Senseless attack on Bluffs

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    Don’t you wonder why all this urgency and fuss about Bluffs Park? At a cost of $8 million, why would anyone want to tear all the grass up and all the ball fields down and plant endangered coastal sage? Real visitor-pleasers, that! How many visitors do you know that are dying to contemplate and meditate over endangered sage as compared with the thousands of young people and their parents whose voices and energy fill this park every year?

    The only grateful entity will be the fires that traditionally rush down Malibu Canyon Road and attempt to jump PCH. Now they’ll get a real boost from all that sage enabling them to move on, nonstop, down the ravine and onto Malibu Road.

    And that dumb move to plant sage in one of the worst fire years the West has experienced will only cost the taxpayers $8 million and up.

    Maybe even the State Parks director realized that when he talked about their vision to make this a visitor orientation center for the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area. It would be like Yosemite or Yellowstone. Anyone who has been to Yosemite or Yellowstone knows that even with 25 years hard work, this envisioned park will not be Yosemite or Yellowstone. The state has at least 10 to 25 years before they need any kind of visitor center. Meanwhile, the staff at the existing park building can direct them.

    So why are those two agencies in such a rush to close one of the most successful parks in the state? It draws thousands of people for athletics from the region, hosts city meetings such as the July 4th celebration, community classes and recently, a Chumash Gathering which drew over a thousand people from a five state area.

    Makes me wonder. Why the urgency? Why the inflexibility? Why?

    I understand that there are still over 20 percent of the coastal areas without Local Coastal Plans, including Los Angeles County. That’s a very bad record for a program strategy the Coastal Commission started in 1976. Now, 26 years later, and it’s still not done.

    Maybe if they can bring Malibu to her knees, the rest will fall like dominoes. No wonder they have to win every battle. Even the one against little children.

    Georgianna McBurney