The Malibu Times will have its 70th anniversary this year. Just 70 years ago, Reeves Templeman started The Malibu Times, and it has been published continuously every week for 70 straight years — never missing an issue during that time. Karen and I bought the newspaper from Reeves and Rita Templeman in 1987 and have owned it ever since.
Throughout all of this time, there have only been two sets of owners: the Templemans and the Yorks. During those years, The Malibu Times has reported on all of Malibu’s ups and downs, the highlights and the catastrophes, the victories and the near misses.
Throughout this year, we’re going to dip into our archives to retell the stories some have forgotten or never knew, like the atomic generation plant they wanted to put on our coast, the freeway they wanted to build on Mulholland, the marina that was to go in near the Malibu Pier and the causeway that would have gone up and down the coast. It’s going to be an interesting year.
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Two catastrophes that visit Malibu from time to time are fires and floods. The last major flood year was 1983-84 when some of Malibu almost washed out to sea. With this year’s predicted 100-year El Niño, many of us who had been through the earlier torrential rains are once again feeling that tightness in our stomachs when the rain starts falling.
Tuesday, Jan. 5 marked the first rain of the season, and it felt sort of anti-climactic because the rain was heavy for a while and then it stopped. Don’t be lured into over confidence. One of the characteristics of El Niño is there seems to be a series of rolling storms, one after another. Initially, the ground, which is currently like a dry sponge, sops it all up gratefully, but then, over time and after a series of storms, that sponge gets saturated and the water begins to run off into the creeks, the streets, and the driveways, and the hills start sliding — particularly hills that have experienced fire in the recent past.
I can remember Las Flores Creek, just across the street from the Malibu Times, building, raging, looking like the Missouri River in flood, moving large enough and fast enough that a Volkswagen came down the creek like a riverboat. Hopefully we won’t have a repeat of that. I think we are now better prepared, but, ultimately, it’s nature that calls the shots and about all we can do is react.
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Recently, a California State Superior Court judge struck down Measure R (known as the Reiner Initiative) on a number of state legal grounds. The impact of this decision — unless it’s reversed — would be to knock out the recent ballot decision against the Whole Foods in the Park project. Everyone now appears to be gearing up for a long, expensive legal fight — first in state court and later continuing into federal court. I understand there are many conflicting agendas on the issues of development in our town. Perhaps before we just go into open warfare, we ought to sit down as a community and discuss this, review where we are and the possible alternatives, see if we can identify the fears and the problems, and perhaps come up with some alternative plans.
I can tell you that after 22 years as a litigator, and in many highly contested cases, the courtroom is as expensive an arena as exists. Even if and when people win, they never get exactly what they want — they end up compromising anyway because the judge mandates it in his opinion, and they often end up deeply dissatisfied. There are other ways to solve problems that are cheaper, quicker and often more effectual than a courtroom.
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Lastly, if any of you are going to nominate someone for the annual Malibu Times Dolphin Awards, please get your email or snail mail into us as soon as possible. The deadline for nominations is a little earlier this year, closing on Jan. 15. Make sure to tell us what they’ve done and why you think they should be selected.