-The prospect for the coming year is that construction on Pacific Coast Highway, particularly in the Santa Monica area, is going to tie up commuters for long periods. However, the interruption from the construction of the Coastal Interceptor Relief Sewer was handled reasonably well through the use of reverse lanes. That area of PCH in Santa Monica should fully reopen in April 2015. The biggie, the rebuilding of the California Incline, was originally scheduled to begin October 2014 but delayed until spring 2015.
-Incumbents Laura Rosenthal and Lou La Monte swept back into office in the Malibu City Council election, after a heated and sometimes acrimonious campaign. The turnout was 33.56% and the final vote count as follows:
Laura Zahn Rosenthal 1,561
Lou La Monte 1,514Â
Hamish Patterson 1,141
Andy Lyon 1,129
June Louks 604
-Malibu local Ozzie Silna settled a 40-year battle when the NBA was finally able to get Ozzie to give up his contractual claims against the league’s TV revenues. Silna and his brother reluctantly agreed to accept $500 million, which brought the total dollar that the league paid Ozzie and his brother to about $1 billion. The deal, sometimes described as the best sports deal ever made, grew out of the NBA’s effort to close down the American Basketball Association and Ozzie’s insistence on taking a piece of the TV rights instead of a cash buyout.
-As it sometimes happens in Malibu, real estate and divorce got intertwined. Walmart heiress Paige Dubbert, a principle owner of the recently renovated Trancas Shopping Center, filed for divorce and accused her hubby of overpaying himself and his business partner at her expense. For a while, everything came to a standstill, perhaps waiting for the court to sort out the pieces.
