Democrat on LA City Council bashes city for prioritizing free crack pipes over funding fire dept
A Democrat on the LA City Council is slamming “chronic under-investment” in basic services and fire prevention — even as Mayor Karen Bass has funneled money to providing drug addicts with free crack pipes.The fury in LA Council member Traci Park’s voice was palpable as she raged against what she called years of poor financial decisions by LA city officials and how it’s come to a head with the catastrophic wildfires in her district, which includes hard-hit Pacific Palisades.“It’s bananas,” Park told The Post.“The city of LA is in the middle of multiple crises: mental health, addiction, the homeless, infrastructure failures everywhere.
We have pipes underground that are 100 years old and are just poised to cause an environmental catastrophe.Our sidewalks are cracked and falling apart all over.”Park, 49, who was an attorney for 20 years before being elected to the council for District 11 in 2022, is a Democrat but hasn’t shied away from left-wing sacred-cow issues such as the vast and seemingly insurmountable homeless problem in her city.“The fire department was decimated after the financial collapse of 2008 and it’s never recovered,” she said.
“There has been a chronic under-investment in public safety here for years.It’s not just the fire department, it’s the police department as well.
It’s not the fault of one mayor or one fiscal crisis.It’s chronic decades of underinvestment.“We have the same number of firefighters and fire stations in LA in 2025 that we did in 1960.
How insane is that?”Since 1960, Los Angeles’ population has more than doubled — from around 6.2 million to more than 12.5 million today.Activists angry over Park’s stance that homeless encampments should be 500 feet from schools and homes tried to interrupt her swearing-in ceremony in 2022.But the council member has been undeterred in calling out what she sees as wasteful spending in some areas and none in others.“Last year, the LA Fire Department ...