In the aftermath of January’s devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, which killed 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 homes and buildings, leaders vowed that they wouldn’t allow the labyrinth of local bureaucracies, so entrenched in California, to slow down recovery efforts.

Nine months later, they’re falling woefully short of delivering on their promises.

The city of Los Angeles has issued just 782 rebuilding permits, out of 1,843 applications. The county’s numbers are even worse: 568 of 2,200. In both jurisdictions, the process to greenlight rebuilds — even for homes that will be essentially unchanged from their previous designs — drags on for months.

That’s an agonizingly long time for residents looking to get their lives back to normal, especially since many of them are living i

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