One hundred nights of games? When will the students have time for home work?
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has for many years rented out the Malibu High School baseball fields to various men’s clubs and now wants a lit football field, lit bleachers and lit parking for as many nights as possible to generate as much revenue as possible for the entire Santa Monica school district.
Permanent lights are not just about a few games for the football team at Malibu High School. Permanent lights would be impossible to regulate, especially given the track record of SMMUSD. The fox does not guard the hen house.
The SMMUSD has no concern or thought at all for the impact of lights on the precious wildlife, the residents, the views from homes and public trails, the dark skies, that are the norm in Malibu. The huge, permanent poles reaching into the horizon every day of the year, and the laws banning lights that were flagrantly ignored, let alone the football field itself which, as Peggy Garritty pointed, out was permitted “after the fact.”
Many prior generations of Malibu citizens fought hard to preserve the essential uniqueness that is the Malibu that we can still appreciate today, and this latest demand “for the kids” is none the less adversarial to our LCP that we should have been aware of when we moved to Malibu.
Yes it’s not Minnesota, but this pocket of nature, an abnormality in Southern California, is visited by millions, protected by a few and defined by its views and vistas, wildlife, fish and fowl. Malibu high school students could be proud of this and the commitment beyond their own interests to preserve what is truly unique about their town, their school. Lack of lights does not mean a lack of ability to develop character in athletes and students at Malibu High. Far from it.
Remember “The Lorax?” Yes, we are not clear cutting trees but with pesticides polluting the football field, decimating the wildlife, and bright lights polluting the night skies, we would surely be clear cutting the very essence of all we hold dear in Malibu.
I wish The Sharks every success this season, but please no lights.
Rachel Roderick-Jones