SGV Connect 134: Chris Greenspon interviews Phoenix Tso

CG: Okay, so set the scene. What has it been like going to aid distributions for the Eaton fire and for you as a reporter, finding the interviews? So if you can kind of walk us along with you.
PT: Yes, of course, it's always like interesting to go out into the fields while there is an active fire going on. That's basically what I did in order to report two stories that I wrote about mutual aid distributions, first to unhoused folks, and then to people who had lost their homes in the Eaton Fire. So for that, what helps was that I have been reporting on mutual aid groups for a while, and I also volunteer with them, so I know a lot of people who are organizers and engage in regular mutual aid distributions... and mutual aid is basically community members, basically finding resources for each other. It's kind of similar to charity, but it's not charity because it's not sort of like people with more giving to people with less, and it's also like, inherently a political thing. It's sort of a basis for changing the system or creating a new system kind of thing. So I just wanted to have that spiel very quickly. And then, yeah, so I was assigned the story about mutual aid distributions to unhoused folks. And so I really hit up a lot of my contacts that I already had to see if I could sort of walk along with them as they did their distributions. And I also did a social media call out to see if people had ideas or contacts of who I should sort of follow for that story. And I think that was really important to really immerse myself and really to follow what people were doing and see what their interactions were like, and then talk to unhoused people about like, what how they were experiencing the fires. A lot of the people I talked to weren't actually directly affected by the fires, but they were affected a lot by the smoke that was blowing everywhere. I went to one encampment where you could actually see the smoke billowing from the Palisades fire. However, you know, it was interesting because people were sort of like, Oh, I'm aware that there's like, a fire going on, and it's a little harder to breathe, for sure. But it wasn't super like, top of mind to them. It was sort of like, you know, in terms of, like, what they were doing from day to day. It wasn't sort of the hugest priority, because they weren't really in, like the fires or anything like that. You know, there's a lot more going on in their lives and everything like that. But, you know, the really important interview for that story was, I contacted an organizer I know, who for, you know, to see if I could attend one of the distributions she was doing. And she actually told me that the encampment that she works with might evacuate because there was, at one point, there was a chance that the fire would jump and, like, actually go into the San Fernando Valley, which is where they were. So they actually, at that time, had come up with an evacuation plan of their own. So that was really interesting. And they didn't have to evacuate, ultimately, but I did visit that encampment the Sunday after the fire started, and were able to talk to people about that. So that was really great, because, you know, I was able to talk to unhoused people who were, you know, almost directly affected, and actually learn a lot about how, basically, they were on their own to survive or to get through this time, and how they had to mobilize on their own, because, you know, nobody from the city was going to come and even warn them about what was happening or anything like that, or to or to give out masks or anything like that. So yeah, that was really eye opening. And then with my follow up story, I focused on, you know, distributions in Altadena and Pasadena, and I had gotten a tip from from a friend who lives in Altadena, and actually her house is still miraculously standing. But she had sort of been around the community a lot, and she had come across this distribution at the arco gas station on Fair Oaks in Woodbury, and she said it was huge. There were, like, a lot of people there. There were a lot of supplies being dropped off there. And so she recommended that I go visit that distribution and so I did, and I talked to the organizer of that a lot of the people doing the organizing for that were affected by the fires. Some had, like, lost their homes. One of the main organizers, he lives just over the border in Pasadena. So he said he had been like, you know, the first two days, he first two nights, he had been going to try to save his friends homes, like putting out the fires himself and stuff like that. So, yeah, that was really again, like, really eye opening. And they also also visited the Pasadena Job Center where, where actually the like, it's a, it's a job center for day laborers. And there were a lot of day labor volunteer crews going and cleaning up the debris. There was still, like, you know, a week after the fire, there was a ton of debris around Pasadena, and so, yeah, they were going around and cleaning all of that up. And again, it was, like, just so interesting to see, like, all the volunteer work that was happening versus the government response. I saw, like, some government vehicles and everything like that. And of course, I saw the National Guard, you know, guarding the streets that they had taped off, and they weren't allowing people into for a while, but it was but then I would see, like, so many, like, just people just setting up distribution centers, or, yeah, donation drives and distributions, like on street corners and stuff, or, you know, at the job centers where they already worked, and it was really amazing to see there's a lot of like mobilization from the community.
CG: So what do you think is a fair characterization of the efficacy of government response to this?
PT: Yeah, I think in many cases, the government is slower, and they're not. They, at least to me, they weren't as visible, really, like the cleanup crews and the volunteers were way more visible. They were way faster, I think, you know, obviously I talked to some public information officers or some comms people for Katherine Barger and for the city of Pasadena about this. And, you know, like, even if they were putting out information about the air quality or whatever it was, or, like, you know, like a boil water notice or don't drink the water, I think it's not really intuitive or easy to find that information. They it's, you know, it's like, you go on their website and you like, find all these press releases, I suppose, but I don't know that people like, naturally do that. And then also the, you know, for the fact that, like, Altadena and Pasadena, parts of Pasadena didn't have electricity for a long time. It's not like people had, like, really great internet access for a while, I talked to some people who had been sort of volunteering up in Altadena. They were helping, you know, people like, sort of sift through, like the ruins of their houses and everything like that, which I guess is not always, like, officially sanctioned, but like, what are people going to do? Like, obviously, they want to know, like, what happened to their house and everything like that. But I talked to somebody in particular who had said like that, it was super hard to find any information on, like, how to protect themselves from air quality. Um. And so they had, like, maybe a week later, they found something, and it was the Coalition for Clean Air's webinar, I think, on the air quality and the dangers of the air quality from two very, very big fires. And so, really, yeah, it was that did not come from the government. And so that type of information like that people need to needed to know, like, pretty quickly, from what I could tell, was not really coming from, like official government sources again, it was coming from, like, non profits and community members.
CG: So what do you think people are getting out of being a part of this or even just witnessing it. Is it creating political momentum?
PT: I do think it's creating political momentum because there's, there was this whole mobilization about rent gouging, which we have done a lot of coverage on my colleague, Elizabeth Chou, has done a lot of coverage on that. And our audience team, we had put together, sort of a Instagram live with a tenant lawyer about how to protect yourself from rent gouging. And then that sort of dovetailed with, you know, somebody, a community member in LA actually like starting a spreadsheet where they were looking for listings that had jumped, where the rent had jumped more than 10% which is, you know, against the law during a state of emergency in California. So I think, yeah, the people are politically mobilizing, because they're mobilizing, you know, for a rent freeze, for eviction protections on the county level and the city level, yeah. And I think, I think, yeah, there's a lot of momentum from the mutual aid organizing from that and so, you know, it's been, I guess, a month since the fire started. I guess it sort of remains to be seen if that momentum keeps going. But I think, I mean, I wouldn't be, I would be surprised if it sort of stopped, because this recovery period is going to be for a really long time. It really hasn't been that long since the fire started, and it's, I don't know, the fallout is, like, very, very serious, like, people like, it's what it's like so many people who have lost their homes, so many people who haven't been able to find, like, a rental to relocate to, who are not being taken care of. So and I started seeing a lot of the mutual aid groups sort of shift to, like, the, sort of, like, long term recovery response. And I do think, I mean, I do think that's inherently political, because it's like, why do they even have to do that if there was, like, a robust government response, but, but there isn't. And again, like the, I think, I think the, yeah, the really good example of that is the sort of organizing around keeping people in their homes, keeping people from getting evicted, or from having to pay like these outrageous rents in order to find, you know, a new place to live.
CG: Okay, well, to go out. We here at Streetsblog, we are big fans of LA Public Press, and we were curious, why does LAPP take special care to focus on these efforts and frame them specifically as mutual aid and not something else, to even have a mutual aid beat reporter?
PT: Oh, yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, the mutual aid beat, is something I pitched myself, because I think there's a lot of coverage, and there's a lot of really good coverage about the government response from us, but also from, you know, the LA Times, and from LAist and other outlets. You know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of and, you know, there's a lot of chatter online about, you know, what, for example, what the mayor did or didn't do, or what, you know, the Firefighters were able to do because of their budget and all that stuff. And I think what I wanted to bring to the table was, what are the solutions like from the community level? And I also wanted to approach these like, very, very big issues, very overwhelming issues, like homelessness, for example, and you know, and this situation, climate change, from like, the community perspective, to show that people aren't just sort of helpless, that they're and they're not waiting for, you know, somebody else to come and help them. They're, like, doing it themselves, and they're sort of demanding change and demanding help and everything like that. So I think it's like a different way of looking at all these sort of traditional beats that you know that can actually, hopefully. Give people like the information they need, and also maybe motivate them to participate and mobilize and organize as well. And I think we probably need more discussions like that, because it's not like, I mean, we're going to keep dealing with these issues, you know, in the long term. So it's not just these one off fires or anything like that, by any means, for example. So yeah, I think, yeah, that's why the mutual aid beat, exists. And it's really great that you know LA Public Press, you know its mission is to look at these big issues like housing, environmental justice, public health from, you know, the community perspective, and so I think, yeah, it's, you know, because of that mission, that's why, you know, we're, I'm able to pitch and get the support for a beat like this.