Every once in a while, I read a city consultant’s report that is so bad, so full of holes, so obviously written by someone who parachuted into Malibu that it has to be called out. The draft city parks plan is one such failure. I pulled up the Calabasas master parks plan, and it talks more about Malibu beaches than the draft Malibu plan. Amazing.
The polling methodology was terrible. Some broad groups (like hiking, biking and greenbelts) were lumped together as one “preference,” while other uses were surveyed separately, like team sports. The data is thus seriously distorted.
How can “youth sports programs” be ranked the ninth highest program priority ranking, but fields be rated so low in the amenity priorities? Is it possibly because adult use, baseball, football and other fields were listed separately, and there was no multi-use sports field option given? Large community parks were ranked right behind trails as a desired need, with 50 percent of Malibu saying yes. Such parks include multiuse fields.
What’s worse is this study was clearly written by people with no understanding of Malibu. Beach use is not mentioned once. I daresay beach usage is the primary recreation enjoyed by all Malibu residents. The city’s role in fostering beach access is not addressed at all.
Where are bicycles? The city is building a $1.2 million bike lane on PCH, which was not even mentioned in the draft plan. The plan barely acknowledged bicycle recreation, by Malibu residents or by non-residents. Why was the California Coastal Trail not mentioned? Zuma Beach and Surfrider Beach were not mentioned. Do city residents use those county or state parks? Also not mentioned once in the report: surfing, sunbathing, kayaking, or other beach activities.
It ranks Bluffs Park parking as “good” when that lot is overloaded every weekend, causing illegal or unsafe parking. It ranks Trancas Park’s “multipurpose field” rate excellent, when organized sports are a prohibited use.
Parks director Bob Stallings and the consultant met with me for two hours about this, and listened intently. Nice people. But if the final report isn’t a big improvement over the draft, we should ask for our money back.
Hans Laetz