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Palisades Village mall reopening reveals the secret of America

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The Palisades Village mall has been a landmark in Pacific Palisades since it opened in 2018. 

We used to joke about how the high-end stores were so expensive that even locals in our well-to-do neighborhood struggled to shop there.

But Rick Caruso’s mall became more than a fancy shopping center. 

It became a village green, a safe place to leave your kids after school, a romantic place to have a date.

My wife and I had drinks there together, often. We were there on the Wednesday night before Gavin Newsom closed all the restaurants for COVID (except for the French Laundry, of course).

We were there on the Saturday night before the fire, sitting at the bar at Angelini’s. We said hello to old friends and looked ahead to the new year.

When the smoke cleared, most of the buildings in the center of Pacific Palisades were gone. The Business Block, the oldest commercial building in town, was gutted.

But Caruso’s mall was still there. 

A former city water commissioner, Caruso knew how limited and incompetent the city of LA’s response would be. He made sure his mall was built from fire-resistant materials, and he hired private firefighters, with their own water trucks.

Standing on the corner of Sunset and Swarthmore, you could see the contrast between what the city had a duty to protect, and what a private property owner had, in fact, protected.

To a few, the difference showed........

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