An open letter to Jerry Perenchio.
The press reports you are worth $2.7 billion.
Why not use some of this wealth to create a legacy of open space and playing fields for kids in the Malibu Civic Center rather than build more commercial structures of doubtful need?
You profess to have a love for Malibu. What better way to demonstrate this than to donate land in the Civic Center to be used as a beautiful open area in the center of Malibu.
I have no doubt that you have given your share of charitable donations; but wouldn’t it feel fine to look about you in your own town, and see the open space you have preserved, and the people of your community enjoying the benefits of your largesse?
If an outright gift to your community would too greatly diminish your family’s personal legacy, you could sell your open space to the state or to a conservancy for fair market value.
Many wealthy Americans recently have realized that their wealth can be better used to preserve our environment rather than to simply accumulate additional wealth.
Examples include: Ted Turner who has purchased vast tracts of land in mid-America to be preserved as native grass lands; Bill Gates, who has dedicated millions to create a scholarship fund to provide for deserving minority students; and there are many others who have used some of their wealth to preserve our natural resources.
Andrew Carnegie gave the world our free library systems, which you have no doubt on occasion enjoyed.
What if John Muir had not persuaded President Theodore Roosevelt to purchase Yosemite? And what if there had been no willing seller of that magnificent parkland? And what if Leo Carrillo, who played the Cisco Kid’s delightful sidekick, Pancho, had not been willing to sell his fabulous three-starfish seaside park to the state?
How about it, Mr. Perenchio? Will you join those other enlightened Americans?
Howard W. Steinman