{"id":1183,"date":"2025-10-13T10:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/1183\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T10:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:40:08","slug":"an-affordable-slice-of-l-a-paradise-might-never-recover-from-the-palisades-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/1183\/","title":{"rendered":"An affordable slice of L.A. paradise might never recover from the Palisades fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As local and state leaders celebrate the fastest wildfire debris removal in modern American history<\/a>, the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates \u2014 a rent-controlled, 170-unit enclave off Pacific Coast Highway \u2014 remains largely untouched since it burned down in January. <\/p>\n

Weeds grow through cracks in the broken pavement. A community pool is filled with a murky, green liquid. There\u2019s row after row of mangled, rusting metal remains of former homes. <\/p>\n

Yet just across a nearly 1,500-foot-long shared property line, the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park<\/a> \u2014 like thousands of fire-destroyed properties cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the last nine months \u2014 is now a field of cleaned, empty lots.<\/p>\n

The difference in treatment is based on standards used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which directed the corps\u2019 cleanup efforts. FEMA, which focused on providing assistance to local residents \u2014 and not properties owned by real estate companies \u2014 argued in letters to state officials that since it could rely on the Tahitian\u2019s owners to rebuild the heart of Pacific Palisades\u2019 affordable housing, it would make an exception and include the property. However, it said it could not trust the owners of the Palisades Bowl to do the same.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates, right, and the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park, left, where fire debris has been removed.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer\/For The Times)<\/p>\n

Both mobile home parks requested federal cleanup services, records obtained from the corps show. And both Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles lobbied the agency to include the properties in its mission.<\/p>\n

In a May letter approving the corps\u2019 cleanup of the Tahitian, FEMA noted that the property, riddled with asbestos and perched above the busy Pacific Coast Highway, was a public health hazard and that the owners, with limited insurance money, probably would struggle to pay for the cleanup. FEMA Regional Administrator Robert Fenton also wrote to the state Office of Emergency Services, saying that he was \u201cconfident\u201d including Tahitian \u201cwill accelerate the reopening of the park for its displaced tenants and ensure the community retains this affordable residential enclave in an otherwise affluent area.\u201d <\/p>\n

When it came to the Bowl, FEMA took a different tone. The agency said in a July letter to the state agency that with flatter terrain, the Bowl did not pose the same health hazard as the Tahitian Terrace did, and with $1.2 million in insurance money already disbursed to the property owners, it had \u201cno indication the owner lacks the financial means to remove the debris independently.\u201d <\/p>\n

FEMA\u2019s letter also noted that unlike with the Tahitian property, \u201cFEMA cannot conclude that Palisades Bowl represents a preserved or guaranteed source of long-term affordable housing,\u201d based on the owners\u2019 track record. <\/p>\n

The Bowl\u2019s former residents \u2014 artists, teachers, lifeguards, boat riggers, bookstore owners and chefs \u2014 are now scattered across Southern California and the globe. Speaking to The Times, many felt helpless, frustrated and unsure whether they\u2019ll be able to return. Many, nine months after the fire, are running out of the insurance money and government aid they\u2019ve relied on to pay rent for temporary housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the great underdogs of the greatest American disaster in history, apparently. This little community,\u201d said Rashi Kaslow, a boat rigger who lived in the Bowl for more than 17 years. \u201cThe people of the only two trailer parks \u2014 the isolated, actual affordable housing communities \u2026 you would think that we would be the No. 1 priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think that we would be the number one priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rashi Kaslow, Pacific Palisades Bowl resident<\/p>\n

The Bowl began as a Methodist camp in the 1890s, and was developed into a mobile home park in the 1950s. For decades, the Bowl and the Tahitian remained among the only places along the California coast still under rent control, preserved by the Mello Act<\/a>, and consequently, some of the only affordable housing in the Palisades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all connected through this legacy of what we had,\u201d said Travis Hayden, who moved into the Bowl in 2018, \u201cand I think our greatest fear is that it goes away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nine <\/p>\n

Nine months after the fire, the Palisades Bowl\u2019s community pool is filled with a murky, green liquid.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer\/For The Times)<\/p>\n

Many longtime residents never planned to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to have my bed put in the living room, with a large window wall, and lay and watch the sun set and the ocean. That was going to be the end of my life,\u201d said Colleen Baker, an 82-year-old closet designer. \u201cI don\u2019t, of course, have it anymore. \u2026 It\u2019s all gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bowl was passed among a few families and local real estate moguls over the decades.<\/p>\n

In 2005, Edward Biggs of Northern California bought the Bowl. When Biggs, who rarely appeared at the park, died in 2021, his real estate empire was fractured between his first wife, Charlotte, and his second wife, Loretta, further complicating the Bowl\u2019s management.<\/p>\n

Since the fire, residents have heard virtually nothing from ownership. Neither Colby Biggs \u2014 Charlotte and Edward Biggs\u2019 grandson who began co-managing the park after Charlotte\u2019s death \u2014 nor lawyers with Loretta Biggs\u2019 real estate company, responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

What Bowl residents have seen is the corps descend on other Palisades properties \u2014 clearing burned-out cars, piles of rubble and charred trees from single-family homes as well as the Tahitian \u2014 while leaving the Bowl untouched.<\/p>\n

At the center of FEMA\u2019s reasoning to refuse cleanup for the Bowl: \u201cThe prior actions of the owner demonstrate a lack of commitment to reopen the park for its displaced residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prior actions of the owner demonstrate a lack of commitment to reopen the park for its displaced residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 FEMA, regarding the owners of the Pacific Palisades Bowl<\/p>\n

Over the two decades the Biggs family has owned the Bowl, residents have become painfully familiar with this \u201clack of commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2006, some residents sued Biggs and the previous owner, accusing them of failing to repair and stabilize the bluff behind the park that, the previous year, crumbled after heavy rain, leaving some units uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

A year later, Biggs fell into a legal dispute with city of Los Angeles over a plan to split up the property that residents characterized<\/a> as a move to circumvent rent control.<\/p>\n

It prompted Biggs\u2019 attorney to send residents a letter in 2009, stating that the inability to raise rent and the never-ending series of lawsuits made the park unprofitable and that he may file for bankruptcy. It also claimed that Biggs already had received a $40-million offer from an international hotel developer, the Palisadian-Post reported<\/a>. No sale ever went through.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Biggs decided to build an \u201cupscale resort community\u201d instead, by buying up resident\u2019s homes, demolishing them, and building two-story, manufactured homes on the properties. To do so, he planned to target the homes of the residents suing him over a landslide on the property, the California 2nd District Court of Appeal found. <\/p>\n

The residents ended up winning $8.9 million from Biggs. The case with the city eventually made it to the California Supreme Court, which sided with residents and the city.<\/p>\n

While residents agonize over FEMA\u2019s decision, the experiences have led many to ultimately agree with FEMA\u2019s reasoning: They cannot trust that the owners intend to preserve their park as affordable housing. <\/p>\n

Former Bowl residents met atop the Asilomar bluff overlooking their old community on Oct. 3 \u2014 the day after a city-imposed deadline for the owners to remove the debris \u2014 to call on local leaders to act.<\/p>\n

Most skipped the formality of a handshake, going in for hugs. They reminisced. Many took a moment in silence to look down. Rows of empty dirt lots to the left \u2014 the Tahitian \u2014 and rows of rubble still sitting to the right \u2014 their homes.<\/p>\n

\"Residents <\/p>\n

Residents of the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates meet on a hill above the park in Pacific Palisades.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer\/For The Times)<\/p>\n

Nine months after the fire, many former Bowl residents are trying to figure out what to do when their temporary housing insurance money and aid runs dry. They still have little certainty when \u2014 or whether \u2014 they\u2019ll ever be able to return.<\/p>\n

Baker, the closet designer, found a 388-square-foot mobile home in Santa Monica to live in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in the very sad stage, and I\u2019m realizing my losses,\u201d she said. \u201cYou go to look for something and you go, \u2018Oh yeah, that\u2019s gone.\u2019 That\u2019s an everyday occurrence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tahitian\u2019s residents are stuck in a different limbo: With cleared lots, they wait for the property owners to decide whether to rebuild \u2014 adding back the concrete slabs for homes and building back the common spaces \u2014 or whether to sell the park to its residents, Chase Holiday, a Tahitian resident, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty much ready,\u201d Holiday said. Indeed, Tahitian\u2019s homeowners\u2019 association has been in talks with the owners. Barring the complicated paperwork, \u201cwe could buy the park tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the wait is excruciating, \u201cI feel pretty confident that either we\u2019ll buy it or they\u2019ll rebuild,\u201d she said. But with little clarity over when that would happen, \u201cthe bigger question is, will I want to?\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a handful of Bowl residents \u2014 including Jon Brown, a real estate agent who has become one of the Bowl\u2019s leaders in the fight to rebuild \u2014 packed a board of Building and Safety commissioners meeting, pushing for the board to finally declare the property a public nuisance, which would allow the city to do the cleanup work and send the owners the bill.<\/p>\n

The L.A. County Department of Public Works estimated that, at the end of September, about 20 properties in each burn area, Palisades and Eaton, had failed to clear debris.<\/p>\n

In a letter mailed and posted at the Bowl, dated Sept. 2, the department had given the owners 30 days to complete the work or risk being declared a public nuisance.<\/p>\n

At the Wednesday meeting, Danielle Mayer, an attorney whose law firm represents Loretta Biggs\u2019 company, asked the commission for more time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis community has seen these park owners act with such a lack of integrity for years and years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jon Brown, Pacific Palisades Bowl resident<\/p>\n

\u201cThis community has seen these park owners act with such a lack of integrity for years and years,\u201d Brown said to the board. \u201cThey never do anything unless they are absolutely forced to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board ultimately declared the Bowl a public nuisance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small but significant step, with a long road still ahead. The Department of Building and Safety has yet to provide any details for how and when it will remove the debris. And the Tahitian\u2019s still-empty lots serve as a reminder that debris removal isn\u2019t the end of the battle.<\/p>\n

Yet, Bowl residents remain optimistic that, someday, they will be able to buy the park from the owners and finally serve as the caretakers of the eccentric and beloved affordable community.<\/p>\n

To residents, the Bowl was something special. They cared for one another. They surfed together, let each other\u2019s cats in and celebrated holidays on the small community lawn. They raised their kids in the Bowl and sometimes bickered over politics and annoyances, as any proper family does.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the people were permitted to go back,\u201d saidresident John Evans, \u201cthat would just restart \u2014 probably with a vengeance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Tony Briscoe contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As local and state leaders celebrate the fastest wildfire debris removal in modern American history, the Pacific Palisades…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1836,1841,1409,1840,1835,1832,1837,48,52,51,1838,1830,47,50,49,1831,1829,1839,1833,1834,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-1183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-biggs","9":"tag-bowl-resident","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-cleanup-effort","12":"tag-fema","13":"tag-fire-destroyed-property","14":"tag-former-home","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-headlines","17":"tag-la-news","18":"tag-letter","19":"tag-local-resident","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-owner","24":"tag-palisades-bowl","25":"tag-palisades-fire","26":"tag-park","27":"tag-tahitian","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}