California fostered the conditions for the Los Angeles wildfires through poor forest management, lackluster water storage, and incompetent leadership. Naturally, the state wants to ignore those problems and focus on its expertise: hyperregulating normal people and pretending that these regulations move the needle.
California is currently “drafting the toughest statewide rules in the country for vegetation,” according to NPR, turning the state into one giant, nagging homeowner’s association. Per NPR, “In areas at risk of wildfires, homeowners would be required to clear some or all of the plants within five feet of their house, depending on what regulators decide.” (Emphasis added). The result is meticulous regulation debates about whether potted plants can be kept within 5 feet of a house, whether plants should be allowed to be taller than 18 inches, and whether or not the plants are “well-maintained.”
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What this means, in effect, is that California is imposing even more regulations on housing than before the fires, even as Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to sign vague executive order after vague executive order promising to cut red tape for the rebuilding efforts. The cost of clearing plants, wooden fences, and other new, bureaucracy-declared fire hazards from the bureaucracy-specified fire zones will fall on homeowners, because it would not be California if the state weren’t adding additional costs to everyday people.
All of this is distracting from the fact that the scope of the Los Angeles fires can be chalked up to the incompetence of state and city Democrats. California Democrats have refused to commit to serious forest management, allowing dead and dying plants to turn the state into a tinderbox, exacerbating fires. The state also hasn’t built new water infrastructure that would allow a city such as Los Angeles to have the water it needs, rather than leaving fire hydrants empty as the fires raged.
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Meanwhile, Los Angeles cut its fire department’s resources and has allowed homelessness and fires connected to homeless people to become worse. Mayor Karen Bass couldn’t be bothered to be in the country when the fires started, despite the increased risks from the weather being noted at the time. Los Angeles leaders edited a report about the city’s fire response to try to soften the blame they were receiving.
But that is not the concern of Newsom, Bass, or anyone else involved. Instead, they want to impose more regulations and break out the rulers to decide whether the plant in your yard is too tall or too close to your walls. They will all pretend this new red tape solves the problem, when the problem all along has been their own governmental incompetence.