You know of “27 miles of scenic beauty.” What are the 27 miles? Well, from Topanga to Malibu Canyon is 7.2 miles. From Malibu Canyon to Kanan is 5.8 miles. Kanan to Encinal Canyon is 5.3 miles and then to Yerba Buena is 4.6 miles more. That’s about 23 miles. There are Malibu residents up Coastline Drive to the east and up Deek Creek further west, so that gets it closer to 27 miles. Close enough, at least.
With the re-opening of the local library, it’s interesting to look back on Malibu’s library history before the facility first opened in 1969, connecting Malibu to the world of books. In her “Libraries” chapter of “My Fifty Years in Malibu,” the late Dorothy Stotsenberg provides some retrospective:
For 20 years before the Civic Center branch opened, Malibu was served by an L.A. County Library bookmobile. It stopped at six different locations around Malibu, emanating from the West Hollywood Branch. We have Starbucks as the local, casual gathering place now, but for a generation it was the bookmobile where locals met for the latest gossip and recipe-exchange.
Though it had limited stock, request for any book in the system could be made and received the next week. The 1950s version of a research task simply took a couple weeks (whereas now it takes a couple minutes). Even before the bookmobile, an official branch of the L.A. County Library was set up in Decker Canyon in 1913, where books were delivered by mule via the San Fernando Valley. The new Decker School in 1919 had a “branch library room,” with library days being Monday and Friday. That was the only library Malibu had until the bookmobile in 1949.
I’m rooting for a new Malibu school district. It will not be easy, but where there is a will, there is a way. We got a city. We got a high school. We can get a school district.
McDonald’s opened in 1978.
Malibu city council elections trivia: Skylar Peak has the distinction of being a first-time candidate that garnered the most votes. But he is not unique. Laura Rosenthal had the same accomplishment in 2010 (along with the distinction of being the one woman candidate facing nine men in the election). Peak, excluding the five winners of the first election in 1990, is the 11th candidate in Malibu history to win in his first campaign. 20 individuals in all have served now, (four having lost before they won).
Seventy-seven total candidates have run over the years, with 57 never winning. John Harlow in 1994, Harry Barovsky in 1998 and Sharon Barovsky in 2002 were also first-time campaigners who got the most votes, though Harlow and Sharon had been appointees already to the council. Joan House shared the previous record of three election victories, tied with Carolyn Van Horn, Jeff Jennings and Sharon Barovsky (who won once in a special election after her appointment), but now House stands alone with four campaign victories. House also completed her fifth campaign, tying her with Walt Keller.
And one final thing on elections: Peak is the 10th different top vote-getter in the 11 regular elections there have been. Only House has been tops twice, in her campaigns of 1996 and 2000.
Just one quick note about my visit to Laos in January. For a week exploring the most remote jungles, I noticed our guide’s cell phone worked everywhere! But here in Malibu, driving along one of the busiest highways in America?
So, let’s see. First, the city makes commercial space zoning so scarce, far less than needed for a city this size and with the number of visitors we get, that market supply/demand factors drive space prices sky high, beyond what mom and pop can usually afford unless they are very competitive. Then, as if that intrusion into the marketplace is not enough, the city will now try to force consumers and landlords to artificially cater to mom and pop businesses, and exclude popular, successful businesses, so commerce will become even more inefficient and perverted?
The sign at Cross Creek Plaza is so out of date, its a joke. Many of businesses noted on the sign haven’t been there in years.
It’s baseball season and we have one of the most beautiful baseball fields in America right here at Pepperdine. There have been 110 colleges that have made it to the College World Series of Baseball. Twenty-four schools have won it all, including Pepperdine. The Waves are one of only two schools with the distinction of winning the national championship with the fewest visits to Omaha, twice (also Wake Forest). Pepperdine first qualified for the tournament in 1979, but went undefeated as national champs in 1992. This is the 20th anniversary of that championship.
I have written a real estate column for The Malibu Times since 1993, but my predecessors with such a column over many years included Frank Roop, Gary Harryman and Dick Lowe.
It’s seems odd to me every time I get to the bottom of the hill below Geoffrey’s, or below Ralph’s, and a cop is not there.