Rick Wallace
Along the PCH
The little hamburger stand at Country Liquor store on Pacific Coast Highway at Rambla Pacifico has had its current design since the early 1970s. That location has been serving food in one form or another since the late 1930s when the intersection was the heart of Malibu.
€ I drive past the Malibu RV Park a thousand times a year, without hardly ever noticing it. The park is now 32 years old, serving visitors to Malibu with ocean view convenience with 142 RV spaces and 35 tent sites. Celebrities have made use of the 19-acre complex as a quiet hideout and it has been an inexpensive refuge for burnout victims after disasters (as well as a virtual firefighter camp during such crisis). This time of year, a full hook-up for a night or week at the park is just a little more than $50 and $300, respectively. Inexpensive, temporary Malibu living. Besides its proximity to Corral Beach, it is a starting point for hikes along trails into Solstice and Puerco canyons to each side.
€ Remember when one of the Southland’s top jazz clubs was Pasquali’s in Malibu, located upstairs in the former PierView structure?
€ Malibu history quiz No. 1: Which of the following publicly planned establishments came to fruition?
There are three correct answers; the rest never came to be:
A) An elementary school in Big Rock
B) A nuclear reactor at Corral Canyon
C) A USA Defense missile base at the top of Las Flores Canyon
D) A golf course on Point Dume
E) A golf course in Corral Canyon
F) A motel on Cross Creek Road
G) A marina in the Malibu Lagoon
H) A GM office facility on the bluff above Malibu Road
I) A jail in east Malibu.
Answer is below.
€ 2008 will end with about 400 homes having been for sale for between $1 million and $4 million, but only about 50 of them selling all year. (Not a big deal. Almost every homeowner in Malibu thinks their house is worth more than $4 million, anyway, don’t they?)
€ If you wish to jog or walk around the new Malibu Lagoon Park, the perimeter is almost exactly a half-mile. The same is true at Bluffs Park, including the perimeter of the parking lots at both places.
€ The new signal at Corral Canyon will mean there are now 27 traffic stoplights from County Line to the Santa Monica tunnel, in case you are not keeping track at home as I am.
€ Charlie’s was previously Allegria. Before that it was Cardi’s. Before it was there, Cardi’s was in a small diner in the PierView building, adjacent to the Euphoria Record store in the mid-1970s.
€ Malibu history quiz No. 2: Every one of the following exclusive groups of people has had at least one of its members reside in Malibu, except one. Which one?
A) Las Vegas World Series of Poker champion
B) President of the United States of America
C) America’s best-known cartoonists
D) Miss USA titlist.
E) Academy Award winner for Best Actor/Actress
F) Nobel Peace Prize winner
Answer is below.
€ I wonder if there will ever come a time that a public works project to restore sand to Malibu will be a viable and active idea? Imagine if all the 27 miles of coast, particularly all of where homes are now, had at least 50 feet of permanent sand at high tide. I estimate that Malibu has 12 miles of residential beachfront, excluding public, commercial and bluff locations. Half of it does not have sand you can walk along at high tide. The sand at Santa Monica beaches, far wider than necessary or practical, could be a great source to replenish our beaches (their sand was once ours, anyway). Possibly the increased economic and aesthetic value would be worth the cost of such a project?
€ Quiz No. 3: Which one of the following has never been in Malibu or associated with Malibu?
A) The Olympic torch
B) Location for a No. 1 TV show
C) A railroad
D) A rum factory
E) Ringo Starr
F) A case settled by the U.S. Supreme Court
€ According to the sensational web site, www.MalibuComplete.com, there are about 100 products, services, and companies that use the “Malibu” name. There is even a Malibu type font.
€ This is possibly the best month of the year to take a walk on one of Malibu’s beaches. Since you haven’t visited the beach all year (shame), maybe you should treat yourself to an hour on one you have never walked before. All 27 miles are accessible-nothing better to do if you live in Malibu. In all economic times, it is a free and inspirational activity.
Quiz No. 1 answer: C, D and I
The missile base became a fire camp at Las Flores/Rambla Pacifico; the motel became the Malibu Country Mart; the small jail in the brick building across from La Costa Beach, Malibu’s original courthouse, is now a private events club.
Quiz No. 2 answer: F
Past residents of Malibu include Jamie Gold, 2006 winner of the World Series of Poker; President Reagan spent summers renting a house on Broad Beach when he was governor; Gary Trudeau (Doonesbury); Shannon Marketic, the 1992 Miss USA winner and a Pepperdine student soon after; numerous Oscar winners, of course.
Quiz No. 3 answer: D
The Olympic torch came through Malibu before the 1984 L.A. Olympics; “Battle of the Network Stars,” filmed at Pepperdine University, hit No. 1 in the late 1970s; the Supreme Court decided that a highway could go through Malibu in the 1920s; the Malibu Rum factory is in Barbados.
Happy Holidays