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“President Trump is the right person at the right time to tackle this problem. He’s a developer, he thinks big, and he understands public/private tensions,” said my old boss in the Reagan White House Counsel’s Office, Richard Hauser, when I began to come to grips with the enormity a challenge facing Los Angeles.
I have practiced land use law in California for nearly 30 years on behalf of large and small landowners, public and private. California land use law is a mass of regulations and authorities. The worst is the California Coastal Commission (which will almost certainly play the role of villain in the redevelopment of Pacific Palisades and Malibu), but has no jurisdiction over the victims’ land in Altadena, Sylmar, Pasadena and other areas at least a few miles offshore. . But there are more than a dozen federal, state, and local agencies that are typically involved in any major land development, and a major redevelopment of this type could quickly turn into a never-ending jumble of initiatives.
“Rebuild LA” followed the riots of 1992. It was launched in high hopes of a renaissance in areas devastated by the paroxysm of violence that followed the first convictions in the trial of police officers accused of beating Rodney King in 1991. More than 50 people died in the violence, thousands were injured, fires and robberies ravaged the City of Angels. Rebuild LA was led by Peter Ueberroth, and even that Californian titan, revered for his management of the 1984 LA Olympics, could not bring order out of chaos. The effort faded and failed. LA then as now is not easy to manage. Or renewed. On Sunday’s Meet the Press, California Gov. Gavin Newsom used the language of Rebuild LA from 30 years ago: bringing everyone together to reimagine LA 2.0, etc.
Last week’s disaster (which is ongoing and may indeed have returned before these posts) left destruction far, far worse than that of the 1992 riots. Much of the attention has focused on the incredible destruction of much of Malibu Colony and the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in LA, but communities of all kinds have been devastated by the fires and the failure of government at all levels to prevent and contain the fires. At least dozens of lives were lost, and thousands and thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed.
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I reached out to Hauser for some thoughts because he ran the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation for years and kept it from getting bogged down in the typical Progressive Era bureaucratic quagmire. The Corporation was established as a wholly owned federal corporation by the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation Act of 1972, as amended (40 USC 871). The corporation was managed by a 15-member Board of Directors. When Hauser and his colleagues took control, the plans became reality and the Corporation oversaw the remarkable rebirth of the country’s most famous avenue. The job was done, it was disbanded in 1996. A rarity. (Hauser was quick to credit many for the corporation’s success, including Skidmore Owings Merrill, its first president, Arthur White, then architect of the Capitol, and J. Carter Brown, then director of the National Gallery of Art. One organization does not mean one individual, only one authority. )
I asked Hauser to look up from the tee box and think about what could be done for LA using that model.
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“President Trump should immediately task every federal government agency with coming up with their best ideas for dealing with the situation and, perhaps more importantly, convene the best and brightest in the private sector, at home and abroad, to brainstorm ideas and identify steps forward,” Hauser said. replied by email.
“One of the first questions is whether the area should simply be rebuilt as it was or is there an opportunity to build smarter and more imaginatively knowing what we know now about infrastructure, heights, soil, hazards and so on. Maybe a combination of single-family, multi-family and mixed-use , parks, etc. A charrette convened for this purpose could be enlightening,” he continued.
“One thing seems clear to me,” Hauser emailed. “A new governance structure is needed with a singular focus on restoration and restoration.”
“An entity that can collect and rationalize state interests and provide the confidence the private sector needs to attract capital investment,” he continued. “We’ve done this on a smaller scale with the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, and the Presidio is another example.”
A Super Scooper dumps ocean water on a hillside as the Palisades Fire rages on Tuesday, January 7, 2025 in Pacific Palisades, CA. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
To Hauser’s excellent thoughts, I would add that President Trump and Congress can use the constitutional “spending power” to make a perfectly legal offer to the state and city, the proverbial “offer too good to refuse”: lots of federal money in exchange for full control of the areas which will be built again through the planning process for that effort. There is no Coastal Commission. There is no CalEPA or Department of Fish and Game or Regional Water Quality Control Board. There is certainly no “management role” for Mayor Karen Bass and the legion of city and county bureaucrats who stifle LA’s normal permitting and building process. There are no “stakeholders” other than property owners. School districts, water districts, specialty districts—out there. A single control and authority superseding all other federal, state, and local governments—in.
If Congress and the new president make LA and CA an offer they can’t refuse, Trump the builder will know who to consult to repair the ruins of so many lives. A federal special purpose corporation could be empowered to compensate victims who want out, speed up the rebuilding of those who want to rebuild, and shape an infrastructure that thrives and survives the challenges of a state gifted by God with extraordinary beauty and unique challenges.
Irony aside, the man LA’s West Side hates could be the one overseeing its resurrection. In fact, put politics aside completely. I have never seen anything close to the devastation of last week in America. Having lived and covered LA for radio and television from 1990 to 2015 and back again during this season of disaster, property owners and long-suffering taxpayers deserve much more than what the “progressive project” has produced since Pete Wilson left office governor in 1998. He certainly doesn’t need another board of committees like Rebuild LA, which quickly became en route to first paralysis and then failure.
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After a quarter-century of cumulative government failures at all levels that resulted in this disaster, even California’s deep-blue political class should be willing to give a GOP president and Congress a chance to pull a renaissance out of the rubble. Maybe it’s true that “the dry got drier and the wet got wetter?” as Governor Newsom has said as he begins to shift the blame from the government to “climate change,” but the Santa Ana winds are a feature, not a big part, of life in Southern California. They were wicked Tuesday night a week ago, so high to the ground firefighting aircraft. But they were so high before and they will be again. It is the government’s job to anticipate what needs to be done and mitigate what it cannot prevent. Many California agencies and hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats failed California a week ago.
Ryan O’Neal’s longtime Malibu beach home was completely destroyed in the Palisades fire, these pictures reveal. Ryan lived in the house from 1976 until his death in 2023. (BACKGROUND NETWORK)
It didn’t have to happen. It could have been prevented. Rebuilding can happen relatively quickly, but only if authority is firmly vested in one entity empowered to make decisions and instruct other agencies to sit down, shut up, and do as they’re told. A key part of Hauser’s proposal is that it creates a pathway for a private sector solution without which investment capital will not arrive. Investors are unlikely to flock to redevelopment areas without confidence in the regulatory and legal structure. There are too many other safe places to invest. And now only a fool would believe California’s “governance” system.. Right now it’s “post-governance”: dozens of agencies and no accountability or authority other than delay or denial. Reality: If you want to see a rebuilt City of Angels, tour the bureaucrats looking for a pension.
Hugh Hewitt is the host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” which is heard weekday mornings from 6 to 9 a.m. ET on the Salem Radio Network and is simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh Wakes America on more than 400 affiliates nationwide and on all streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel’s News Roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6:00 PM ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a professor of law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he teaches constitutional law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has appeared frequently on all major national television networks, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American newspaper, written a dozen books and hosted a number of Republican talk shows. candidate debates, the last Republican presidential debate in November 2023 in Miami, and the four Republican presidential debates in 2015-16. cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump during his 40 years on the air, and this column is the main story that will lead his radio/TV show today.
