So, Mr. Silna and the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy want to conserve land? Fine. Knock your houses down. In the meantime, some of us actually have to shop for our basic needs from commercial developments in our city. Many citizens are business owners in our city supporting their families and providing your goods and services from commercially developed sites. We elect a council to represent us in our city, not to piece together the dumbest fear-based real estate deal ever while our basic goods and services slip away, traffic is horrific and crime is worse than ever. I guess what I’m saying is we incorporated to operate as a city, not to conserve land at the expense of our growing community.
Mr. Silna believes paying $25 million for the chili cook-off site will solve a myriad problems by restricting “large scale commercial development.” It’s as if members of the City Council and Conservancy don’t need to enter any commercial buildings in Malibu to purchase goods and services. Perhaps this is why so many local retailers and service providers are going out of business.
Lack of retail space has driven up lease fees in Malibu to such a degree that we are beginning to push out the most basic goods and services required for a community to sustain itself. This is in light of recent natural disasters, our precarious geological and topological conditions and historical road closures of our main arterial route in to and out of our city. You thought New Orleans was vulnerable?
Our hardware supplies already have to be trucked in. Perhaps in the future we can all leave our million dollar homes and gather at the Central Chili Wastewater Treatment Park excitedly awaiting the truck delivering our hardware, food and healthcare after basic retailers and services can no longer sustain the ridiculous Malibu rents. If the roads are open, that is.
Traffic, increased crime, a loss of local businesses, a barren boulevard! Dear God, our highway is being patrolled by empty patrol cars. What’s next? Cardboard cutouts of the actual officers themselves?
The only thing I want to contribute to these insane people is a watch so that they can finally realize what time it is.
Jannette Frazier