Home Care In Pacific Palisades, CA

The Los Angeles wildfires that tore through the west side of the city last January did not leave much in their path. The Palisades Village, a luxury shopping and lifestyle center, was one of the thousands of structures inhabitable post-devistation. Now, a year and a half later, the community can return once more.

Thousands of individuals attend the grand re-opening of the center Saturday, Aug. 15. In addition to live musical performances, including a medley of scores by the Hollywood Film Orchestra, several notable speakers took the stage to share their personal connection to the Palisades and the excitement for the center’s grand re-opening.

“As we think about our experience in the Palisades, so much of it really began right here in the Village for us,” Palisades community members Julian and Genevieve Bostic said. “We’re so grateful to everybody who’s choosing to pour time and effort and money into this village, to give us a place to come back to.”

The day started off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Rick Caruso and Corinne Verdery, respectively, founder and CEO of Caruso, the luxury real estate company behind the Village’s restoration. Fashion Designer and Luxury retailer Elyse Walker was also in attendance at the opening ceremony and welcomed visitors and tenants as the Village officially opened for business.

“Long before this community gathered here today, Rick Caruso imagined a place where neighbors could connect, families could get together, businesses could thrive,” Verdery said. “Through every challenge, he has never wavered in his belief in the Palisades or the people who call it home.”

The event hosted a number of notable speakers both on stage and pre-recorded, set to music and entertainment programming curated by 16-time Grammy Winner David Foster. Speakers, including Ted McGinley, Gigi Rice, Billy and Janice Crystal, Kate Hudson and JJ Redick, all shared heartfelt stories about the Palisades interwoven with star-studded musical performances.

In addition to the myriad of singers, the Palisades Charter High School Choir and local Palisades musicians Samuel Siskind and Harry Orenstein performed a rendition of “You Raise Me Up.”

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“[Last night] was about celebrating the people who make the Pacific Palisades such an extraordinary community,” Caruso said. “This reopening reinforces the belief that the best days for the Palisades are still ahead.”

The Village features several returning businesses, such as Walker’s luxury retail store, as well as some new tenants. As for dining, the Village currently features five sit-down restaurants, a few quick-service options, and luxury grocer, Erewhon.

However, dining and shopping aren’t the only activities the Village offers. On the more community-oriented side of the center, the Village will host weekly and monthly programming including social events, kids’ nights, farmers’ markets and women’s defense classes.

"Coming Back" is a USA TODAY series spotlighting destinations that are ready to welcome visitors in the aftermath of hardship.

Set between the mountains and coastline of Southern California, the community of Pacific Palisades is at a turning point.

It has been just over a year and a half since powerful Santa Ana winds and a drought fueled the biggest fire in Los Angeles history. Burning for 24 days, from Jan. 7 until Jan. 31, 2025, the fire forced the evacuation of about 30,000 people, destroyed more than 23,000 acres and contributed to the deaths of 12 people. In March 2025, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles estimated the fires' economic impact at a wage loss of $297 million for local businesses and employees.

Many Los Angeles travelers found in Palisades − a picturesque neighborhood between Malibu and Santa Monica − a respite from the hustle and bustle of the city. Travelers were drawn to the Getty Villa Museum, scenic hiking trails and beaches, and unique boutiques and restaurants.

"The Palisades was definitely a destination for tourism," said Amy Russo, a resident of 15 years who lost her jewelry business in the fire. "People would come to drive through it and be like, this town is so cute and different, even though they weren't staying there. ... It wasn't really like, ‘Oh, I'm going to the Palisades.’ They would find it as a destination to come to dinner, to walk around, to spend the day."

There's still evidence of the fires throughout Palisades, of burned-down structures and empty dirt lots. But its residents have been finding their own ways to heal and define recovery. Now 20 months later, the time has come to reopen doors and start writing a new chapter.

On Aug. 15, the town celebrated a milestone for recovery: the reopening of Palisades Village, the shopping center in the heart of town. Since 2018, the Village has been home to farmers markets and restaurants, serving as a space for community members. "We believe Palisades Village reopening can serve as a catalyst for the broader recovery of the city – a signal to other businesses, retailers, and families that this community is coming back," Palisades Village CEO Corinne Verdery said in a statement.

It has been a difficult journey for members of the Palisades community, but their deep love for their home has them committed to forging ahead. Travelers play a crucial role in the town's recovery when they support the small businesses that give the Palisades its distinctive charm.

"While important work remains, the Palisades has made significant progress in the months since the fires, thanks to the efforts of residents, small businesses, and local leaders working tirelessly to move the community forward," Adam Burke, president and CEO of LA Tourism, said in a statement. "Visitors continue to play an important role in that recovery by supporting local businesses, helping sustain jobs, and contributing to economic activity across Los Angeles."

The impact of the fire

The fires are still surreal to Michelle Murphy, who was born in the San Fernando Valley but moved to the Palisades 15 years ago. Murphy and her family lost their home and all their belongings to the flames. Starting over felt overwhelming.

"Unless you've lived it, you cannot even imagine what it does to yourself to lose," she said. "It's not the possessions. ... It's like years of building a life and knowing that this is where my kids go to school, and this is where I go to get my groceries, and just the basics of your life that you've created without even consciously creating these habits and patterns, of all of a sudden, like, boom, that doesn't exist anymore." She remembers going to the store and not knowing where to even begin buying the basic necessities for her family.

In the immediate aftermath of the fires, Murphy said the community came together to donate supplies to people in need. Her family called their hallway closet "CVS" for the rows of basics like dental floss.

To this day, she'll be reminded of her loss when she looks for something and realizes it's not there because of the fires.

After months of bouncing around in rentals, the family purchased a house in Cheviot Hills, about 25 minutes from Palisades, and renovated it to look nearly identical to the home that burned down. But it's still not home, and they're putting it up for sale – even planning to take a loss – so they can return to Palisades.

Murphy isn't the only one who feels this way. In a January 2026 report by the nonprofit Department of Angels, 88% of Palisades fire victims said they wanted to rebuild their home. But insurance claims have been sluggish, with nearly 8 in 10 of insurance policyholders having "serious challenges" with their insurers.

Progress for many residents has been slow. More than 635 Palisades homes were destroyed in the fires, and as of Aug. 12, there are 123 building permits issued and only one home fully rebuilt, according to the Los Angeles County Recovery Dashboard.

The devastation scared off tourists, despite many other parts of Los Angeles' West Side remaining open. On the border between Palisades and Santa Monica since 1989 is the Channel Road Inn. On the morning of Jan. 7, 2025, all guests and staff were evacuated as the flames approached the hotel property's northern side. Firefighters stopped the fire from damaging the hotel, but it remained closed for 65 days because of evacuation orders, street closures and water concerns.

As residents dealt with displacement and their own trauma, the inn was quiet. "Being closed for more than nine weeks hit our bottom line hard, but the bigger battle came in the months that followed," said Tamara Mims, CEO and president of Four Sisters Inns, parent company to the Channel Road Inn. "Once reopened, we still faced an uphill climb, because so many travelers were actively avoiding the entire area, whether or not their destinations had actually been touched by the fire."

It wasn't until February – 13 months after the fire – that occupancy numbers reached normal levels. "That gap between perception and reality has been the hardest thing to overcome, because it directly affects the small businesses, restaurants and inns like ours that depend on visitors coming back," Mims said.

A 'rebirth' for Palisades

Murphy's move back to Palisades isn't the only risk she's taking for the town that holds her heart. Her career background is in advertising − owning her own agency − but she just took the leap to open her first retail store in July 2026. "I have no experience whatsoever," she said. "This is completely created and born from the fire, like 100%."

The idea came to Murphy last December when she began to worry about the fate of Palisades: that it would be rebuilt by big corporations and lose its beloved small-town character unless residents themselves stepped up.

Rooted in love and pride for Palisades, Murphy’s gift shop Pali Trading Post is stocked with brands that supported fire victims or items made by community members, like hanging artwork made by a Palisades artist who lost her studio in the fires.

Her venture has also given her a new sense of purpose. "It's the best therapy," she said. "Like there is no medical therapy that could do for me, like heal me the way having this store has healed me."

The new retailers devoted to reviving Palisades and the reopened Palisades Village mark new spaces for tourists and residents alike to gather – helping inject life back into the town.

Russo sees this time as a "rebirth." Her and business partner Michelle Good's jewelry store, Obsessed, was burned in the fire, and insurance didn't cover the loss of the jewelry inventory. They took their business online for a while but missed a brick-and-mortar space where they could connect with customers face-to-face. They're opening a new retail store called Palisades General Store on Sept. 19. It will still have Obsessed jewelry but also will evolve to sell other types of goods.

"I look at things in a different way, like (the fires) brought us so much closer to our community," Russo said. Although she acknowledges many people are still working through the trauma and overcoming insurance challenges to rebuild, she's focusing on the positive. "I keep reminding them, I'm like, but you're here, and we're moving on, and it's going to be better than ever."

Tips to visit Palisades responsibly

Kathleen Wong is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY. She's the author of "The Conscious Traveller Hawai'i" and is based in Hawaii.

Proposition 43 would place a nearly insurmountable roadblock preventing citizens across the state from placing any measure on the ballot that asks their neighbors to support additional funding for community needs. It would require that such measures receive not just majority support, but that they receive a yes vote from two out of every three voters.

That would mean, for instance, that voters in Sonoma County — home in the last decade to two of the most destructive wildfires in state history — would have been thwarted two years ago when nearly 62% of them supported a local half-cent sales tax to improve their fire readiness.

Right now, on this very ballot, Los Angeles firefighters are asking voters for a half-cent sales tax to hire more firefighters after staffing levels in the city have remained flat since the 1960s.

Across the state, Californians have used citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives to improve their communities. Confronted by a housing crisis that has priced out working families, some have proposed construction of affordable housing. Alarmed by hospital closures, others have put forth plans to save emergency rooms. Still others have stepped up to enhance library services and improve parks, or to strengthen 911 emergency services.

Each community has different needs and priorities. California towns and cities have come together to strengthen their public safety needs. They have collectively voted to increase funding for local fire protection — to conduct more aggressive wildfire prevention, to beef up emergency response teams, to provide more protective gear and update fire engines, to ensure more sustainable and life-saving fire response capabilities.

These citizen initiatives are then put to a vote of the community. If a majority approves, a small tax is levied to raise funds to address these specific needs.

Since 2018, voters have passed more than two dozen such dedicated-use measures by majority vote. Prop. 43 would have blocked every one of these communities from making the improvements they so clearly desired.

Under Prop. 43, it’s clear that the powerful few would be protected at the expense of everyone else.

It must also be noted what Prop. 43 does not do. It does not lower taxes for anybody. Passing it would have exactly zero effect on anyone’s cost of living.

The motivation behind Prop. 43 is clear. It’s the same motivation that is behind efforts to restrict mail voting and otherwise rig the system to prevent everyday citizens from having a say in their own government.

The summer has come and gone, and for those of us in my profession it signals a heightened state of readiness. In these days of hotter temperatures and drier wildland fuels, the idea of a “fire season” is out of date. As Californians have painfully learned, the threat of destructive fires is now a year-round thing.

Still, there remains something extra worrisome about the months of early fall, before the winter rain comes and as the autumn winds are about to kick in. It means firefighters must be more prepared. It is what we and our communities do before the fires that will most protect us when they come.

In Sonoma County, in Los Angeles County, in Calaveras County and elsewhere, voters have banded together to make their communities safer. That has been their choice. And now, in this election season, along comes a ballot proposition that would effectively take that choice away for every California community.

Prop. 43 is a gimmick backed by big corporations and developers who don’t want to ever have to pay their fair share. It will also greatly undermine our ability to keep our communities safe.

Californians must not fall for it. Vote “no” on Prop. 43. Keep the power where it belongs: with you and your neighbors.

Darrell Roberts is president of California Professional Firefighters and serves as an active-duty battalion chief with the Chula Vista Fire Department.

Take Sunset Boulevard into the Pacific Palisades today, and you’ll encounter a flurry of construction activity.

More than 21 months after the January 2025 fires that incinerated the LA neighborhood, the skeletons of new houses are rising on burned-out lots, and the whirring of heavy machinery punctuates the air.

But there are many empty lots, and the burned-out hulk of the Business Block — once the centerpiece of the commercial district — stands as a stark reminder of how much remains to be done, and how much remains stagnant.

So while there are encouraging signs, almost all of the progress is self-directed — pursued by wealthy residents, charities and LA developers like Rick Caruso. Though the rebuilding is a triumph of the resilient American spirit, the American government has gone AWOL.

Local, county and state governments have been supremely unhelpful to the victims of the Palisades fires. Back in April, LA Mayor Karen Bass visited the White House to discuss fire recovery for both the Palisades and the community of Altadena, but little has come of her visit.

The federal government helped initially. Back in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to fast-track rebuilding permits.

But in September, funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the Disaster Case Management (DCM) program, which helped survivors work with the federal emergency reimbursement process, ran dry.

The funding drought is a victim of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s self-serving grandstanding against President Trump, including authorizing $50 million in lawsuits against the administration. This lawfare occurred all while Newsom was simultaneously asking the feds for $40 billion in recovery funds, an absurdly outsized request.

As it turns out — maybe attacking your benefactor isn’t the best strategy.

Meanwhile, left out in the ash, the real victims, from the Pacific Palisades to Altadena, continue to struggle. Though the wealthy can afford to rebuild immediately, the middle class has no such luxury. Many are waiting on fire insurance checks before they can move on with their lives.

As a result of this malaise, residents are taking matters into their own hands.

In just over a year, Rick Caruso rehabilitated the Palisades Village shopping center to the tune of $100 million. He’s also urged other anchor tenants like Gelson’s to return, to spur homeowner confidence to come back to the community.

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Palisades residents have teamed up to provide a neighborhood “blockade” to defend their construction sites from rampant looting.

Organizations like the Every Fire Survivor’s Network, started after the 2025 Eaton Fire that razed much of Altadena, have fought against fire insurers which denied and delayed claims, and even found some success.

And just last week, about 500 volunteers — including celebs like TV star Joshua Jackson and FOX employees — teamed up with Habitat for Humanity for a four-day build. The initiative worked on 160 approved structures, with another 170 in the pipeline.

Overall, more than 1,000 homes are under construction in the Palisades — falling far short of the 7,000 structures that burned there.

America has always been a land of doers, people who came to this country to build a new society from scratch. California is no different — and its homeowning culture is the pinnacle of the American Dream.

We admire the tenacity of the California spirit, of Angelenos helping themselves, and working to help others. Crises can bring people together.

But the government, at all levels, should be actively trying to accelerate the process, rather than twirling on their office chairs and hoping for the best.

We celebrate the will of the people who, despite the obstacles, succeed. But where is the help they deserve?