Angry Angelinos ask where are our leaders? after Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Newsom fail to inspire in LAs catastrophic wildfire disaster

LOS ANGELES — Furious Los Angeles residents say they’re desperate for leadership as the city continues to burn.They say Gov.

Gavin Newsom appears more focused on putting out the fire on his own political career, while Mayor Karen Bass seems to have faded into the woodwork.Retired accountant Eddie De Ferrari, 52, was forced to flee the Eaton Fire in LA County.He returned to find his floors and furniture were covered in a fine layer of ash, but the house was still standing.De Ferrari said when the fires put Newsom’s leadership to the test, he faltered.“At the very least you would expect him to be donning a fire coat, being there, on the scene.

Instead, we see him on video approached by someone asking him questions, and he pretended to be on the phone,” he said.Bass has also been less-than-confidence-inspiring.“The fires showed that she was not ready to hold this position when it’s not glorious, when everything is not going great,” he complained.

“The minute something goes wrong, then you have excuses and cop-outs and really no direct response.”Elysabeth Cherniak, 60, a psychic who lives in the Pacific Palisades, didn’t need her crystal ball to see the void in leadership.She held out in her Pacific Palisades condo until the flames were feet from the windows before finally evacuating to a recreation center shelter, where she has managed to find food and a cot with around 300 other refugees.Cherniak said on-the-ground emergency workers and volunteers have stepped up where Karen Bass has failed.“I’m not happy about Karen right now.She doesn’t like her job.

She isn’t interested in the public,” she said.Bass and Newsom — both of whom now face recall efforts for their handling of the crisis — have become the faces of the wildfire response.Critics say they failed to prepare the city for a disaster of this scale — a $250 billion catastrophe — including by cutting and divert funding to lefty pet causes “LA cannot go forward with the...