How will 2009 be remembered in Malibu history? Not as the year of outcry against a nuclear reactor (that was planned in 1962). Not as the year of protests against a new sewer (1989) or protests against a liquefied natural gas plant off our shore (2006). Not a year of objection to a new university as was the case in 1969, or a year of resistance to a new highway along the coast (1927).
No, this was the year for vociferous opposition to new parks.
Nobody in Malibu enjoys walking more than Lisa Stange. So she walks. And walks. And walks. For seven miles every Tuesday through Saturday morning, Lisa is seen walking to work along the PCH, from her home on Point Dume to the Malibu Library. In the afternoon, she walks home. Fourteen miles per day, five days per week-since 1996! …
… Before that (and still, sometimes, now for fun) ,on weekends, Lisa walked to Leo Carrillo Beach and back, about the same distance as her weekday efforts. Lisa, 46, grew up on Point Dume with her grandparents and started working at the Malibu Library in 1982. Nearly 14 years ago, rather than drive or take the bus, she began walking to work, always on the beach side of the highway. Only the most severe weather keeps her from her daily workout …
… Lisa rarely drives, loves to walk and says she can relate to the Forrest Gump character. Forrest Gump would not be able to relate to Lisa, however. While the fictitious Gump only ran across American five times, the real-life Lisa has logged enough walking miles to circumnavigate the entire globe. And then back around again the other direction.
The most common house address number in Malibu is 6225, which is on houses on six streets: Gayton, Zumirez, Bonsall, Busch, Tapia and Frondosa. Several other numbers are utilized five times: 3625, 5820, 5900, 6255 and 6400. There are only two addresses in all of 90265 that begin with an 8 or 9, up in the hills near Kanan and Mulholland. About 100 mountaintop addresses in this ZIP code have just three digits while, including condo addresses, about 2370 addresses have four digits and about 3900 addresses have five. Five-digit addresses that are most popular: 23301, 28815, 28901, 28904, 28929, 30601, 30608, 30611, each used four times.
The bridge that crosses the Malibu Lagoon is not in the original location. Back in the Rindge days, about 100 years ago, there was a bridge crossing the creek that fed the original Civic Center Way road, about a quarter mile up into what is now Serra Retreat. That was where the ranchers got across the creek without getting wet.
Catalina Island is visible from Malibu about 100 days per year, and Saddle Back Mountain in Orange County is visible to the east (yes, east) about 50 days per year. Those numbers have been increasing with better air quality in the Southland during the past generation.
What was my impetus for writing my first Along the PCH column, published in The Malibu Times in June 1995? It was an excuse to register my disgust with the many overhead utility wires that cross over the highway between Topanga and the Malibu Pier. At that time I counted 347 wires crossing above as you drive. In 2000, the number was 338 but then about two miles of Carbon Beach was converted to underground utilities. Current count: 284.
Congratulations to the city leadership for its brilliant acquisitions of the Legacy Park site and Performing Arts Center professional building. Both were steals, purchases for all of Malibu’s benefit at far less cost than they should’ve been. On a lesser note, isn’t the city losing substantial money by not promptly leasing the Coldwell Banker building at Webb Way? Letting any property sit for a year with no income does not seem so smart.
In 1968, about 100 ancient corpses were discovered near the mouth of Trancas Canyon at the end of Zuma Beach. They were estimated to be 6,000 years old.
When the Malibu Riviera Motel opened in 1949 near current-day Kanan-Dume Highway, its only competition was the Malibu Inn Motel (now a small office building adjacent to the long-demolished Arco gas station next to McDonalds), the Casa Malibu (still in operation) and the Holiday House, which is the site now of luxury townhouses adjacent to Geoffrey’s.
I hope the little hills in the Legacy Park stay as little hills in the final product. Wouldn’t that be cool?
“Sins of Commission,” the new documentary film by Richard Oshen, features a host of Malibu notables. It is a sensational expose of the abuses of power and the arrogance of the California Coastal Commission. Let me know if you would like to buy or borrow a copy of the DVD; I will get you one. If you own property in Malibu or think that Friday night football games should not be wiped out for the sake of a few nearby NIMBYs and “nesting animals,” it is a must see.