The Palisades Village, a mall developed by Rick Caruso, is one of the only commercial structures still standing in the center of fire-torn Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles — and the mall appears to have sustained only minor damage.
Sunset Boulevard is a scene of destruction, including in the center of Palisades — though, notably, @RickCarusoLA’s Village Mall looks largely intact. Caruso’s employees apparently fought the fire themselves. He lost to Mayor Karen Bass in 2022. She was in Ghana yesterday. (8/15) pic.twitter.com/rrjjOviAy2
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) January 9, 2025
Caruso ran for mayor of L.A. in 2022, losing narrowly to left-wing Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA). He argued that the city needed a political outsider with business management experience to address problems like homelessness and crime.
LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 22, 2022 – – Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, right, responds to a pointed accusation made by businessman Rick Caruso as U.S. Rep. Karen Bass observes during the mayoral debate at Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus on March 22, 2022. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Bass ran on Democrats’ fury over the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, arguing that she was the only true “pro-choice Democrat” in the race, given that Caruso is a former Republican and that he had donated to pro-life candidates.
Pacific Palisades was one of the areas of L.A. that voted for Caruso, amid growing concerns that the city was not doing enough about homelessness, and that it had even considered a “temporary” homeless shelter at the beach nearby.
Locals reported that Caruso’s employees had been hosing down the property — as did employees at the Bay Club, another structure that survived the fire, when the grounds around it on the hillside near the ocean were burned.
The Bay Club survived, though its grounds are still smoldering. #PalisadesFire pic.twitter.com/N7Xeq34wnF
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) January 10, 2025
Caruso told Fox News on Tuesday that the negligence of government officials — particularly in preparing for high winds, storing enough water, and clearing brush near homes — had exacerbated the damage from the Palisades fire.
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.
