As a longtime resident with an immodest resume as an ardent environmentalist, planner, academic and author, I was asked after attending the recent Reiner rally by a Measure R proponent why I was voting “no.”
I personally and professionally believe it is a flawed, weak and misdirected measure that will be ultimately costly to all involved, and will not achieve what it is suppose to: protect and preserve Malibu.
But before I could murmur two words, the proponent castigated me while poking me in my ailing chest. Ouch.
That also gives me another reason for voting “no:” the posturing proponents have obscenely outspent the opposition nearly ten-to-one. And much of it has gone to denigrate Steve Soboroff, who I have known for 30 years — during which time I estimate he has spent more time and good will in Malibu than most residents.
The monies and efforts could have better gone to identify and oust the real culprits — our self-aggrandizing, paranoid council and self-serving, fatuous city government who, if they had been doing their job as charged in our General Plan, could have avoided the unfortunate present conflagration.
Sam Hall Kaplan