What to do know about Santa Ana winds, tree limbs and firescaping

• January 18, 2025

In the wake of our recent catastrophic fires, much can be written about the value of firescaping and its principles and I will get to that subject in a moment, but first let me say a few words about tree maintenance. The Santa Ana winds that spread the fires with lightning speed blew with hurricane force. Although nothing can compare to the property damage — much less loss of life — caused by the wind-driven fires, it’s worth taking a moment to discuss tree damage not only from the recent Santa Anas, but from strong winds in general.

On my own block, a massive limb of a carob tree broke off on the Santa Anas’ account and I was given the opportunity to examine it up close. If you see the massive branch of a tree that broke off in your neighborhood, perhaps you ask yourself the question: “There are plenty of big, thick tree branches up and down my street, so why did only this one break off?” The answer, more likely than not, is that the tree in question was improperly pruned. Where pruning cuts in a tree are improperly made, these cuts cannot properly heal and present an open invitation to pathogenic fungi. Once fungal spores get into an open wound where a faulty pruning cut was made, the interior of that branch could rot, weakening its attachment to the tree. In the particular case of the carob tree on my street, I noticed a poorly healed cut from a large branch that had been lopped off close to where the broken limb had been attached to the trunk.

It is also true, however, that leguminous trees such as carob have a tendency for limbs to die back for no apparent reason, but this tendency will only be exacerbated by improper pruning. The most popular leguminous tree known for dying back is mimosa or silk tree (Albizia julibrissin). It is famous for its rapid growth into a perfect umbrella form but, within a decade or less, branches will start dying back. From my experience, pruning it will only hasten its decline since it seems to have a weak immune system and pruning cuts are slow to heal, if they ever do.

The coral tree (Erythrina caffra) is a leguminous species that is particularly hazardous. Each time I drive down San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood, whose median is planted with coral trees, I am reminded of this tree’s fragility. Don’t get me wrong: the coral tree is a magnificent, muscular-limbed species that loses its leaves in the winter and then, still in leafless condition, produces a breathtaking blanket of fiery orange flowers. The only problem with the coral tree is that it simply cannot support its own weight and must be pruned at least once a year. The best time to do this would be in March or April, following bloom so as not to sacrifice flower production, but the moment your coral tree looks top heavy, you should prune it, no matter what the season, even if that means pruning every six months.

I have seen many fallen or split-apart coral trees over the years, despite their having been pruned on an annual basis. If you look at the more mature coral trees on San Vicente Boulevard, you will notice that many of the trunks show scars where large branches have broken off. Because of their top-heaviness and brittle wood, coral trees don’t live long. Nevertheless, each time a coral tree on San Vicente Boulevard dies, it is replaced with another. Some would argue that a different, sturdier type of tree should be planted instead. Yet so beloved are the Brentwood coral trees by the surrounding residents that it has been written into the city’s specific plan that “no major alteration of the (San Vicente Boulevard) median strip shall occur without a public hearing.”

So how do you identity a successful pruning cut? It’s quite easy since such a cut produces wound wood, a raised layer of callus tissue around the cut. This tissue effectively seals off the wound from entrance of pathogenic organisms. As I walked down my street and examined the pruning cuts on various trees, most of them were without wound wood. When a cut is made flush with a trunk or any large branch, no wound wood can form.  Incidentally, the practice of coating pruning cuts with a tar-like gooey substance has been discredited since it can trap moisture on the cut surface, prevent healing, and encourage decay.

Now for the tragic fires and what could be done to prevent them. The regulations we are obligated to follow, unfortunately, are woefully inadequate when it comes to preventing a fire from engulfing our homes. For residents of Los Angeles County, at least, there is a legal mandate to maintain defensible space — the area around a structure which must meet certain brush clearance and landscape or firescape specifications — of only 200 feet. For a full list of defensible space action items, search “LA County defensible space.” However, when there are 80 mph winds whipping up a blaze, a 200-foot measure of clearance means nothing.

There actually is a solution to wide scale brush clearance and no army of weed whackers or mechanical equipment of any kind would be needed to get the job done. I am talking about goats. Michael Choi and his family own and operate Fire Grazers Incorporated. They started with a herd of 50 that has expanded to 1,000 goats. “We have more business than we can handle,” Choi told me. When I asked if goats’ grazing could have stopped our recent fires from causing so much damage, he replied, “The goats could at least have cleared enough brush to grant more time between the start of the fire and arrival of firefighters.” To learn more about Choi’s services, go to goatsrock.com.

California native of the week: Wright’s beebrush or Oreganillo (Aloysia wrightii) is an evergreen to semi-deciduous shrub that grows in desert to woodland habitats to a height and girth of six feet.  It is covered with short, white flower spikes that attract birds and solitary bees from late summer into fall. Roundish in form, Its oval leaves, less than an inch long, are used as an oregano substitute.  Lemon verbena (Aloysia tryphilla) is a non-native relative, available in your nursery’s herb section, that is prized for its leaves’ unmatched lemon fragrance. Oreganillo is highly aromatic too and would make a wonderful addition to an herb, drought tolerant, aromatic, or native plant garden but, unfortunately, is not widely available in the nursery trade. If anyone knows of a source for this plant or its seeds, please advise.

Are there any winter-blooming plants you would like more people to know about? If so, tell me about them in an email to [email protected]. Your questions, comments, gardening conundrums and successes are always welcome.

​ Orange County Register 

Pacific Palisades evacuation order came after homes were already burning, AP finds

• January 18, 2025

By REBECCA BOONE, GENE JOHNSON, CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER, CLAUDIA LAUER and AMY TAXIN

The first evacuation order covering neighborhoods closest to the start of the devastating Pacific Palisades wildfire didn’t come until about 40 minutes after some of those homes were already burning, according to an Associated Press analysis of emergency communications and interviews with survivors.

The wildfire, which would become one of the most destructive in California history, was spreading rapidly in ornamental plantings and burning homes by 11:27 a.m. on Jan. 7, recordings of scanner traffic reveal. So many people fled on their own, as wind-whipped flames raced over the nearby hills, that by the time officials issued the order to evacuate at 12:07 p.m., traffic was gridlocked.

Authorities would eventually urge people to exit their cars and leave on foot, and then used a bulldozer to clear away abandoned vehicles and make way for fire crews.

Despite the timing of the order, nearly all the residents of Pacific Palisades made it to safety — a relief that some attributed to the hyper-awareness of fire danger in a region frequently scarred by it, the efforts of first responders, the initiative that many took to evacuate on their own, and the fact that the fire broke out in broad daylight, when those nearby were awake to notice it.

Relying on other alert systems

The time lag is one of several issues that may have complicated the fire response. With the severe winds preventing aerial firefighting, water hydrants ran dry amid unprecedented demand. A reservoir near Pacific Palisades was empty because it needed repairs. Top Los Angeles Fire Department commanders decided not to deploy roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

It also could undermine public confidence in public alert systems, which were beset with erroneous or outdated notifications later in the week. Many residents have instead been relying on Watch Duty, a nonprofit app that provides real-time updates on wildfire activity, evacuations and shelters.

The fire annihilated much of the Palisades, an affluent Los Angeles community tucked into the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, and killed at least 10 people. That evening another fire erupted and destroyed much of Altadena, leaving at least 17 people dead. More than 80,000 people are still under evacuation orders, and many do not know what, if anything, is left of their houses, apartments and possessions. A monumental firefighting effort continues.

Deciding to evacuate on their own

Darrin Hurwitz and his wife, alarmed by the astonishing speed of the flames in the nearby hills, left their home more than an hour before his phone buzzed with the evacuation order. Their house, at the end of a cul-de-sac bordering Topanga State Park, burned down.

“This would have been a different situation if it had been in the middle of the night,” Hurwitz said. “If it had taken 30 to 45 minutes to get our phones buzzing, it would have been a potentially big issue.”

Los Angeles city fire and emergency management officials declined to immediately address questions related to the timing of the evacuation order. Spokesperson Karla Tovar said in an email that the fire department is focusing its resources on responding to the disaster.

In a statement, the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management noted that officials had issued preemptive warnings about severe fire weather, notified residents of the wildfire and urged them to be prepared to evacuate and to follow instructions from emergency personnel in the field.

“These alerts were sent as timely as possible and were intended to wake up people if they were sleeping or draw their attention to the fire so that they could determine their level of risk, take necessary action, and be ready for the next communication,” the statement said.

Crews began responding to the Eaton fire, which leveled Altadena, at 6:25 p.m. By 6:57, air support recommended evacuating an area near a golf course. That order went out to residents just 15 minutes later.

By contrast, officials were discussing preparations for evacuating Pacific Palisades over an hour before the order went out.

The fire breaks out

On Jan. 6, the day before fires raging around LA destroyed much of the Palisades and Altadena, the National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning alerting the public to severe fire danger as the region’s Santa Ana winds were forecast to reach up to 100 mph (161 kph). Los Angeles emergency management officials warned of a “destructive, widespread and potentially life-threatening windstorm starting Tuesday morning.”

Pacific Palisades resident Robert Trinkkeller, a 68-year-old mortgage broker, said he spotted the fire from his home at 10:27 a.m. on Jan. 7 — it was in the same area where one had burned on New Year’s Day — and immediately called 911. After being put on hold, he called the local fire department on Sunset Boulevard, and the person who answered hadn’t yet heard about the fire. That was at 10:29, he said.

Trinkkeller had long prepared to defend his property from any blazes, so he got out his fire suit and hoses. Three times his home caught fire, but he saved it, relying on buckets of pool water once the water to the hose ran out. The wind ripped the roof off his patio.

“It was moving pretty quickly, and I knew it was going to be bad, but it’s about 1,000 times worse than anything I could have imagined,” he said.

‘We need to go’

Hurwitz noticed the fire shortly after Trinkkeller did. He and his wife quickly gathered some personal items — including their children’s artwork — and their dog and hamster. “We need to go,” he recalled telling her.

By 11:03 they were out the door. They headed to a hillside vantage point where they could see all the way to the sea. His wife drove to meet their daughters, who had been picked up from school by another family. Hurwitz returned once to the house to grab a few more things and then remained at the vantage point until he saw huge flames cresting the ridge near the home.

He drove a short distance down the road and stopped again at a spot where a news crew was filming. He and the reporters got the evacuation order simultaneously, and he quickly drove on back roads to a recreation center, where he reunited with his family.

That there were so few casualties was a testament to many people, including first responders and individual residents, taking action on their own, he said.

“I have concerns it took as long as it did to issue an evacuation order,” Hurwitz said. “It seemed clear to me by 10:45 that this fire posed an imminent danger to the entire Palisades.”

Warning residents to be ready as homes are threatened

Recordings of scanner traffic provided by Broadcastify, a company that monitors emergency communications, show that just before 11 a.m. — half an hour after the fire was reported — firefighters were trying to defend homes in the large Highlands neighborhood of the Palisades, and within 10 minutes, crews to the south were requesting help to protect more than a dozen homes along Floresta Drive.

At 11:02, Los Angeles police units were told to respond to a fire station on Sunset Boulevard to prepare for evacuations, and at 11:12, a wireless emergency alert warned Palisades residents to be ready to evacuate. It would be close to another hour before the first evacuation order went out to those residents.

By 11:27, homes were burning on Lachman Lane.

“We have several homes burning,” one request noted at 11:33. “All the ornamental vegetation has taken off.”

Experience with fires — and traffic jams

The Palisades, including the Highlands, had prior experience with wildfire evacuations — and ensuing traffic jams. Just two paved roads connect the Highlands to the rest of Los Angeles, the four-lane Palisades Drive and a narrow, two-lane road named Fire Drive. The latter is an emergency route, but it was quickly overrun with flames on Jan. 7, residents said.

In 2020, the Pacific Palisades Community Council wrote to Los Angeles City Council members complaining that in recent wildfire evacuations, traffic backups endangered the public. Residents raised the issue again after seeing images from the 2023 fire that destroyed Lahaina, in Hawaii, where flames overtook gridlocked cars and 102 people died.

It happened again last week. As people evacuated even before an official order, cars became stuck in traffic shortly after 11:30 a.m. At 1:09 p.m., a panicked police officer radioed that there was a car burning on Palisades Drive: “We need to evacuate all the cars. Get drivers out of the vehicles.”

It’s imperative for communities to have communication plans for wildfires and other emergencies, said Eric Link, a fire protection engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. But the specifics of any such plans can be overwhelmed by fast-changing circumstances on the ground.

Authorities may consider road capacity and population density as well as fire behavior in assessing how to evacuate a community, he said.

“As much lead time as can be provided to the public is the goal, but in rapidly developing cases, the fire may be there quicker than the information can be transferred,” Link said.

Maryam Zar, chair emeritus of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, said residents have long known they live in a place with two tremendous risks — earthquake and fire. Because of the dramatic landscape, she’s not sure there’s much the the city could do to make it easier to evacuate, especially from such a fast-moving fire, she said.

Considering that, it’s a relief there were not more lives lost, she said.

“The fact they evacuated the entire community is pretty impressive,” Zar said.

___

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho; Johnson from Seattle; Keller from Albuquerque, New Mexico; Lauer from Philadelphia; and Taxin from Santa Ana, California. Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (Jan. 9-16)

• January 18, 2025

Restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by Orange County health inspectors from Jan. 9 to Jan. 16.

Wetzel’s Pretzels at Irvine Spectrum Center, 618 Spectrum Center Drive, Irvine

• Closed: Jan. 15
• Reason: Rodent infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 15

Food sales at La Palma Groceries, 1763 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim

• Closed: Jan. 15
• Reason: Sewage overflow
• Reopened: Jan. 15

The Vintage 1979, 10110 Westminster Ave., Suite A, Garden Grove

• Closed: Jan. 15
• Reason: Cockroach infestation

Slurpin’ Ramen Bar, 2981 Bristol St., Suite B-5, Costa Mesa

• Closed: Jan. 14
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 14

Pho Cali Restaurant, 120 S. Harbor Blvd., Suite M, Santa Ana

• Closed: Jan. 14
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 14

Fam’s Kitchen, 23591 Rockfield Blvd., Suite F, Lake Forest

• Closed: Jan. 14
• Reason: Cockroach infestation

Tribute Coffee House, 13960 Harbor Blvd., Suite B, Garden Grove

• Closed: Jan. 13
• Reason: Cockroach infestation

Taqueria El Triunfo, 2502 Westminster Ave., Suite B, Santa Ana

• Closed: Jan. 13
• Reason: Rodent infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 13

Panaderia El Cortez, 7506 Cerritos Ave., Stanton

• Closed: Jan. 13
• Reason: Rodent infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 15

Bakery at Ralphs, 903 S. El Camino Real, San Clemente

• Closed: Jan. 10
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 11

Carniceria El Novillo, 7449 Cerritos Ave., Stanton

• Closed: Jan. 9
• Reason: Insufficient hot water
• Reopened: Jan. 10

Food sales at Cypress High School, 9802 Valley View St., Cypress

• Closed: Jan. 9
• Reason: Insufficient hot water
• Reopened: Jan. 9

Food sales at Honeymee, 5231 Beach Blvd., Suite B, Buena Park

• Closed: Jan. 9
• Reason: Rodent infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 10

Carrot & Daikon, 9016 Bolsa Ave., Westminster

• Closed: Jan. 9
• Reason: Rodent infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 9

Alegro Taco Bar, 410 E. Chapman Ave., Suite C, Fullerton

• Closed: Jan. 9
• Reason: Insufficient hot water
• Reopened: Jan. 9

Daoni, 2143 N. Tustin St., Suite A-1, Orange

• Closed: Jan. 9
• Reason: Insufficient hot water
• Reopened: Jan. 9

Nekter Juice Bar, 8162 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road, Suite 102, Anaheim

• Closed: Jan. 9
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 10

Bakery at Ralphs, 811 Avenida Talega, San Clemente

• Closed: Jan. 9
• Reason: Vermin infestation
• Reopened: Jan. 10

Updates since last week’s list:

Vua Bun Bo at 9211 Bolsa Ave., Suite 120-121, Westminster, which was ordered closed Jan. 7 because of a cockroach infestation, was allowed to reopen Jan. 10.

Hummus Bean at 5745 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road, Anaheim, which was ordered closed Jan. 6 because of a cockroach infestation, was allowed to reopen Jan. 10.

This list is published weekly with closures since the previous week’s list. Status updates are published in the following week’s list. Source: OC Health Care Agency database.

​ Orange County Register 

Firefighters make overnight progress battling Palisades and Eaton fires

• January 18, 2025

Firefighters have made overnight progress battling back the deadly Los Angeles blazes. 

The Eaton fire was 73% contained as of 7 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18, up from 65% the day before. 

The Palisades fire was 43% contained as of 7 a.m. on Saturday, up from 39% on Friday evening.

Eaton fire

Cal Fire said low marine clouds and fog are possible over the fire early Saturday morning, but a weakening south wind will lessen the marine influence through the weekend. Dry conditions are expected to return next week. 

The fire has burned 14,117 acres and is 73% contained. 

Officials will hold a virtual community meeting at 4 p.m. Saturday to provide an update on the fire, to answer questions and to discuss recovery. Questions can be submitted in advance via email at [email protected]. 

The meeting can be streamed live on YouTube: youtube.com/@LosAngelesCountyFD.

Officials have confirmed 17 fatalities from the Eaton fire and nearly 9,000 structures destroyed.  

More than 2,700 personnel remained assigned to firefighting efforts as well as 13 helicopters, and nearly 250 engines, 14 dozers and 50 water tenders. 

Some areas under evacuation warning have been modified to “soft closures.” A soft closure means the area remains closed to the general public but is open to residents with valid proof of residence. 

To identify your evacuation zone, visit: fire.ca.gov/incidents.html.

Palisades fire

Minimal fire behavior was observed, and no further fire growth occurred Friday night, Cal Fire said. 

“Night operations had a very successful shift,” Cal Fire Assistant Chief Eric Schwab said during an operational briefing Saturday morning.

“One of the biggest successes that I’ll note from yesterday is we were able to pull in those evac orders and get them tighter up to the fire perimeter,” Schwab added. “Some residents were allowed to go back in.”

On Saturday, Cal Fire expects slightly warmer temperatures with moderate humidity. 

“Weather-wise, this is a very typical mid-January day for this neck of the woods,” National Weather Service meteorologist Rich Thompson said during Saturday morning’s operational briefing.

“These clouds this morning should dissipate by late morning or early afternoon,” he added. “Then, clear skies this afternoon and tonight.”

Thompson said that the morning winds at lower elevations remain “very light,” but that in the afternoon “southerly, up-canyon winds could develop cross-fire with gusts generally about 15 to 20 miles per hour.”

Despite Saturday’s typical seasonal weather, Rob Clark, a fire behavior analyst with Cal Fire, reminded crews of the season’s atypical rainfall.

“This time of the year, on a historical average, you would have almost 5.6 inches of rainfall,” Clark said. “We’re at 1.6 inches of rainfall since July. So put that in perspective for the critically dry nature of our fuels that are out there.”

Clark also warned of “critical weather conditions” set to reoccur after the weekend.

Moderate Santa Ana winds are currently forecast for Monday and Tuesday, with gusts of 30 mph to 50 mph expected across Santa Ana wind corridors of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Now twelve days into the Palisades fire, the conflagration has burned 23,713 acres and is 43% contained. 

Officials have confirmed 10 fatalities from the Palisades fire and nearly 4,000 structures destroyed.

More than 5,400 personnel remain assigned to the fire as well as 44 helicopters and more than 550 engines, 53 dozers and 58 water tenders. 

Some areas under evacuation warning are now open to residents only. A curfew order remains in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. 

To identify your evacuation zone, visit: fire.ca.gov/incidents.html.

Investigators looking into whether Palisades fire kicked off by previous blaze

Victims of Los Angeles wildfires: A look at the people killed by Eaton, Palisades fires

​ Orange County Register 

Australian Open: OC’s Learner Tien and Alex Michelsen reach 4th round

• January 18, 2025

MELBOURNE, Australia — Learner Tien and Alex Michelsen were born about 15 months apart and first crossed paths a decade ago when they were playing in Southern California tennis tournaments for kids.

Tien, now 19, and Michelsen, 20, are close friends, frequently play the video game Fortnite together, trained with each other all offseason at the Tier 1 academy in Orange County and, once again, are competing in the same event — except this time, it is on a Grand Slam stage, and on Monday, they’ll both be participating in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

It’s the first run for each this deep at a major.

“Really cool we were able to do it at the same spot. Our lockers are right next to each other, so before and after our matches, we run into each other. It’s nice to see a familiar face somewhere so far from home,” Tien said. “If you told us two or three years ago that this would happen now, it would be a little crazy to think about. It’s funny how it all worked out.”

Tien, who had to go through qualifying last week, is the youngest player to make it to Week 2 in the men’s bracket at Melbourne Park since someone by the name of Rafael Nadal was 18 in 2005.

That guy turned out OK, huh?

Michelsen saw big things from Tien quite a way’s back.

“I remember my whole friend group, we were like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Learner.’ He was always way better,” said Michelsen, who added a third-round victory over No. 19 Karen Khachanov of Russia on Saturday to a first-round win against No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2023 Australian Open runner-up.

“He was 10, playing, like, 14- and 16-unders, and doing just fine,” Michelsen said. “Then we started training together in 2021. … So probably (for) about four years, we’ve been pretty good friends.”

Tien advanced Saturday by beating Corentin Moutet of France 7-6 (10), 6-3, 6-3 in a relatively leisurely 2 hours, 49 minutes — two hours shorter than his five-set marathon win that ended at nearly 3 a.m. on Friday against No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion.

“He is playing unbelievable,” Michelsen said about his good pal, before putting his thumb and index finger close together and adding with a grin: “Maybe I get 1% credit for that, because I hit with him every day.”

Another player from California who practices with Tien and Michelsen frequently, Marcos Giron, called it “amazing” and “impressive” to them doing this well at their age.

“They play differently, but both are great,” Giron said after losing to No. 1 Jannik Sinner on Saturday night. “The court awareness. Super accurate off both forehand and backhand. Can redirect. Can come up to the net. Have great hands. They’re all-arounders.”

There are two other American men into the fourth round, both seeded: No. 12 Tommy Paul, who is 27 years old, and No. 21 Ben Shelton, who’s 22. A different quartet — Paul, eventual runner-up Taylor Fritz, Brandon Nakashima and Frances Tiafoe — was in that round at the U.S. Open in September, making these the first back-to-back Slam tournaments in 21 years with four U.S. men among the last 16 players at consecutive majors. (There are three American women in the fourth round in Melbourne.)

“On top of all the guys that are already at the top in the U.S., we have a lot more coming,” said Shelton, who like Paul already has been a Slam semifinalist. “It’s really starting to show itself.”

On Sunday, Paul was scheduled to face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain. Monday includes Michelsen against No. 8 Alexander de Minaur of Australia, Tien vs. Lorenzo Sonego of Italy, and Shelton against Gael Monfils of France.

“I’m not surprised. It’s been something we’ve been talking about for a while,” said Tien’s coach, Eric Diaz. “We saw Alex breaking through, and we always anticipated that Learner would do this, too.”

​ Orange County Register 

Southern California’s toughest spots to find an apartment

• January 18, 2025

“How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market.

The pain: Southern California tenants last year hunted for housing in some of the nation’s tightest apartment markets.

The source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a year-end report by RentCafe on rental availability at big apartment complexes nationwide. The data tracked 139 U.S. markets, including six in Southern California.

The pinch

The Los Angeles wildfires have dramatically pushed up demand for Southern California housing as 2025 starts. These apartment stats don’t include this new rush – nor does it include pricing.

Still, the numbers provide clues to the challenges faced last year by folks seeking rentals compared to what a typical American renter goes through. Ponder the differences between last year’s average conditions in these local apartment markets against national patterns.

Southern Californians face fewer options with 5% vacancy vs. 6% nationwide. And there are far fewer new apartments: 2% of the region’s supply was constructed in 2023-24 vs. 4% nationally. That’s a huge factor.

Local apartment seekers seem also picky.

Landlords face renters in the region who aren’t very loyal – only 53% renewed leases last year vs. 62% nationally. That helps explain why vacant units locally stay that way for 43 days vs. 40 across the U.S. and draw an average 12 prospects before being leased.

Pressure points

So in a tough market to shop for a rental, where was the chore most challenging in Southern California in 2024?

Well, think about how local markets in ranked on RentCafe’s scorecard on what’s called “competitiveness” …

“Eastern” Los Angeles: The 19th-most competitive market in the nation due to its 4% vacancy rate. And new units in 2023-24 are 3% of supply. Only 53% of tenants renew their lease. Empty units typically stay that way for 42 days drawing 15 prospects before a new lease is signed.  This area includes eastern L.A., Long Beach, Pasadena, West Covina, Pomona, Rowland Heights, El Monte and Downey.

Orange County: No. 33 U.S. – 4% vacancy and 2% new. Renewals? 63%. Empty 41 days with 12 prospects.

Inland Empire: No. 34 U.S. – 6% vacancy and 2% new. Renewals? 54%. Empty 47 days with 13 prospects.

“Northern” Los Angeles: No. 37 U.S. – 5% vacancy and 2% new. Renewals? 55%. Empty 45 days with 11 prospects. Area has Burbank, North Hollywood, Woodland Hills, Van Nuys, Oxnard, Santa Clarita, Lancaster, Northridge, and Canoga Park.

“Western” Los Angeles: No. 48 U.S. – 7% vacancy and 4% new. Renewals? 43%. Empty 43 days with 9 prospects. Area is roughly western L.A. city, Marina Del Rey, Torrance, Santa Monica, Hawthorne, western Hollywood, Culver City and Inglewood

San Diego: No. 62 U.S. – 5% vacancy and 3% new. Renewals? 53%. Empty 39 days with 11 prospects.

Bottom line

Last year was tougher than 2023 for local apartment seekers.

Consider RentCafe’s competitiveness index. Roughly speaking, this yardstick showed equally challenging availability across Southern California on average compared to nationwide trends in 2023.

More robust construction helped to push U.S. competitiveness down 11% last year. Southern California’s score was flat.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

‘Wildfire refugees’ scramble to find housing as rental prices soar

• January 18, 2025

Declan Durcan and his wife wept with relief when they got the call last Sunday telling them they could rent a three-bedroom house in Brentwood.

It was a small but consequential bit of good news after a devastating, heart-rending week.

Their Pacific Palisades home was transformed into rubble Jan. 7 when an inferno devoured their block. Then came a fruitless search for a nearby rental.

“Everywhere we looked had like 50-60 people, people offering double, triple the rent, offering to pay six months rent up front,” said Durcan, 48, a network sales engineer who worked from his three-story hill house before the fire. “In the scenario that we’re in, we’re very fortunate to find a place because it was a struggle around west Los Angeles.”

See more: The latest on the L.A. wildfires

A precise tally for how many homes were lost and how many families displaced in this month’s firestorms has yet to be determined.

But on top of the enormous economic and human costs, the disaster unleashed a mad dash for replacement housing that pitted fire refugees against one another, sparking bidding wars and a wave of opportunistic price hikes.

State and local authorities quickly vowed to pursue price gougers. 

Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday, Jan. 17, that his office sent more than 200 warning letters to hotels and landlords accused of price gouging. The AG also has criminal investigations into price gouging underway.

Landlords are looking “to re-victimize the victims of the fires, to exploit them in their vulnerable state,” Bonta said.

“These predators are looking at the disaster with dollar signs in their eyes instead of kindness in their hearts,” he said. “That is unconscionable. It is despicable. It is disgusting. It is sick, and it’s unacceptable. And most importantly, it is illegal.”

On the flip side, the fires and the exploitation have been offset by an outpouring of kindness and support from some in the housing industry.

Property managers, real estate agents and apartment providers pitched in to find shelter for the thousands of newly homeless households.

Real estate agents frantically scoured listings and drafted leases for friends, neighbors and clients without charging their usual commissions. Apartment and Realtor associations issued a call for property owners with vacant homes and backyard units to come forward and offer them to victims.

An Irvine apartment company offered furnished apartments at a discount, and a Sherman Oaks property management company offered short-term leases of less than a year without charging their usual short-term premiums.

Southern California already had a shortage of homes for sale or rent before the fires.

With more than 12,000 homes, businesses and other structures confirmed as damaged or destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires, that housing shortage got even worse.

As many as 100 people are showing up for open houses, some agents said. They tell displaced families not to be picky right now. A home doesn’t have to be ideal, or even furnished. People need to take what they can get.

“The rental market is in a feeding frenzy. It’s absolutely gone crazy,” said Zach Quittman, 44, to a Coldwell Banker agent who’s been helping others find housing even after losing the Pacific Palisades house he and his wife rented.

“It’s been just an absolute chaotic situation,” said Quittman, who also lost his Tesla Model S, his wife’s wedding dress, her vintage clothes and jewelry collection and his childhood keepsakes. “As traumatic as it’s been, people want normalcy. People want home. People want stability. People want their kids to lock into school districts.”

‘Here we go again’

Jane Richardson looked out her bedroom window around 10:30 am on Jan. 7 and spotted a fire up in Temescal Canyon, just over a mile from her El Medio Bluffs home.

“Here we go again,” she thought.

A fire erupted in that same spot around 1:30 am New Year’s Day, but appeared to be out in about an hour, she said. (Investigators are looking into whether embers from that previous blaze sparked the Palisades fire a week later.)

In the next two hours, Richardson, 64, started gathering essentials to take as she and her husband evacuated.

The wooden rocking horse her father built when her children were little. Her Taylor guitar. Photo albums and a couple small pieces from her art collection. Christmas decorations, including a small Santa her son made in third grade.

She left behind her stack of homemade quilts, her children’s baby books, a portrait of her mother and a photo of her father from the 1920s.

“I just thought we’d be back,” said Richardson. “By no stretch did we fill the cars.”

Now, they can’t go back.

“They’re all gone,” she said of homes on her cul-de-sac.

Fortunately, her daughter and son-in-law recently bought a house in Glendale, so she and her husband have a place to stay for the time being.

Once settled, Richardson and her husband joined “that crazy rental race.”

Her sister in Seattle got onto the multiple listing service and lined up places to consider. Her daughter found brokers and properties. They managed to see at least seven in the past week.

“It’s pretty awful, the scramble right now,” she said. “You realize everybody else is in the same boat. … It just became clear after a couple of days that it was just going to the highest bidder.”

Landlords or their agents kept coming back and telling Richardson what another person offered to pay, asking, “What would you offer?” Landlords kept asking, “How high can you go?”

“It’s been every property that we looked at,” Richardson said. “Everywhere you go, it’s fire refugees, and if they’re like us, they’re well insured. (Landlords) know it’s insurance money.”

Most families want to find housing close to their home to stay near churches and schools. Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, Brentwood, Westwood, Beverly Hills and Cheviot Hills are inundated with requests for housing, forcing some residents to look farther out.

But because of the lack of housing, the once tight-knit neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Altadena are scattering as far away as the San Fernando Valley, Santa Barbara and Orange County, residents say.

Joe Cilic, a broker with Pacific Palisades’ Sotheby’s International Realty office, realized he had to act quickly after losing his house on Jan. 7. By Jan. 8, he found an unfurnished house in Cheviot Hills, a 10-minute drive from Pacific Palisades, and rented it right away. It was the first property he looked at.

His family has been sleeping on air mattresses. The heat didn’t work for the first few days, and the sewer line recently backed up. Still, he considers himself lucky.

The agent who listed the home got 30 more calls after Cilic leased it, and families kept driving by to see if it was available.

“Some properties have had open houses and had 100 people go through (them),” said Cilic, who’s been working for free helping others find and sign leases. “If people have homes in Los Angeles that they’re not using — let’s say you’re bi-coastal or something like that — it would really be a huge help if they could put those homes on the market for lease.”

Ross and Melanie Canter, who are staying with family in Carmel, said they’ve heard of cases where friends agreed to terms of a lease, only to be told later they’d have to agree to a two-year lease for more money. Another friend tried to sign the paperwork, then got ghosted when the agent received a better offer.

“Every property they look at already has multiple offers on it,” Ross Canter said. “We’ve heard stories about people paying off Realtors and giving them bonuses and cash advances above the rental costs.”

‘It just took off’

California law limits price hikes following a disaster declaration to 10% above pre-disaster levels. Violators face a fine of up to $10,000 and up to a year in jail.

If the home is new to the market, property owners can set the rent at 160% above the fair market rent set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Almost 1,300 entries of suspected price gouging appeared by Friday on a crowdsourced spreadsheet titled, “Tracking Rental Price Gouging in LA.”

Reported rent hikes averaged 51%, with three property owners alleged to have sought a 10-fold price jump.

Chelsea Kirk, an organizer with the L.A. Tenants Union, created the spreadsheet after learning that a three-bedroom home in her neighborhood that typically rents for $4,500 a month relisted after the fires for $12,000 a month.

“It was plain and clear they were raising the rents post-Jan. 7. They’re exploiting the moment,” she said.

She poked around on Zillow and found several more examples. Then, she got “fired up” after reading social media posts about more price changes.

“I was like, I’m going to track and report these,” Kirk said. “So, I made the spreadsheet. … And then, boom! It took off. I did not expect it to be what it is now.”

By last Thursday, she had 50 volunteers helping her maintain the spreadsheet. Some called landlords to ask why they were charging so much. Some landlords said it was an accident or a mistake. Others blamed Zillow’s artificial intelligence, saying they had nothing to do with raising the rent.

“They are not sophisticated property owners or property managers,” Anthony Luna, owner of the property management firm Coastline Equity, said of the price-gougers.

Engaging in bidding wars with tenants could open a landlord up to a lawsuit, he added.

At a press conference Wednesday, L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said it’s a “gray area” if a landlord accepts a higher price as a result of an unsolicited bidding war. But if a landlord solicits higher bids, “they’re engaging in price gouging,” Hochman said.

Several agents said they’ve refused to represent clients seeking to rent out homes at double the usual rent. Anne Russell Sullivan, a Brentwood broker and president of the Greater Los Angeles Realtors Association, said agents need to be careful.

“A lot of landlords and potential landlords and homeowners are being faced with 30 and 40 people who all want to get the same space. So, they’re bidding up and up and up,” she said. “If you’re a Realtor, you have to advise your clients that, according to law, in times of crisis, you cannot gouge the prices.”

Devastated and depressed

Altadena landlord Michael Astalis doesn’t have to think about what to charge tenants for his rentals. All his apartments and rental houses burned to the ground in the Eaton fire — 45 units in all.

On top of that, he lost his five-bedroom, two-story home.

Astalis, 76, is now sharing a two-bedroom granny flat behind his daughter’s Pasadena house with his wife and two adult children.

His family is living out of suitcases and sleeping on air mattresses on the floor.

“It’s very tight,” he said.

Astalis had two other houses on his lot, plus the 43 other rental units in the area.

“I lost $16 million in 3 ½ hours,” he said.

He went back the next morning, but the neighborhood was engulfed in flames.

“It was an apocalyptic view,” he said. “Just like driving through hell.”

Astalis will need to get insurance money for living expenses before he can move out of his daughter’s granny flat. He faces cash-flow problems since he has to reimburse his 45 tenants for three weeks rent plus their deposits.

Also see: Altadena’s historic Black community pulls together after destructive Eaton fire

“The big issue here is a lot of tenants will have to figure out for the first time where to move. Many of them were long-term tenants,” said Simon Gibbons, Astalis’ son-in-law who helped manage his properties. “There’s literally nowhere for them to go. Some are in with other family members. Some were down at the convention center.”

Tenants were crying when they called Astalis, a Cold War refugee from Romania. All were looking for a new place to live.

“They’re all asking me if I have any other places, which I don’t,” he said.

While his tenants are homeless, Astalis also lost his livelihood.

Nonetheless, he’s been busy arranging for multiple claims with insurance companies, dealing with banks and fielding unsolicited calls from law firms.

“I’m kind of devastated and very depressed,” Astalis said. “It’s so much pressure. …We’re just trying to navigate with a little bit of sanity.

“When this clears up, we’ll try to look for a place.”

SCNG staff writer Jason Henry contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Disneyland unveils a new Haunted Mansion attic bride without her axe or murder on her mind

• January 18, 2025

The Black Widow Bride in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion who had a dark habit of beheading her husbands has traded in her axe for a new backstory that softens her murderous tendencies and makes her a more mournful and lovesick figure.

Walt Disney Imagineering will introduce a new ghostly bride using projection technology in the Haunted Mansion’s attic scene when the classic dark ride returns today, Jan. 18 after shedding its annual holiday overlay.

The new Haunted Mansion bride with a beating red heart and flowing gown appears to levitate in front of a shattered window while holding a three-pronged candelabra.

Haunted Mansion riders will hear the sounds of her beating heart and see the ghostly flames flicker on the candelabra as they pass through the attic scene.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland adds new show scenes during Haunted Mansion makeover

The new storyline turns the attic bride from an axe murderer who beheads her wealthy husbands for their fortunes into a brooding bride mourning the loss of her husbands and filled with the overwhelming dread of lost love.

Disney Imagineers heightened the saddened, lovesick and grief-stricken look on the new bride’s face, Imagineering creative director Kim Irvine told the Los Angeles Times.

ALSO SEE: Look inside Disneyland’s new Haunted Mansion gift shop

​​“We thought, what if we change the story back a little bit to the original story that the Imagineers had about a lost bride in the attic mourning the loss of her husbands,” Irvine told the Times. “It was a sad thing. It was a story about lost love.”

The new Haunted Mansion attic bride will be surrounded by portraits of past grooms who gradually vanish — leaving the reasons for their departure more to the imagination instead of her murderous intentions.

ALSO SEE: Haunted Mansion at 50: Decades of delays and distractions nearly derailed Disneyland’s venerable dark ride

The old Black Widow Bride, known as Constance Hatchway, showed up in wedding portraits with a series of husbands who lost their heads in the Haunted Mansion attic scene.

The Hitchhiking Ghosts imagery that appears in the mirrors during the ride’s finale has also been updated during the removal of the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay.

​ Orange County Register