Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told L.A.’s Morning News that when it comes to dealing with the 10 Freeway closure in downtown L.A., it’s “truly an all hands on deck” situation.
“Secretary Buttigieg is sending out top-level administrators from the Federal Transportation Administration,” she said. “We have the governor who was here yesterday. He'll be back today.”
When asked if she had a plan similar to then-Governor Pete Wilson’s incentive to contractors after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Bass said there wasn’t a specific plan but that the incentive plan did come up.
“We were talking about that incentive and it was an extraordinary amount of money, and so that is top on our mind,” she said. “We absolutely have to have this freeway repaired as soon as possible. And so we will see.”
She added that she had been assured by Secretary Buttigieg and Governor Newsom that money would be available if needed.
Mayor Bass said while the cause of Saturday’s fire is unclear, she said that as of right now, there “is no evidence pointing to an encampment” as being the cause.
“We walked the area yesterday with the fire investigators and as of right now, or I should say, as of yesterday, they did not believe that this was related to an encampment,” she said. “It still raises the issue though because we see encampments with RVS next to them, with tents next to them.”
She went on to say she asked the fire chief and the Secretary of Transportation if it was possible to find empty CalTrans properties that the RVs can safely park in.
“So all of this raises these questions and you better believe that we are going to be all over them,” she said.” I want to have an assessment of all of the freeways in the city immediately to see what is underneath them.”
Mayor Bass also said she wanted an assessment of what’s going on under the L.A. freeways.
The mayor also stressed that she wants all Angelenos to stay informed and to not “clog up the streets.”
“We want them to use public transportation. There will be increased buses and trains,” she said. “This is one of those problems, crises, emergencies, when we need Angelenos to band together and to work together just like we did through the hurricane. That was just a couple of days. This is going to be long.”
Mayor Bass said security on trains would be increased.
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