Josie Huang covers Asian American communities for the LAist and KPCC newsroom.
Anna Schlobohm de Cruder comes to her Altadena property several times per week to water her grass and plants while also maintaining a compost heap to produce fertile soil for the garden she is working to rebuild.
Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.Soil testing is on the “to-do” list for many still trying to recover from the January wildfires. But it can slip down the priority chain as people focus on finding housing or dealing with insurance claims. An event tomorrow in Altadena’s Loma Alta Park aims to make testing easy and accessible for those who want it. Soil health experts fromwill be on site to show people how to collect soil from their homes for lead testing. Samples can then be brought back to the park.. The group formed to help survivors of the Palisades and Eaton fires, and surveyed nearly 2,000 of them this summer. “One out of every three people who wanted environmental testing still hadn't been able to access it yet,” Giachetti said. “But 84% of survivors believe that their homes or properties are contaminated, so there's a high level of concern.”Giachetti said the goal of increasing access to testing is to provide people with the “information that they need to move forward, whether that is with further testing and remediation.”Residents who can’t make it to their properties because they live far away now or have mobility issues can also request volunteers collect samples for them through USC CLEAN’s Areas in the testing zone for contamination from the Eaton Fire. Properties located downwind of, and just outside, the Eaton Fire, marked here in yellow, are prioritized for free soil testing under this program. Soil samples from other areas in the red zone may also be submitted.by the county's public health department in and around the burn zones showed levels of lead and other contaminants were higher than the state’s thresholds, but it said “there is no evidence of widespread contamination from fire-related chemicals." Additional testing could provide some residents with peace of mind like it did for Giachetti, whose Altadena home survived when so many others around it didn’t.“I thought that there was no way that our levels weren't off the chart, which was devastating to me, because my family — like many families — moved to Altadena because it has really good health indicators,” said Giachetti, citing the community’s air quality. Instead, test results from her home’s soil showed lead levels were well below government thresholds — 80 parts per million under state standards for residential properties and 200 parts per million under the federal EPA’s standard. “It was one thing that I could then take off my mental load and not have to worry about in recovery,” Giachetti said. Giachetti said she hopes Saturday’s event — which will include free yoga classes and a plant potting station — draws a strong turnout considering so many residents have been displaced. “It's a little tricky because you can't do traditional kind of community outreach,” Giachetti said. “You can't knock doors. We don't have doors anymore.”As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone. Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us. We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community. Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.Duplexes are now banned in post-fire Palisades. Here’s why they’re still allowed in Altadena L.A. Mayor Karen Bass suspended a state law allowing duplexes, calling more housing unsafe. But in Altadena, L.A. County leaders say these projects could be key for rebuilding.Investigation underway into claims LAist unearthed about top LA homeless services officials L.A. County investigators have launched a probe into allegations about Va Lecia Adams Kellum and people she hired at the L.A. Homeless Services Authority.Proposition 50: Allowing California to use new congressional maps to counter redistricting in Texas This measure on the Nov. 4, 2025, California ballot is part of a larger battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year.After rising for years, the number of residential installations in the city of Los Angeles began to drop in 2023. The city isn’t subject to recent changes in state incentives, but other factors may be contributing to the decline.State lawmakers unveil bill that would put new limits on LA’s hotly debated ‘mansion tax’ Taxes on the sale of some newer apartment buildings would be lowered under a plan by Sacramento lawmakers to partially rein in city Measure ULA.Which schools get to have crossing guards? Here’s how LA is changing the system LA’s legal cannabis owners say multi-million dollar program to give them a hand up, instead left ‘complete debt and devastation’
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