I’m sitting here trying to determine an effective way of communicating the passion I feel for this wonderful place in which I’m privileged to live. Even though burdened with the grating daily weekday commute to mid-LA and back, I wouldn’t trade this environment and small town feel for the convenience and congestion of the city any day. Highlights of my weekdays are my trip north through the McClure Tunnel at day’s end and my favorite view descending down towards Corral Canyon, getting the first view of Pointe Dume. I loathe the beautiful weekday mornings when I have to head for work, wanting instead to just walk on the beach and view the mountains with the lucky ones who get to stay or work here all day.
It genuinely breaks my heart to know that this special place seems destined for over-development and even more traffic congestion. Our rural small town with open space beauty is being filled in by one office building, retail center and super-sized mansion at a time. Our Civic Center was filled in by supposedly needed commercial development, and now a sewer treatment plant that will quickly open Malibu up for even more development. Trancas open fields now turned into more gated estates, and the market center re-developed to handle more traffic. And one small highway artery that can’t handle its traffic burden now-let alone if all this happens. I thoroughly enjoyed the citizen revolt against the recent street closure on Civic Center Way and hope these same people come forward to fight the commercial development that will impact greater their daily routes.
This November 4 is a turning point for our City. We have a Development Agreement forced on us that is one-sided, confusing, complicated, fiscally risky and definitely divisive. I still harbor the hope (some would say naivete) that when we are forced to vote that day, Malibu citizens will passionately vote “No” on Measure M, saving our community from the same over-development fate of most beach towns.
Tami Clark