After ordered for dismantling by county officials this month, locals seek another home for the communal project.
By Paul Sisolak / Special to The Malibu Times
The 10-foot by 22-foot plot was modest and just beginning to sprout new herbs and vegetables, recalling Malibu’s coastal communal spirit of decades past, when local growing and self-sustainability was the norm rather than the exception.
Now, sparking further debate on the future and survival of small, independent businesses in the city, a short-lived community garden was recently forced to go mobile after Los Angeles County officials ordered it be dismantled.
The small garden, which was located on county property in front of the Malibu Labor Exchange, was allegedly planted without the necessary permitting and could not continue to operate.
It forced volunteers, who ranged from Labor Exchange workers to gardening enthusiasts to other locals, to take it apart and salvage what they could from it earlier this month. Now, gone nearly as soon as it began, the garden has become another local horticultural presence (along the likes of the Trancas Nursery and Vital Zuman Farms) struggling to survive in an environment that many say is a drastic and troubling departure from Malibu’s mom-and-pop origins, slowly replaced by corporate chain businesses.
The garden’s dismantling came just weeks before city officials discussed and agreed to consider special policies and a formula retail ordinance that could protect small businesses from going under.
“It was just a simple, sweet project that I thought would represent different constituents in Malibu,” said Cindy Short, a 15-year Malibu resident.
Short, an artist working in community practice, had begun seeking earlier this year public places for a communal garden before settling on the Labor Exchange trailer, located in the Civic Center, with the help of its director, Oscar Mondragon.
Once sustainable in a 10-foot by 22-foot planter of vegetables, it’s now become a mobilized garden, existing in a series of pots and containers, replanted after an anonymous call alerted county officials of the garden.
While it’s unknown who tipped off authorities, Short said she would not protest their decision. She prefers to stimulate a dialogue between local lawmakers and other residents on how to prevent the increasing privatization of land that should be public, but is becoming increasingly scarce in Malibu.
It also speaks, Short said, to another hot-button issue within the city of the “Rodeo Driving” of Malibu-an influx of corporate chain businesses that a core group of residents believe is maligning the bucolic character of the city.
“That’s what determines what places get developed and who gets to partake,” Short said. “This project, at its heart, was saying there are a lot of people in the community who do amazing things and don’t want to see Malibu turn into Rodeo Drive. The garden project was, at its heart and soul, speaking to that as well.”
Backers of the garden, who would like to see it replanted in a safer place, echoed that sentiment. One is Labor Exchange director Mondragon, whose early affiliations with Cesar Chavez make him no stranger to community building through agriculture.
“It was the genesis of a garden,” Mondragon said. “The flight got cut short; we had to land on rough land. It hurts, the fact that we had to take it down. When you build something with the best intentions and people come by and say it looks nice, and you have to take it down from some bureaucratic situation, then you have a problem.”
“I think it’s a bad idea for her to wrap it up, for sure,” said Alan Cunningham, owner of the Vital Zuman Organic Farm, who donated materials and soil for the project.
Vital Zuman face a similar fate, its future in Malibu unclear after a developer purchased the six-acre property last year after it went into foreclosure. More recently are the troubles of the Trancas Gardens Nursery, and a community outpouring over an abrupt eviction notice served to the owners of the garden center. That eviction notice was recently rescinded.
What remains somewhat bittersweet for Short’s garden dream is that Malibu officials might not have batted any eyelashes if it was planted within the city limits. The idea of a community garden has raised support from some city council members.
“I certainly support anything that can be self-sustaining, but I also understand you’ve got to play by the rules and get permission,” said Mayor Pro Tem Laura Rosenthal. “Sometimes you don’t have to deal with that, and sometimes you do.”
The effort on the part of Short and company was akin to a World War II-era rallying of community bonding in the face of strife, Councilmember Jefferson Wagner said.
“I thought [the garden] was great. It looked nice, it gave them pride in their work area,” Wagner said. “They seemed happier when they had their little victory garden.”
Wagner also expressed concern about surmounting legal snafus that prevent small endeavors to sprout up properly.
“It’s always difficult because the intentions are always warm and wonderful, and everybody means well,” he said, “but there’s usually some type of bureaucratic regulation that puts them in a violation.”
Rosenthal said she supports the council’s decision to put its faith in recommendations from ZORACES, the city’s Zoning Ordinance Revisions and Code Enforcement Subcommittee.
“I’m really looking forward to what [they can] come up with as recommendations to stop some of this and keep our local businesses,” she said. “We need small businesses, and unique businesses, and those that have been around a long time.”
Kay Gabbard, director of the Malibu United Methodist Church preschool, is another garden supporter.
“I think it’s a shame,” she said. “I think it’s unfortunate that we have to look so far ahead and not just look at what we have today, rather than worry that it’s a big issue. I hope we can keep as much of the flavor of Malibu as we have the last 30 years. The Cindy Shorts of the world are the people who are going to do it.”