How Can This Happen by Betsey Bell
Oct 5, 2026 · 31 min · 11 segments
The government won't leave you to take care of your own needs. The government won't let you rebuild. Los Angeles is never going to rebuild the way they want to. Communists are in charge. Voters…
Betsey BellHost
And it was kind of interesting because last week I saw an interview on Fox News at night.
It was Trace Gallagher talking to Rick Caruso, entrepreneur and developer in Los Angeles.
Now, Rick had run for mayor in Los Angeles, and he was defeated by Karen Bass, and that was in 2022.
But now she is running to be reelected again, so voters have to decide whether they want her to extend her overarching entrepreneurial and spirit of California over the city of Los Angeles again for another six years.
You're supposed to be able to handle that, but we know people get offended so easily.
So what happened? When Caruso lost the race for mayor, he had a lot of property on his plate because he's a huge developer and owns multiple little, uh, centers, commercial real estate.
One of the major real estate places that belongs to his development and property management is in Pacific Palisades, and it's a beautiful center.
And so when Trace Gallagher was interviewing him, they were walking on the reopened, brand-new, totally refurbished, absolutely gorgeous property of the Pacific Palisades.
Now, when the fire hit, the center was not burned to the ground like the rest of Pacific Palisades.
And why was that? Well, Caruso had an inkling that there could be a problem, and he set up safeguards for his shopping center so that it just wouldn't be plighted and taken down like the rest of the Pacific Palisades.
So when we decide how we are going to move forward and what we're gonna do about what happens, this is what you can do.
You can let yourself know that if something catastrophic happens, what is your response gonna be? Are you gonna say, "Tear it down, and I'll walk away"? There were a lot of people hanging on Rick Caruso's coattails.
What do I mean by that? The developers who built it, the commercial contractors who put in all the electricity, who light it, who pave it, who make the parking lots, who clean it, and all of these people who support the property by renting and leasing space to sell their products.
So all of these people were depending on Rick Caruso because he owned the center.
And it was kind of interesting because last week I saw an interview on Fox News at night.
It was Trace Gallagher talking to Rick Caruso, entrepreneur and developer in Los Angeles.
Now, Rick had run for mayor in Los Angeles, and he was defeated by Karen Bass, and that was in 2022.
But now she is running to be reelected again, so voters have to decide whether they want her to extend her overarching entrepreneurial and spirit of California over the city of Los Angeles again for another six years.
You're supposed to be able to handle that, but we know people get offended so easily.
So what happened? When Caruso lost the race for mayor, he had a lot of property on his plate because he's a huge developer and owns multiple little, uh, centers, commercial real estate.
One of the major real estate places that belongs to his development and property management is in Pacific Palisades, and it's a beautiful center.
And so when Trace Gallagher was interviewing him, they were walking on the reopened, brand-new, totally refurbished, absolutely gorgeous property of the Pacific Palisades.
Now, when the fire hit, the center was not burned to the ground like the rest of Pacific Palisades.
And why was that? Well, Caruso had an inkling that there could be a problem, and he set up safeguards for his shopping center so that it just wouldn't be plighted and taken down like the rest of the Pacific Palisades.
So when we decide how we are going to move forward and what we're gonna do about what happens, this is what you can do.
You can let yourself know that if something catastrophic happens, what is your response gonna be? Are you gonna say, "Tear it down, and I'll walk away"? There were a lot of people hanging on Rick Caruso's coattails.
What do I mean by that? The developers who built it, the commercial contractors who put in all the electricity, who light it, who pave it, who make the parking lots, who clean it, and all of these people who support the property by renting and leasing space to sell their products.
So all of these people were depending on Rick Caruso because he owned the center.
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