My sort-of brother-in-law, who is the mayor pro tem of Malibu City Council, has received death threats over this asinine national news report that Malibu doesn’t want to feed the homeless. He got an email from a guy who asked, “Do you want to get shot in the back of the head or between the eyes?” I can’t believe a church would bring false information to the press! This is not the only “image” arriving on the private cell phones of council members, either. “All of us here have gotten calls from all around the country,” Council Member Laura Rosenthal somberly told the audience (at the giant city council meeting on Monday), pointing out there were “more than usual” numbers of sheriff’s deputies in attendance.
Really sick stuff, “some of the emails you wouldn’t want to go to anybody you know.” And, of course, news people love to publicly roast any movie star “dirt” around this town. I’ve had Starline tour buses going down my tiny road for years, pointing out where Donald Sterling lives, next to Sting, or Jeremy Piven or Matthew Perry, and now a new one’s arrived called Hollywood Tours. They culminate with a visit to the public beach and a stop at Cher’s on the bluff, for a photo-op.
The problem is that the City of LA has put in a new Metro line that gets people from downtown to the beach in Santa Monica. Then, it’s an easy transfer to Malibu’s four churches, which take turns putting on a weekly dinner for those who have no home. Each church—Presby, Catholic, the teaser-headline Methodist and maybe the Jewish Center (not sure of the fourth)—takes a turn so there’s one dinner each week of the month. Malibu homeless get free doctors, haircuts, foot rubs, shower-trucks and packets of cosmetic supplies. They have two dedicated men, both called Alex, liaising for permanent homes and services. So why wouldn’t an extra 50 or 60 people turn up in town for these benefits? The suggestion to the Methodist church, which is in a residential neighborhood and quite close to the high school, was that after Thanksgiving, it could perhaps wind the food service back for three weeks and see if the out-of-towners would desist from their long journey out to the boonies.
Beate Nilsen