Article from Reason by Christian Britschgi.
Lost in the mix, however, is the way that existing development restrictions in fire-safe regions have encouraged home-building in high-risk areas, while perverse insurance regulations have shielded property owners from the true costs of living there.
“Ultimately there are people living in high-risk zones who cannot afford to bear the full risk of the places they’ve chosen to live,” says R.J. Lehmann, an insurance policy expert at R Street Institute. “They didn’t have accurate information through market signals.”
A lot of these problems, he says, can be traced back to a 1988 state ballot measure, Prop. 103, that created an elected insurance commissioner who must approve rate increases proposed by insurance companies.
…
Loosening development restrictions in cities would, the thinking goes, lead to more home construction and therefore lower housing costs. That would, in turn, give people who are priced out of fire-prone areas (following insurance reform) safe and affordable places to move to.
Read the entire article at Reason.
wpDiscuz
Growing up in rural California (now wine country where the fires are continous), we had control burns largely done by volunteer fire departments who were deemed ‘the best in the west’, and won awards for their capabilities and safekeeping of our communities. During control burns in the early summer, rattlesnake were out and about, and the fire department would capture them and always had a couple commercial sized soup pots on the stove to boil them in. Those were the good days – no fires running out of control thanks to community service and our local volunteer fire departments. So what happened? How did we get to where we are now? Can’t blame this on PG&E as our government, pushed by the environmental groups to stop control burns and stop thinning of forests and road access through them, is the cause of most of this destruction. Just like the Russian River and flooding – it occurs periodically decade by decade, and yet insurance companies and the government allow rebuilding along its banks, raising the costs of everyone’s insurance rates year after year. Yet some insurance companies in these ‘fire’ zones are running out of money, so houses are not being finished or many rebuilt at all. PG&E was forced to pursue green energy, with government experts stating it would be too costly to put power underground. Really people? What has it cost each and every one of us monetarily AND environmentally, let alone the costs of loosing it all when your home, keepsakes and loss of life are horrendous? Californians voted for Brown and Newsom – don’t you think it is time to make THEM do a reality check, be responsible and fix what they have created – environmentally unfriendly toxic smoke, ashes, and lost lives? Or do we get used to being burnt out and/or loosing loved ones and all we own each and every year due to their indiscretions? Vote them out before this happens to you!
You are right but when people have voted for the same party their whole lives and their parents before them it is hard to change their minds and live goes on the same and they continue to burn, and when the state blocks rivers that supplied you with water your lakes dry up. But some folks do not think for themselves they trust others to do their thinking. The others are betraying their trust.
Rob and haz, agree totally with both of you. Government steps in, tries to control everything and generally makes a big mess, big mistakes while doing what makes them feel righteous. When I look at pictures of our forest lands and see hundreds and hundreds of dead tree still standing it just reminds me of match sticks ready for the flame. No clearing of the underbrush, no logging, no access to many areas is a recipe for the disasters which happen. Then the elected officials point their fingers and blame everyone except those that are to blame. Themselves. As Trump said, clean up your act Ca. That’s you Newsom and all other lacking common sense.
100% Correct
Nobody’s forcing you to live there, right? I don’t see the DemoRats leaving any time soon…why stay?
Screw Californicate
Let it BURN
Why reason with Mexifornia ?..Let it Burn…No Federal Aid
Precisely. THey’re getting what they voted for.
Put Newsome. On the fire line then push him in the fire he’s an a, hole
with that worthless being gone things will get better
You all are correct this started with BROWN SENIOR and the enviromentalists that stopped the forest service from managing our wood lands correctly. Now they need to PAY THE PRICE FOR THEIR STUPIDITY! They also made a lot of money from their policies that protected those same idiot enviromentalists. All of the liberals are blind dumb and happy to keep the cash cow filling their pockets and re-electing them. They make all the grandious promises and never keep any of them. As the lady said on national TV “WHERES MY OBAMA PHONE” she already had free housing and food stamps. STOP BEING DUMB AMERICA…
Right on! Almost forgot the Obama Phone. Total nonsense.
California is “teaching” the rest of the country just how high minded and so much better than the rest of us – by allowing homeless and illegal immigrants to destroy their cities, quality of life, while bankrupting the state. GO FOR IT, YOU FOOLS!
KRAPaphornia: Make us put smog controls on lawn mowers and now want to outlaw natural gas!!
Where are the 911 twelve when you need them?
as long as democrats are in charge–these horrific things will happen, Time for a revolution!!!
As long as the PEOPLE of this State continues to vote for the party that “promises” to give them FREE everything, California will continue to fall into third-world status. I had a chance to visit once before the Dims took over. I found Cal to be a really beautiful State, L.A. and Porterville I enjoyed greatly. There is NO way I would even consider that again,any other Western State will be on my list.
I hope the Voters of Cal. wake-up and smell the trash then change their voting habits.
But, but . . .they said it was Trump’s fault!
Or the Russians?
Graze off the underbrush and undergrowth of excess vegetation, cut down diseased trees and haul them out. Keep it CLEAN!!! I watched a film of the fire going towards Regan Library–not one piece of equipment cutting a fire break–how absolutely stupid can people be??? They get what they have coming if they won’t help the situation.
It’s California. Who cares?
There is a simple solution to the housing problem in California, or for any other state for that matter–if you can’t afford the housing, move to another state where you can afford the housing. Artificially manipulating the market always causes more problems, whether that is the creation of slums or raising taxes. Also, if you can’t find a job in whatever area, move to another state or city. That keeps government bureaucrats out of your life, and problems solve themselves naturally. I live in one state and work in another, so I am an example of someone who has had to look for work outside of his local area.
I my opinion the Elites of California either want the particular properties that are burning or they are complete Idiots.I truly believe the former Not the latter !!!!!
Group plans should regulate policy contracting in these areas. Currently, you and I are paying for the idiocy of developers of these highly dangerous areas. STOP insuring them, or make it so that other citizens don’t suffer for their insanity! Sure, the VIEWS are magnificent. I’ve lived there. But the views from the ashes and bones…. not so much.
WHERS IS MY POST MODERATOR??
OK, THEN KISS MY AZZ!
Kindly cite a single example of Stalinfornia doing something NOT stupid since 1992.
Between completely irresponsible and incompetent governance and the environmental wackos it is no wonder California is the forest fire capital of the world. It is time the home owners started thinking about what they are doing.
put the worthless governor on the fire line
California is so screwed up there is no saving that state until DemocRATS, independents and republicans get together and kick the present governor and state representatives out of office and elect someone with the sense God gave a goose, a goose is born with the sense of survival and the present governor doesn’t have that sense
That headline, “California Makes a Mistake”, is funny. It should read California KEEPS Making Mistakes!