, particularly for the water infrastructure. We all share those concerns,” Park said. “As we rebuild the Palisades, upgrading and expanding our water reserves and distribution systems are part of our planning.”
She said the city has also maintained interim backup measures, including an alternative water supply line serving the Palisades while the reservoir remains offline.
Doran said some residents remain confused about the status of the city’s wildfire rebuilding permit fee waiver program, which the City Council backed earlier this year after months of debate over how broadly the city should subsidize rebuilding costs for residents affected by the fire.
Park said that the ordinance implementing the fee waivers has already been submitted and is expected to return to the City Council for final approval. She said residents who paid fees before the waiver took effect are expected to receive refunds.
Park said rebuilding efforts are continuing across the area, including hillside stabilization projects, water system upgrades and plans to underground power lines.
“There is still much assistance that is needed from the state and the federal government,” she said.
For residents of some mobile home communities in the Palisades, an even more fundamental question remains: whether there will be a community to return to at all.
Beverly Narayan, who lived in the Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates before the fire, said residents are still waiting for answers as the property owner seeks to sell the land. Residents have formed a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation and are pursuing legal help as they argue their tenancy rights to the lots were never legally terminated.
“We’re still in limbo,” she said.
Narayan said many residents want to return to the park, which was formerly home to 173 mobile residences, but do not have control over whether rebuilding happens. Unlike homeowners who own their lots, mobile home residents owned their homes but leased the land beneath them.
“A mobile home park isn’t just a commercial enterprise,” she said. “It’s residential living.”
She said many residents invested heavily in their homes and cannot simply relocate or rent another property elsewhere.
“You can’t just up and go rent another mobile home,” Narayan said. “That’s not how it works.”
She said the emotional toll of the fire often resurfaces unexpectedly in everyday moments.
Sometimes, Narayan said, she will see an item in a store or a vintage concert T-shirt that reminds her of belongings destroyed in the fire.
“Just recently, I saw something in the store, and I went, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got that too.’ And, ‘Oh. No, I don’t. I don’t have that anymore,” she said. “It’s like a paper cut.”
As residents continue navigating recovery, City Hall is also debating what wildfire preparedness should look like before future fire seasons.
This week, the City Council advanced a series of recommendations tied to Red Flag warning conditions, including requests for reports on stronger emergency protocols, towing coordination, temporary construction halts during extreme fire weather and additional staffing and resource needs in high-risk fire zones.
Councilmember Nithya Raman, who introduced the original motion shortly after the January 2025 fires alongside Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky and Ysabel Jurado, said the recommendations were intended to address gaps exposed during the disaster.
“The January 2025 fires made something undeniable: our preparedness systems were not built for the conditions we now face,” Raman said in a statement Friday, “This motion changes that. What the Council approved closes real gaps of citywide coordination protocols.”
But one recommendation involving potential restrictions on outdoor barbecues and fire pits during Red Flag warnings drew pushback from Councilmember Monica Rodriguez and was ultimately removed from the package.
Rodriguez argued the city should focus more heavily on risks such as brush clearance, illegal fireworks and encampment fires rather than what she described as overreach into family gatherings.
“A backyard barbecue is not the biggest threat to our hillsides,” Rodriguez said in an interview Thursday.
She called that portion of the proposal “a solution in search of a problem,” while emphasizing that she supports stronger wildfire preparedness overall.
Park, while supporting stronger wildfire preparedness measures overall, said aging infrastructure concerns her more than “responsible backyard barbecues.”
“I worry far more about old, outdated, faulty infrastructure,” she said.
The debate comes as city leaders and firefighters continue warning that long-term preparedness will require more staffing, equipment and funding.
Asked whether Los Angeles is materially better prepared for a major wildfire today than before the Palisades fire, Park answered bluntly: “No.”
Park said the city has not added new firefighters, stations or equipment since the fires erupted last January and warned that emergency resources remain dangerously strained despite changes made after the department’s after-action review.
“While I’m pleased that the department has begun implementing many of the recommendations that came from the after-action report, it is a drop in the bucket for what is necessary to adequately secure our city and prevent something like this from happening again,” Park said.
United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, the labor union representing LAFD firefighters and paramedics, expressed similar concerns.
“Los Angeles is not substantially more prepared for a major wildfire today than we were in January of 2025,” UFLAC President Doug Coates said in emailed responses Thursday.
Coates said the city still faces major staffing and equipment shortages. He noted that LAFD now has roughly the same number of firefighters it had in the 1960s despite handling five times the emergency call volume. The department is also operating with fewer positions than before the Palisades fire after 42 Emergency Incident Technician Firefighter positions were eliminated in last year’s budget cycle, he added.
“We have essentially the same number of broken down fire trucks, engines, and ambulances as we had leading up to the Palisades Fire,” Coates said. “None of this is sustainable.”
UFLAC this week submitted more than 225,000 petition signatures for a proposed half-cent sales tax measure for the November ballot that would fund additional firefighters and paramedics, new fire stations and upgraded equipment.
“With an expanded department, we will be able to cover more territory, pre-deploy more effectively, and arrive to emergencies faster which is essential when just a few seconds can mean the difference between life and death,” Coates said.
Park also voiced support for the proposal, saying the city’s current budget “does not go anywhere near where we need to be to have an adequate fire department for a city of 4 million people.”
“We are not going to solve this crisis inside the four walls of our city’s budget,” she said. “And I do not take going to taxpayers lightly, but the cost of doing nothing is incalculable, and it is a risk that I am not willing to take.”
Mayor Karen Bass has also pointed to the proposed ballot measure as a way to expand fire resources beyond what the city can afford.
During an April briefing on her proposed budget for the 26-27 fiscal year, Bass defended the city’s current fire spending levels while acknowledging additional resources are still needed.
“The fire department is adequately funded for any emergency that would happen,” Bass said in response to a question from this outlet. “ We obviously need more.”
Bass pointed to growing development and homelessness-related fire calls as areas driving additional demand on fire service.
She also noted the city’s push to secure additional FEMA reimbursement tied to the Palisades fire recovery.
The proposed budget now before the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee allocates funding for 43 replacement fleet vehicles, including fire engines, ladder trucks, ambulances and a new helicopter, according to the mayor’s office.
The Mayor’s Office disputed suggestions that Los Angeles is no better prepared today than before the January 2025 fires.
In a statement Friday, the Mayor’s Office pointed to increased LAFD funding under Bass’ previous budgets, new leadership and predeployment protocol changes within the department, and the mayor’s efforts to secure additional recovery support from Sacramento and Washington.
The Office also highlighted the city’s upcoming Pacific Palisades Long-Term Recovery Plan, which is intended to guide rebuilding and infrastructure efforts over the next several years.
But more than a year after the fire, Narayan said many residents are still trying to preserve not only their homes, but also the sense of community they lost.
“Sometimes it seems like it’s harder this year than it was last year,” she said.