Rick Wallace/Special to the Malibu Times
Along the PCH
Forty years ago in Malibu, local markets, including the popular Mayfair Market reported a panic-buying spree as residents stocked up on two weeks worth of food and cleaned out the shelves in reaction to the Cuban crisis. The Wilson Park project under construction included six buildings, among them two high-rises of 16 stories each, creating 400 new apartment units at Sunset/PCH. An $88 million atomic power plant was proposed, to be located somewhere between Malibu Canyon and Zuma Beach. The Santa Monica Board of Education announced the plans for a new junior high school adjacent to Juan Cabrillo Elementary in Malibu Park.
Are you in the 27-mile club? There should be a club for those of us who have walked the entire length of Malibu’s beaches during the course of our Malibu life. Consider yourself derelict if you have not walked at least one mile of Malibu’s beaches for each year you have lived in Malibu. Enjoy the beaches!
How about the Backbone Trail? Certainly some of you have walked the entire thing. Not me. It is practically complete now, with nearly 60 miles of trails from Will Rogers Park in Pacific Palisades to Thornhill Broome State Beach near Pt. Mugu, passing through Malibu Canyon, Castro Peak, Kanan and Boney Mountain.
Now here is the real challenge-walk the Backbone Trail and Malibu’s entire shoreline. Circumnavigating Malibu; I bet nobody has done it yet.
Malibu has only one full-size billboard, at PCH and Heathercliff Road. It has an ad for the RV Park on one side and Pritchett-Rapf Realty on the other.
Thirty years ago in Malibu? Proposition 20-the Coastal Zone Conservation Act-was mostly opposed by locals. It would affect all development “within 100 yards of the mean high tide line” along the coast. The campaign against it featured the slogan, “Conservation Yes, but Confiscation No.” Wayne’s Seafood Store at the end of the pier advertised live local lobster for $2.50 per lb. Malibu Divers, at its current location on Rambla Pacifico, was opened by Mike Bright. “Happy Days in Southern California,” originally printed in 1899 and authored by Frederick Hastings Rindge describing his ranch life in Malibu during the 1890s, was republished by the Malibu Historical Society.
Malibu’s main city block is the Chili Cook-Off site that is bordered by PCH/Cross Creek Road/Civic Center and Webb ways. It is almost exactly the same size and shape as the Ground Zero block where seven buildings were felled on 9/11.
Have you noticed the mini Statue of Liberty that peers down over PCH from a back yard?
There are only 24 universities in America that have won at least seven national championships in Division I men’s athletics, including at least four different sports, with one of them a team championship in a major sport. Twenty-three of those universities are in large cities with more than 10,000 students and have been established for more than 100 years.
The 24th member of these sports powerhouses? Pepperdine! (3,000 undergrads, established 1937, championships in volleyball, water polo, golf and National Baseball Champion in 1992).
I think the whacko extremist environmental crowd would gain some credibility if they supported any project that involved a hammer. But they oppose all. We see from the LCP debacle how dangerous environmental bureaucracy can be.
Let Malibu grow! Malibu is already such a great place-despite a major state highway, a large university, a world famous research center, 10 million annual visitors and a medium-sized government complex. It can easily handle a few low-lying hotels and a creek side lodge. Development in the Civic Center, mixed in with a city park and fountain, will enhance its charm. Malibu will get better and better as it develops! Enough of the bureaucracy.
Malibu, 20 years ago, suffered through a mid-October fire that raged down Latigo Canyon, Kanan and Ramirez canyons, burning 44 trailers in Paradise Cove and 28 other homes. The Kiwanis Club presented a check for $7,000 to Dr. Susan Reynolds of the Malibu Emergency Center as its first major contribution derived from proceeds from its first-ever Chili Cook-Off. The Little League was preparing for its first season at a new park across from Pepperdine, forced out of its Malibu Lagoon location. A heavy December storm battered Las Flores Beach, knocking down several homes and bringing Malibu national attention again. The Malibu Board of Realtors submitted 37 pages of recommendations to Supervisor Deane Dana regarding the proposed county Local Coastal Plan.
There is a house in Las Flores Canyon that is on the odd side of the street. Its address, however, is an even number.
Ten years ago? One hundred fifty residents attended a workshop at Webster Elementary School hosted by Calthorpe Consultants to encourage community input on the ultimate layout of the Civic Center area. The Interim Zoning Ordinance was passed by the new City Council. Commenting on its ultra-restrictive nature, Realtor Brady Westwater, said, “It is the worst building code ever written. There is no place on this planet that has a building code like we have.” The city filed a lawsuit seeking jurisdiction over the permitting of 38 townhouses proposed for the Trancas area that had already obtained county permits. A balcony on Las Flores Beach collapsed during a late-night party, killing two and injuring 29 others as they fell to the rocks below.
The “candlestick” center road barricades are a worthwhile addition along the PCH near Paradise Cove and up the coast. All areas of PCH with a thin double line separating oncoming traffic, such as the east end of town where the road curves at Big Rock, might be ideal for such barricades.
Ten more of these columns and perhaps I’ll have a book.