“Why not prevent fires?”

Carmel Pine Cone—Feb. 7, 2025

The Los Angeles fires have been a human and environmental disaster for

Southern California. Air quality was dangerous; hundreds of square miles are covered with ash containing chemicals from fire suppression, runoff into the ocean is toxic, and destruction of vegetation will result in mudslides and more misery.

In 2023, Pacific Grove residents walked the George Washington Park neighborhood and knocked on more than 50 doors, listening to citizens’ concerns about fire in the park. The overwhelming response was that the P.G. City Council was derelict in its duty to protect residents from fire, and the council should act immediately.

Following the resident survey, the resident survey, the council met in September 2023 and heard specific concerns from many of the same neighbors of the park, including the sister of a former P.G. mayor. Instead of a plan to mitigate fire danger in the park, the council ordered yet another study, leaving the fire danger to only grow worse.

The city council recently approved a contract with a local firm called Blue Strike for nearly $100,000 for a “Climate Action Plan.” Nowhere in the proposed plan is any mention of protecting P.G. residents from fire, or the environmental calamity of a fire in our city. Blue Strike says it will complete the climate action plan “while promoting sustainable development, resilience, adaptation and equity among communities.”

Imposing “equity” through climate action sounds like DEI. Why not spend the money on removing dead brush and trees from George Washington Park? Wildfires do not respect “equity among communities.” Fire is an equal opportunity destroyer.

Anonymous, Pacific Grove