Frank Churchill’s letter rationalizing the proposed night lighting at Malibu High School is not only disappointing, but disturbing for its flawed logic.
Different areas of the world support different activities. If skiing is important to your family, you don’t move to Florida. You don’t move to Oslo to scuba dive. Have a talented ice skater? You move to where the coach is, he isn’t moving to you.
When Mr. Churchill moved to Minnesota, did they bring in surfing? No, it didn’t fit there, no ocean. When moving his family here, did anyone notice that mountains reaching to the ocean don’t make football fields spring to mind?
I was a forward on my New York high school basketball team. Its quality and popularity had nothing to do with the lights at night in the gym. Speaking of which, why not focus on the basketball and volleyball teams at Malibu High. Lots of night lights in a gym, already exists, little impact on the neighborhood. Malibu and its climate offer unique sports and activities not available in most of the world. Why not focus on them?
I’d like to introduce Mr. Churchill and other night light supporters to Malibu’s General Plan, the official blueprint of this city.
I quote, Vision Statement: “Malibu is a unique land and marine environment and residential community whose citizens have historically evidenced a commitment to sacrifice urban and suburban conveniences in order to protect that environment and lifestyle, and to preserve unaltered natural resources and rural characteristics.”
Mission Statement: “Malibu will maintain its rural character by establishing programs and policies that avoid suburbanization and commercialization of its natural and cultural resources.”
It is well documented that lighting disturbs wildlife, and please don’t say the majority of homeowners in Malibu Park support the lighting-we know better. We also know this isn’t about night lights for only a few football games. When Mr. Churchill says he “is truly lucky and blessed…..to experience the wildlife in Malibu,” he is conveniently naive that another stressor on this already shrinking, stressed ecosystem won’t have a negative impact. We are also one of the last places in Southern California with a night sky still dark enough to see the stars.
It is beyond me why people move here for the country feel of the place, and then try to bring in the very suburbanization they left behind. There is no city, no place on earth that can have it all. Malibu has much more than most places just in the richness of its very nature. Please don’t compromise it.
Remy O’Neill