I, too, saw Sara Wan on national television, and can only say thank goodness that at least one Malibu resident knows that our city is a national laughing stock and local shame because of the fences and wall-to-wall houses that keep people off our beaches. I well remember back when the people of California voted in favor of Proposition 20, which created the Coastal Commission, nearly 30 years ago. I am convinced that the butt-ugly Pacific Coast Highway scene-with its miles of public property walled off and treated like an exclusive country club-was the reason it passed by a landslide. Now, a quarter century later, the same selfish beach front interests are screaming like stuck pigs as time catches up with them and their private fenced-off Riviera. It’s so sad that our City Council is afraid to stand up to the beachfront lobbying block and act on behalf of everyone else in this city. The people most affected by these selfish acts are the majority of Malibu residents-those of us who do not poach upon the rights of the majority by locking up our coastal access.
I grew up in a California beach town. Traffic, noise and the impact of people enjoying our coastline come with living at the beach. My relatives who can’t stand that part of coastal living now reside in Sacramento, Phoenix or Missouri. Good for them!
Malibu has denied reality for three decades and refused to abide by the state’s constitutional requirement to act like every other oceanfront town in California and open our beaches. And the people have spoken: you live at the beach, you open them up!
The first time that a minor political appointee out here, Edward E. Vaill, personally attacked Coastal Commissioner Wan, I wrote it off as immature anger. Now that this planning commissioner has again-in a letter to the editor-called on Wan to resign and move away, I must voice my disgust and shame that he sits on our city’s planning commission. Frankly, Vaill represents the very reason that the rest of the state and its government collectively hate us. Sara Wan merely wants Malibu to follow the clear intent of the Constitution, as voted by an overwhelming majority of the state’s residents. If Vaill is unwilling to accept this basic law and act to uphold the state’s constitution, then it is he who must resign. And if he can’t deal with living next to the ocean, there are lots of nice gated communities he can investigate. Thank goodness most of them are inland.
Hans Laetz