From a land named Paradise to a bucolic community called Thousand Oaks, California has been visited with unspeakable tragedy this past week. And the danger remains.
When California’s new assemblage of policy makers meets next month, they will try to make sense of the tragedies and find solutions with new laws. Sometimes well-intended laws don’t succeed.
In the case of the Thousand Oaks nightclub shooter, given his display of at-risk behavior, a California law allowed for intervention and the authority to take away his gun. It was not used. Look for new laws to be introduced to tighten the screws on guns but is there the manpower and resources to enforce more laws and catch the loner who determines to make innocents suffer?
Housing is considered a crisis in California and there is a push to build more housing. This desire meets head-on with those who argue that fire lanes should not be considered for development as housing sprawls into wild areas. When fires strike they consume houses built in dangerous places.
Will legislators who come to Sacramento to deal with the housing crisis seek legislation to limit house building in potential fire zones?
Resources continue to be strained by the devastating fires up and down the state. While forest management is a legitimate issue for discussion, it doesn’t help when President Trump threatens to withhold funds over the issue, especially if forest management had little to do with the urban and suburban area fires that currently rage.
Aside from the added burden to fire department budgets on the state and local levels, local budgets are affected as well for the fires hit only a month before property taxes are due. Homeowners should contact their county assessor to seek a property tax deferral on the structure that burned. There are laws in place to protect homeowners on adjusting property taxes in times of disaster. If homeowners choose to rebuild they can secure their old property tax amounts. Check with the local assessor.
Overlooking the Pacific Ocean is the beautiful campus of Pepperdine University where I teach a class. Classes were cancelled as fire threatened the school and the entire community of Malibu was ordered to evacuate. From the Sierra Nevadas in the north to the land bordering the Pacific in the south, California is a beautiful place. But like many places in this country, it also endures suffering that affects people, wildlife and the land.
Legislators coming to Sacramento will see it as their responsibility to confront these new disasters through some sort of legislation. The track record on such things shows no guarantee for success.