In 2007, I was recruited to Malibu, from Tucson, Arizona, to be the clinical director of The Canyon at Peace Park. Immediately, I was homesick for the warm, welcoming, small-town type of community offered by Tucson. A stranger in line at Starbuck’s suggested that I visit Malibu Gardens. She said, “The owner there will answer all of your questions about Malibu.”
A few weeks later, I wandered into the nursery to meet Mrs. Shelby Basso. Shelby, a tour de force in her own right, greeted me with open arms. Shelby, a long-term native of Southern California, serves as a de facto Malibu community welcoming wagon. Shelby is a recipient of the Malibu Dolphin award, an award she well deserves.
Shelby, together with Malibu Gardens, offers respite from the all too common contemporary alienation of modern America. When I visit the gardens, I am reminded of sweeter times when people cared more about their communities and neighbors, when business development was not so impersonal. I have lived in four states and in France. I have watched decades of modern development destroy too much for way too little in the name of progress. I am very happy to live in a community that is actively protesting one more inhumane business decision. If the developers succeed in destroying something so beautiful, I will not ever shop there, no matter how inconvenient.
I am blessed to call Malibu my home.
E. Hitchcock Scott