Her building didn’t burn, but thick smoke settled into it for days during the January 2025 firestorm. Before bringing her two children — one in college, one 12 years old — back inside, Barel wanted assurance the unit was truly safe. An independent test she paid for turned up toxic residue. Now she’s waiting on additional testing her landlord must conduct under a new California law.

Her landlord did have the apartment cleaned back in March, but Barel says the job was surface-level at best. She later found personal belongings tucked behind furniture and under the sofa — evidence, she said, that floors and walls were never properly scrubbed.

“The issue is that I have no control,” Barel said. “It really depends on the conversation between my landlord and their insurance company. If the landlord does the minimum, or if they don’t feel the need to fight or be insistent on certain things, then it’s not going to happen.”

Barel’s situation reflects a broader truth about California’s property insurance market: its stability — or lack thereof — doesn’t just affect homeowners. Renters, who make up roughly 44% of the state’s population, feel the ripple effects too, whether through rent hikes, housing shortages, or delays in rebuilding after disaster strikes.

This November, Californians will choose a new insurance commissioner, a position expected to play a significant role in both the recovery from last year’s devastating Los Angeles County fires and the broader health of the state’s insurance market.

Barel carries her own renters policy, which costs her $114 a year thanks to a multi-policy discount. So far, her insurer has paid out $6,000 in loss-of-use coverage — money meant to cover extra living expenses for displaced tenants — along with $2,100 toward damaged personal property. She recently completed a full inventory of her belongings, which she plans to submit toward her policy’s $35,000 cap for personal items.

“I was stuck for a long time,” she said. “It’s extremely overwhelming. There are a lot of personal things. These are our stories. This is our life.”

Her renters policy didn’t cover the cost of hiring an industrial hygienist to test her unit — a step she took on her own. That testing found elevated levels of lithium, chromium and other heavy metals, likely tied to smoke and ash from the fire. Because the blaze burned through the wildland-urban interface, the report noted, smoke in such fires often carries a more toxic mix of chemicals and particulates than typical structure fires. The hygienist recommended further testing and a deeper cleaning.

After enlisting help from the city of Pasadena to pressure her landlord, Barel is hopeful she’ll soon be able to leave the rental unit in Lincoln Heights where she’s been staying since the fire. FEMA has been covering that temporary housing, but that assistance is scheduled to run out in October, adding urgency to her situation. Throughout it all, she has continued paying rent on her original apartment.

“It’s not a possibility for me to move elsewhere,” she said. “We have rent control. It was perfect for the kids when we moved in. It had a courtyard; it was near the schools; everything.”

In nearby Altadena, which absorbed the worst of the Eaton Fire’s destruction, tenants made up 22% of households, and more than a third of the rental market operated under rent control, according to research from the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. Researchers found that renter households in Altadena generally earned far less than homeowner households before the fire — and were more vulnerable to seeing what should have been temporary displacement turn into long-term housing instability.

Renters insurance

California doesn’t mandate renters insurance, though many landlords require tenants to carry their own policies.

Emily Rogan, senior program officer with the consumer advocacy group United Policyholders, urges renters to get coverage precisely because of situations like Barel’s.

“Renters insurance buys you a deep breath as you think about where to go next,” Rogan said, noting how many difficult decisions displaced renters face after a disaster.

She also pointed to a shifting political landscape around disaster aid. “In the current political climate, there’s a trend where FEMA declarations are not as frequent as they used to be,” she said — meaning less federal assistance may be available when disaster strikes.

With inflation driving up the cost of replacing nearly everything, Rogan said renters insurance remains valuable “even if you fall under the camp of ‘Oh, my stuff’s not worth much.'”

Insurance’s ripple effects on rent and housing supply

Interviews with an insurance broker, an affordable-housing operator and several landlords revealed a mixed and often frustrating picture of California’s insurance market, which continues to strain under wildfire risk, rising litigation costs and insurers pulling back from writing new commercial policies.

Robert Guerrero, an insurance broker based in Madera County, said Mercury Insurance has resumed offering new policies in several counties — though not in the areas where his clients are located. Some property owners are turning to non-admitted carriers, insurers not licensed or backed by the state, which means policyholders bear more risk if the company fails. The California Department of Insurance maintains a public list of these so-called surplus-line insurers, and customers who choose to buy from one must sign a disclosure acknowledging the added risk.

“It’s still very dicey out there,” said Guerrero, whose firm handles homeowner, auto, commercial and life insurance policies.

Mike Placido, who owns four rental units in San Gabriel and a duplex in Alhambra, spoke with CalMatters two years ago about how rising insurance costs were squeezing landlords and tenants alike. Since then, he said, premium increases have slowed to a more manageable pace.

“It’s not causing me to raise rents as dramatically as I did before,” Placido said. “I guess the market has stabilized.”

He still carries a couple of policies through State Farm, but relies on non-admitted carriers for the rest — a situation that leaves him uneasy.

“There’s some aspect of safety when you’re going with a big company,” he said. “You don’t know if a smaller insurance company will be around long term.”

Uwe Karbenk, co-owner of a 33-unit apartment complex in San Bernardino, said his outlook hasn’t improved much. His premiums dipped slightly last year but have since climbed back to where they were two years ago. He raised rents in 2024, held them steady in 2025, and plans another increase this year.

Karbenk said he’s invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in electrical upgrades and a new roof for the building — improvements that, so far, haven’t translated into lower premiums.

For fire coverage specifically, he said insurers are scrutinizing properties far more closely. “They really check the building and they will write you up for stuff they don’t like. They call it recommendations, but it’s a stipulation. You need to do it, otherwise you risk cancellation of insurance.”

His takeaway: “Repairs are so much more expensive and replacement costs are so much higher. There’s no way around paying much more for insurance.”

Affordable housing developers are feeling similar pressure. Little Tokyo Service Center, a Los Angeles-based community development nonprofit that manages more than 1,000 affordable housing units across the region, has watched its insurance costs balloon in recent years.

Between 2023 and 2024, the organization’s annual insurance bill jumped from roughly $800,000 to $2.7 million, according to Erich Nakano, the group’s former executive director and current director of special projects. Deductibles that once ranged from $10,000 to $50,000 climbed past $100,000.

To cope, the organization has had to dip into its financial reserves, since raising rents significantly isn’t an option for affordable housing tenants. Last year, Little Tokyo Service Center joined an insurance captive — a self-insurance pool made up of roughly 40 organizations nationwide, including for-profit real estate firms, banding together to share risk.

“It’s an existential crisis,” Nakano said. “We can’t sustain these levels of insurance premiums.”

For the record: Barel currently resides in Lincoln Heights, not Altadena.

Original source: CalMatters

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The agreements, reached in both cities within roughly a year of the fires, mark a reversal for local officials who had moved to block a state housing law from applying in fire-ravaged neighborhoods. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had signed executive orders last summer allowing cities and counties to suspend the law, known as Senate Bill 9, in areas classified as “very high” fire hazard zones within the Eaton and Palisades burn areas.

SB 9, passed by state lawmakers in 2021, allows homeowners to split single-family lots and construct duplexes on each half, effectively opening the door to as many as four housing units where zoning once permitted just one home.

The pro-development legal group YIMBY Law challenged the executive orders in court, naming the governor, the mayor, and four local jurisdictions that had opted to block the law. The organization argued that none of them had the legal authority to override legislation approved by the state.

Under the newly finalized settlements, both Malibu and Pasadena agreed to rescind their local ordinances blocking duplex development and to process all SB 9 applications, including those already filed. Pasadena’s City Council approved the change unanimously on July 20. Malibu has until Sept. 29 to formally repeal its restriction.

“For people who are living, or hoping to live, or hoping to move back to Malibu and Pasadena, SB 9 is back,” said Sonja Trauss, executive director of YIMBY Law.

The settlements arrive amid ongoing tension between fire survivors and housing advocates over how devastated neighborhoods should be rebuilt. Many residents who lost homes in the Eaton and Palisades fires have opposed denser rebuilding, citing worries over evacuation routes, traffic congestion and changes to the character of their communities. Among the most outspoken opponents was reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, who leaned into public frustration over the state and local wildfire response during an unsuccessful bid for Los Angeles mayor.

Supporters of the law counter that it gives fire victims greater financial flexibility to rebuild at a time when construction costs are soaring and insurance payouts have often fallen short or been delayed.

The vast majority of the more than 16,000 structures lost in the two fires were located in the city of Los Angeles and in unincorporated Altadena, meaning the settlements with Malibu and Pasadena affect a smaller share of fire-damaged properties. Still, Trauss said the outcome sends an important signal about the strength of the law.

“The writing is on the wall,” she said. “It’s a good signal when parties are settling because it indicates the respondents’ feelings about how defendable their side is.”

The legal fight is far from over. Los Angeles County, the city of Los Angeles, Newsom and Bass remain defendants in the ongoing lawsuit.

At the same time, state lawmakers are weighing a related measure. State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, a Democrat representing Altadena, introduced legislation this summer that would temporarily exempt the unincorporated community from SB 9 and another housing law, reflecting the continued debate over how best to balance rebuilding needs with local concerns in fire-affected areas.

Original source: CalMatters

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“I was teaching at Purdue University in Indiana,” recalls food historian George Geary, author of Made in California. “One day I was driving down the highway and I noticed all of the fast-food places that were off the next off-ramp. There were about 14 listed, and I realized most of those were from California!”

Why Los Angeles in particular and California in general became fast foods’ greatest exporter is a multi-faceted question. According to Adam Chandler, author of Drive-Thru Dreams, part of the answer is simple — we are just pretty rad.

“California, it’s always had this mystique around its effortlessness and coolness, and some of that has to do with the weather,” he says. “[It’s ] looser in terms of conventions, in terms of dress, in terms of conversation, in terms of the way of life.”

And nowhere is cooler than Los Angeles. The greater L.A. area alone is the birthplace of many chains: In-N-Out, Taco Bell, Fatburger, Panda Express, Hot Dog on a Stick, Orange Julius, Bob’s Big Boy, Fosters Freeze, Original Tommy’s, The Blimp (now Carl’s Jr.), Wienerschnitzel, Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, and Pioneer Chicken. Farther afield is San Bernardino’s McDonald’s, San Diego’s Jack-in-the-Box, and Yermo’s Del Taco.

How did it happen?

But we cannot claim to be the founders of fast foods as a concept. According to John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle, authors of Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age, fast service food has been around worldwide since the Industrial Revolution in the form of coffee shops and oyster houses.

During the 1880s, soda fountains and drug store counters across the country began serving quick soup and sandwich meals along with popular novelty drinks and ice creams. Then there were inexpensive fair foods — the hot dogs and hamburgers served at county fairs and amusement destinations like Coney Island and the Santa Monica Pier.

Chandler argues that the first true modern fast food restaurant was White Castle, which opened in Wichita, Kansas in 1921. “1920 was famously the first year that more people showed up on the U.S. Census as living in cities instead of outside of cities,” he says. “People were congregating in urban centers and working at factories, and a lot of this had to do with electricity and just general movements of populations. And so, people needed to eat something.
They were working in factories every day and they wanted something that was quick and cheap.”

Growing road system

As more and more people drove and commuted to work, those tried and true fair food favorites began to be sold in roadside shacks along America’s burgeoning highway system.

In Southern California, these included the Rite Spot in Pasadena, where owner Lionel Sternberger is said to have invented the cheeseburger in the 1920s. Southern California, with its perfect weather, spread out populace, and pioneering spirit was the ideal place for small business owners to open their very own “road food” stands.

“Most stands were seasonal since, until the late 1920s, motoring was primarily a warm-weather proposition. Only in mild-winter states like California and Florida did stands operate all year,” Jakle and Sculle write.

“Highway selling was ideal for entrepreneurs willing to experiment with limited capital. The roadside stand … was hailed as one of America’s last ‘frontiers’ for independent businessmen. Most stands were built by their owners, the capital invested largely that of ‘sweat equity.’”

Driving change

And then there was SoCal’s early embrace of car culture, and the popularity of drive-ins, staffed with pretty carhops, and high fat, highly caloric comfort food at an affordable price.

“In the 1930s in Southern California there developed a remarkable phenomenon in the food service business,” Ray Kroc, who took McDonald’s to the stratosphere, recalled, according to Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age. “It was the drive-in restaurant, a product of the Great Depression’s crimp on the free-wheeling lifestyle that had grown up around movie-happy Hollywood. Drive-ins sprouted in city parking lots and spread along canyon drives. Barbeque, beef, pork and chicken were the typical menu mainstays, but there was an endless variety in approaches as feverish operators hustled to outdo each other.”

Southern California’s unique lifestyle also contributed to the need for fast food. “The building of the suburbs is huge, the growth of the highways, and that introduces all these other facets — the rise of two income households, more women are joining the workforce,” Chandler says.

“So, the erosion of traditional gender roles when it comes to making dinner, the rise of commutes, make it so that you’re kind of eating on the go and there’s more distance between work and home. So, a lot of these things create a need for someone to step into the gap here and fast food places do that.”

Dreamy entrepreneurs of all stripes flourished in this heady environment, where taking risks, whether it involved the space race or mom and pop startups, was encouraged. “Southern California is a place where people innovate,” says food writer Katherine Spiers, of How to Eat L.A.

The innovations in fast food came fast and furious in the post-World War II era. The McDonald brothers pioneered a new kind of assembly line food production, which they coined their “speedee service system,” maximizing efficiency and convenience. Every menu item was standardized — only two pickles per hamburger, no exceptions. “If we gave people choice, there would be chaos,” Dick McDonald explained, per McDonalds: Behind the Arches.

In-N-Out Burger

Out in Baldwin Park, Esther and Harry Snyder opened the first In-N-Out Burger in 1948, which along with their contemporary Jack in the Box (founded in San Diego in 1951) revolutionized the drive-thru system we now see as the fast food norm.

“What was unique about them both is that when they started, they both were drive through only,” Chandler says. “So, you didn’t get out of your car and walk up to a window, you just drove through. And In-N-Out in particular had a two-way speaker that was built by Harry Snyder in his garage, which is its own kind of classic tinkering-in-your-garage American innovation story that we tend to love.”

Fatburger

Los Angeles was also home to a particular brand of enterprising visionaries, who may not have been given the capital, or chance, to flourish in other parts of the country due to racism and sexism. In 1948, Lovie Yancey and a partner opened Mr. Fatburger on Western Avenue. Initially a three-seat counter made of scrap metal, Yancey soon bought out her partner, changed the name to Fatburger and worked tirelessly to make it a smashing success.

“She apparently really loved working in the restaurant,” Spiers says. “And she would work 20-hour days and sleep under the counter sometimes. She kept having people knocking on the door after they were closed at a reasonable hour. So, she was like, ‘well, I want to feed people. Guess I’m staying open late’.”

Yancey also tapped into post-war America’s obsession with large portions of food for a low price. “There was a real efficiency in American culture and in American cuisine at the time, the idea that you could just have an enormous burger and that would be your meal was exciting,” Chandler says.

“It had everything you needed kind of fit into this space age, high industry mood of the time, spirit of the time. And so Fat Burger was a big burger. It still is a big burger. And people were interested in something that was a challenge to eat — something you needed two hands to eat — that was appealing.”

Taco Bell

Fast food pioneers also often appropriated the foods of the numerous diverse cultures that called Southern California home. In San Bernardino, a young entrepreneur named Glen Bell fell in love with the tacos served at the Mexican American owned Mitla Café. In 1962, he opened the first Taco Bell in Downey.

“Glen Bell picks up this bit of cuisine and he is interested in it and he just kind of makes it his own mission to present it to the masses,” Chandler says. “And the taco was an exotic thing back then, and now it’s the most normative dining thing next to the hamburger you can have in America.”

As Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times notes, there was also a spirit of collaboration among many of SoCal’s fast-food titans, who were more than happy to share their innovations with other upstart entrepreneurs. “There was a fraternity of us, and every one of us saw the McDonald’s in San Bernardino and basically copied it after the boys gave us a tour,” James Collins, head of Collins Food International (KFC) remembered, per Morrison. “We became good friends, and we all took our lessons from the McDonald brothers.”

Dump that guilt

By the 1960s and ‘70s SoCal-born fast food was expanding, spreading a unique brand of American culture throughout the globe. Today there are over 38,000 McDonald’s, 8,500 Taco Bells, and 3,100 Carl’s Jrs. And while some Californians may feel guilty for introducing the oft-maligned, problematic fast food universe to the world, Geary has come to terms with his love of a quick meal.

While attending a high-end cuisine conference in 1995, he found himself at a dinner at a grand Philadelphia train station. But there was one problem, the caterers had messed up, and there was no food. “I was sitting with Julia Child and she’s like, ‘we’re hungry!’ Because it was a train station, they had a McDonald’s. So, a few of us got up and I thought, ‘okay, I guess it’s okay to eat the fast food in front of these people.’ And then Julia Child ate French fries,” Geary recalls. “And I thought, ‘you know what? If she can do it, I can do it.’”

So next time you’ve got a hankering for a good ole processed burger with fries, instead of guilt, feel a sense of hometown pride. “We wouldn’t have the American fast food culture that we have today without Southern California,” Chandler says.

“I think if you created a map and looked at all the chains that came out of a 45 mile radius in Southern California and stacked it up to other businesses elsewhere, not just in fast food, but in any industry, you’d be hard pressed to find a lot of things that really compete in terms of name recognition and endurance and excitement than what’s grown out of Southern California’s fast food boom.”

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PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The city of Pasadena’s historic Central Library has been ordered closed pending further review due to seismic safety concerns.

The nearly century-old Mediterranean Revival-style building had just reopened for in-person services following a pandemic closure when the closure order was issued Monday, the city said in a statement.

A recent structural assessment revealed that most of the building is constructed with unreinforced masonry bearing walls that support concrete floors and walls.

So-called URM buildings are known to be a life-safety hazard because they can collapse in an earthquake.

“While Pasadena passed an ordinance in 1993 mandating all URM buildings to be retrofitted, vacated or demolished, no record has been found as to why Central Library was not identified and addressed as a URM building,” the city said.

“This is devastating news for us all,” said City Manager Steve Mermell. “Central Library is more than just a building; it’s where generations of families have grown up, and an iconic building that completes our Civic Center as one of Pasadena’s treasures.”

Central Library was designed by architect Myron Hunt in 1924 and completed in 1927. The building was expanded in the mid-1960s and modified in the 1980s. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Pasadena’s ornate domed City Hall, also completed in 1927, underwent a seismic retrofit more than a decade ago.

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The MSJC women’s basketball team advanced to the CCCAA Southern California Regional Final last Friday night with a second round play-off win over visiting Pasadena City College 58-47.

The Eagles led for nearly the entire game, but it was never a comfortable one as MSJC led 15-11 after the opening period and 27-22 at the half. Both teams struggled to find offensive rhythm in the game as neither team shot over 25% in the contest from the field. MSJC was able to connect on 6 of 19 three pointers. The Eagles did control the boards throughout the evening though as they out rebounded the Lancers 65-45 and hauled in 27 offensive rebounds. Pasadena made things very interesting in the closing minutes of the third quarter as they rallied to tie the score at 41 a piece at the end of three. The Lancers also scored the first two points of the fourth quarter to take their only lead of the game at 43-41, before the Eagles answered by out scoring them 17-4 the rest of the way.

First Team All-State and Inland Empire Athletic Conference Player of the Year Haylei Janssens scored a game high 18 points to lead the MSJC offense, she also grabbed 8 rebounds. Third Team All-State selection Deja Blue scored 16 as she recorded a double double. Blue also had a team high 10 rebounds in the win. De’Adra Ross added 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots for the Eagles while Kiana Castello came off the bench to add 7 big points. Keiara Barton played a pivotal role for the MSJC defense as she spent the evening holding two time All-State forward Dariel Johnson of the Lancers to 6 points in the game.

The win advanced the Eagles to the State Sweet 16 and the Southern California Regional Final on Saturday March 7th when they travel to Mt. San Antonio. MSJC improved their record on the year to 27-2, Mt. SAC will enter Saturday’s contest with a season mark of 22-7, they were the regular season champions of the South Coast North Conference. The Eagles have reached at least the State Sweet 16 for five straight seasons.

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