As a longtime resident of Malibu who was at first hesitant about the initial bulldozing of the Chili Cook-off land, I would like to agree with Sharon Barovsky’s views on Legacy Park. The Chili Cook-Off land could have ended up as a strip mall or office facility park which would have urbanized the heart of our rural Malibu. Instead it acts as an environmentally-minded Civic Center rain water collection and disinfection holding area before it enters the Malibu Creek watershed.
As the evolution of the newly planted native landscape adapts and matures, the more I am appreciative of keeping our city’s center from becoming another corporate retail center. As the seasons pass, the sycamores will bloom into future shade trees and the native shrubs will multiply with enthusiastic growth spurts to mimic our native hillsides once again.
At the same time that the native plants take root, our Malibu youth are seeking a place for a skate park to take root. The flat area between the Legacy Park and the fake lumber yard would be an absolutely perfect place to put a world class concrete skate park to replace the Papa Jacks location. What a great center of youth activity it could be, centrally located on city land and a hallmark of our worldwide reputation of our surfing skating rural lifestyles. So many coastal towns that are far less affluent than Malibu have world class skate parks. Let’s get one here and put the Legacy back in Park.
Steve Woods