Pacific Palisade Voters Stick With Mayor Bass Despite Fire Blame
Even after a devastating fire that sparked calls for resignation, residents are set to re‑elect Karen Bass, while the city grapples with affordability and a rising socialist challenge.
After the January 2025 fire in Pacific Palisades, many residents called for Karen Bass to resign, yet four homeowners who lost their homes still plan to vote for her on Election Day. As one resident put it, “The devil you know.”
Bass, the incumbent mayor of Los Angeles, is fighting to keep her mayorship amid an affordability crisis and a democratic socialist challenger.
Six years after the 2020 protests that helped place Black mayors in the nation’s four largest cities, only Bass remains, highlighting the lasting political impact of those movements across New York, Chicago and Houston.
Original reporting
New York Post
They wanted Karen Bass to resign after the fire — now they’re voting for her
Many residents of Pacific Palisades wanted Karen Bass to resign after the fire in January 2025. Now they will vote to re-elect her as mayor of LA.
Read the original →New York Post
Why Palisades Fire survivors furious at Karen Bass still back her for mayor: ‘The devil you know’
Four residents who lost their homes in the deadly blaze blame Karen Bass over her failures surrounding the fire, but are still voting for her on Election Day.
Read the original →The Guardian
An embattled Karen Bass is fighting tooth and nail to keep her mayorship in LA. It might be too late
With affordability a major election issue, the incumbent is trying to ward off her democratic socialist challenger At the end of 2022, the four largest US cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston – all had Black mayors. It was a historic alignment made possible by the aftereffects of the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement and the unprecedented wave of protests following the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Six years on, only one of those mayors remains: the embattled Karen Bass of Los Angeles, who is facing a strong challenge from a younger, even more progressive challenger.…
Read the original →
Facts this version was allowed to use
- Many residents of Pacific Palisades wanted Karen Bass to resign after the fire in January 2025, according to the New York Post.
- Residents of Pacific Palisades will vote to re-elect Karen Bass as mayor of Los Angeles, according to the New York Post.
- Four residents who lost their homes in the fire blame Karen Bass for her failures surrounding the fire but are still voting for her on Election Day, according to the New York Post.
- The devil you know
- Karen Bass is the incumbent mayor of Los Angeles and is fighting to keep her mayorship, according to The Guardian.
- Affordability is a major election issue, according to The Guardian.
- Karen Bass is trying to ward off a democratic socialist challenger, according to The Guardian.
- At the end of 2022, the four largest US cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston – all had Black mayors, according to The Guardian.
- At the end of 2022
- The alignment of Black mayors in the four largest US cities was made possible by the aftereffects of the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement and the protests following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, according to The Guardian.
- 2020
- Six years on, only one of those mayors remains: Karen Bass of Los Angeles, according to The Guardian.
- Karen Bass
- Pacific Palisades
- Los Angeles
- New York
- Chicago
- Houston
- George Floyd
Loading comments…
The daily briefing
The day's ten most-covered stories through the lens, every morning, each linked to its original reporting.
Reader comments
Written by readers: not by Lens, its AI or the outlets it credits. Comments are screened before they show. Community rules
Sign in to join the conversation.
No comments yet.