Does Malibu have a Heart and Soul? I believe, as do many of the people with whom I have talked, that it does, and a very strong one though unexpressed, in story, symbol and style throughout the public spaces of the city.
The purpose of story, symbol and style encapsulated in public places is to express in tangible form the struggle of this city’s people.
Of course as you know, the city has no publicly owned land. The struggle from the Chumash Indians, who called this land sacred to the present citizens, is how to live in harmony with this beautiful, unique yet fragile land where the mountains reach down to touch the ocean.
To struggle with that is to try to answer the question, what does sustainable development mean in this time of increased urbanization? The fragility of this land demands some answers from all of us who love it.
One question is how long can we continue to pump more wastewater into the land, than the land can hold? Another is how do we assure that every public and private septic system is like Caesar’s wife, above reproach? And how much of our own energy can we supply, in the form of solar, or a small regional energy plant? Another occurs to me in the form of how much extra traffic do we wish to encourage?
If that begins to hold some of the struggle, then what is our story? What are our symbols? What is our style? How do we convey these things to everyone who visits here, as well as reminding ourselves who we are and what we are about.
This message has to be present in the Civic Center, in any new Community Center, in every park and ballpark we are able to build.
For those of you who, like myself, hoped there would never be anything built in the Civic Center, forget it. The time of just say no is past. We’ve run out of all the valid “no” excuses. There will be development there. To think otherwise is to live in an illusion.
But to question whether what is being built is sustainable development in terms of the whole area and whether it holds the Malibu story, symbols and style is appropriate. The guidelines that the City Council are considering cover the nuts and bolts of construction. In other words, the how of building specifications. This doesn’t yet deal with making the Heart and Soul of Malibu visible in a tangible design.
I believe the time is right for the council to set up three major meetings as it did for the development agreement, to obtain from citizens their insights into not only the guidelines, but into the crucial part; that is, the story, symbols and style of the Malibu struggle. When all the insights are in we may need the help of a design producer to bring these insights together into our city’s plan for undeveloped commercial land.
The advantage of that kind of comprehensive planning is that it gives the City Council and citizens some control over what goes where in relation to the city’s design plan for the few undeveloped properties. It also puts us in a better position to get matching public funds.
What will it take besides a plan? We don’t own any land. We are, as a city, going to have the opportunity to vote for a bond issue in November to have money with which to buy land. We don’t have a design behind which our citizens can rally.
The time has come for all the disparate segments of our city to come together and work together once again under the banner of proclaiming the Heart and Soul of Malibu and passing the bond issue.
And what do I hope will happen in the future? While living in Southeast Asia, I heard various groups of monks chanting the great OM, which I was told was the voice of the earth. My hope is that someday, people will hear the sound of the Malibu earth and the music of humans joined together in a whole New Harmony of sustainable development for our time.
Georgianna McBurney