• If it appears that there were more homeless people everywhere you went this year, it’s because homelessness was up 12 percent over the previous year in LA County, a total of 58,936 homeless in the county. The county homeless services authority caused some confusion when it changed the way it calculated the number of homeless in Malibu compared to previous years (this time not including unincorporated 90265 and Topanga), showing a decreased number of homeless individuals in the city.
• The historic Adamson House, built on the ocean at Surfrider Beach, is slowly being eroded. It has already lost two 100-year-old trees, a stairway to the waves and a beach shower. There was disagreement about what’s causing it all, but rising seas, and, some charge, the changes in the lagoon and its impacts, have endangered the lawns, use for weddings and possibly, in time, the entire house.
• Whole Foods Market finally opened in the new Steve Soboroff-built center, The Park at Cross Creek. Now that it’s there, you have to ask yourself—What was the fighting all about? This center was years in the making. The Rob Reiner ballot proposition that passed in 2014 trying to stop the center was destroyed in the courts, as many of us predicted it would be. This nonsense that this new shopping would destroy Malibu life as we know it was just that: pure nonsense. Many rail at the irrationality of Washington politics but I sometimes wonder if Malibu politics really are any different.
• 2019 Citizenship Award winners:
Each year for the past 32 years, The Malibu Times has recognized certain students for their dedication to their schools and the community, as nominated by teachers, administrators and peers. This year’s winners were:
Noa Walters – Point Dume Marine Science School
Amelia Goudzwaard – Malibu High School
Addison Arlidge – Our Lady of Malibu School
Kane Rocca – Webster Elementary School
Olivia Rivard – Webster Elementary School
Vera Kibler – Juan Cabrillo Elementary School