with change
In this whirligig of change in which we live, all of us try to find some mundane certainty to which to cling. And when our unchangeable changes, an uproar breaks out. I live in the Vista Pacifica Townhouses and frankly have been overjoyed by the experiment to block off Civic Center, once a quiet little street that residents knew as a shortcut between PCH and Malibu Canyon Road. I think that little Z cutoff must be known from San Diego to Bakersfield by now. What was a quiet little street has become a freeway bypass with streams of cars, vans and trucks. Some of us who live off Civic Center Road wait from two to five minutes to join this mad race of speeding vehicles. Of course, I told myself, it was good neck exercise, swinging my neck from left to right searching for a small space in which I can make a left turn.
The objecting letters have revealed this “Don’t Change Anything” enigma. My favorite letter expressed irritation and claimed there were only two condominium projects – that was true prior to 1986 when I moved into the newly built Vista Pacifica Townhouses. If the author had really looked recently, he would have noticed a fourth project making a total of some 200 condo homes. Assume each home has two cars. Actually it is a bit more than that. That accounts for 800 trips of Civic Center ingress and egress each day.
And the schools! Back in 1986, Webster had so few pupils, it was wondering if it could stay open. In 2003 it is overflowing with students and staff, about 500. And Our Lady of Malibu has over 300 in students and staff. Count the trips. It is a huge number and contains the hope of our city – its youth.
The Z traffic shortcut between PCH and Malibu Canyon Road has turned a city residential street into a major over-abused speedway. If the past has changed, so will the future. The demographic experts, after the last census, predicted that Malibu, now 13,000 plus citizens will reach 20,000. The cities surrounding us in the valley will increase in population by 100%. The experts could be wrong either way.
My sympathy goes to all of you who wrote. I, too, cling to what seems stable and isn’t in this roller coaster of life on which we all are. But the answer is not to endanger lives and abuse residential streets which our city pays to keep up. The answer lies in understanding the problem, in making CalTrans reset lights so traffic can flow and to make clear to that state group that the use of residential streets and the PCH in Malibu as freeways is not the answer to the 101 freeway problem.
Georgianna McBurney