“Where is Steve Soboroff?” That’s the question many Pacific Palisades residents are asking after the developer, whom L.A. Mayor Karen Bass appointed to lead rebuilding efforts, has been absent from public meetings on the recent fire.
Bass revealed Soboroff’s appointment with great fanfare earlier this month. Soboroff, who has lived in the Palisades, is known for developing Playa Vista, for his involvement in local politics, and for the fact that he is the father of Jacob Soboroff, an MSNBC journalist.
Bass said in a statement on January 17:
Mayor Karen Bass today announced that she has appointed Steve Soboroff to serve as the Chief Recovery Officer for the City of Los Angeles to kickoff the City’s massive rebuild and recovery effort, which was initiated by her Emergency Executive Order earlier this week. Working directly with her and with the assistance of the full breadth of her Administration and City Departments, he is charged with recommending a comprehensive City strategy for rebuilding and expediting the safe return of residents, workers, businesses, schools, nonprofits, libraries and parks in areas devastated by the fires that started last week. This effort’s top priority is to clear the way for Los Angeles residents to rapidly rebuild the homes and community they lost.
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“This work is about Angelenos’ collective hope for the future,” Soboroff said. “For every resident, it may be the hope to return to a community they love as soon as possible. For others, it’s how to survive until they get to return to work in this 103-year old community. Our mission is to start building a clear, practical and doable path to the Palisades and everywhere help is needed in LA. That work starts now, and we ask for everyone’s positive participation.”
Soboroff is something of a rival to fellow developer Rick Caruso, whose Palisades Village Mall was virtually the only commercial building in the center of Palisades to survive the fire, thanks to private firefighters and water tankers.
Palisadians were confused about Soboroff’s role, and why he had been appointed to lead their rebuilding effort without a local vote or gesture of consent.
But lately, they have a different question: where is he?
One theory is that he has been sidelined by Mayor Bass as she attempts to reassert her leadership credentials, which were called into doubt by her early mishandling of the Palisades Fire. She was out of the country when it started.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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