It's going to take a long, long time for Los Angeles to fully recover from the wildfires that ravaged the area earlier this year. Yet, as long as it takes to rebuild the thousands of structures destroyed, what often takes longer is getting the permission to do so. Somehow, Grimes has become one of the music world's most prominent advocates for more accessible housing in America, and she co-wrote a new piece in The Atlantic about how expediting the permit process is crucial to helping Los Angeles thrive again.
The article states that, before the fires, securing permits to construct a single-family home in Los Angeles required an average of 15 months; post-fires, developers and people looking to build are facing potentially years-long waits at the current rate. But luckily, other states are finding ways to simplify permits.
The op-ed continues by citing H.B. 14, which passed in 2023 in Texas -- a state whose real estate laws are a point of interest to Grimes. "The law grants applicants the right to hire licensed third-party architects and engineers to review permit applications and conduct inspections if local regulators fail to act within 45 days," the article reads. "As a result, housing permits have surged. In Austin, home prices and rents are falling—probably too much, if you’re a landlord. California should be so lucky."
The authors cite a few other states, including Tennessee and Florida, where similar bills have passed. It's an interesting read! In more Grimes news, she'll be playing the World Pride Music Festival in DC this June. Jennifer Lopez and Troye Sivan are headlining, with performances by Kim Petras, RuPaul (DJ Set), Paris Hilton, Rita Ora, Sofi Tukker, Tinashe, Zedd, and more.
Grimes told me this too https://t.co/I6RG1qWeQK
— AZEALIA BANKS (@iiwasinthee212) February 16, 2025
UPDATE: On Thursday (Feb. 20) Grimes took to X to plead with her ex, X owner and DOGE head Elon Musk, "about our child’s medical crisis."
“Plz respond about our child’s medical crisis,” she wrote. “I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention.
“If you don’t want to talk to me can you please designate or hire someone who can so that we can more forward on solving this. This is urgent, Elon.”
Following up in a thread she added, “I’m not giving any details but he won’t respond to texts calls or emails and has skipped every meeting and our child will suffer life long impairment if he doesn’t respond asap, so I need him to fucking respond and if I have to apply public pressure then I guess that’s where we are at.”
As it seems to be in the process of being deleted, here's another comment in that thread pic.twitter.com/Y7oK68Ngl2
— Editing Disinfo (@EditingDisinfo) February 20, 2025
