When we decided to settle and raise our family in Malibu, there seemed to be several elements that made the place a community. People were willing to commute long distances on a mostly narrow highway in order to live by the sea and close to nature and bring up children in a friendly environment. The sea provided shellfish, fish and lobster so generously. Anybody could build or buy a little catamaran and sail with the very non-exclusive Malibu Yacht Club. Swimmers arrived from up and down the coast for the Zuma Mile, not a commercially sponsored event, just plain fun. Malibu Point (now Surfrider) was never crowded because surfers rode wooden boards with no leashes and shivered without wetsuits for the fun of it.Â
We felt like family with our neighbors. Doors were rarely locked. Kids were welcome everywhere seemingly without economic distinctions. People from all walks of life worked together to make it even better. Political meetings and fundraisers were potlucks, not high-ticket catered affairs. We wanted a pool where our kids could learn to swim to be safe in the ocean, and we raised money to make that happen at what is now Malibu High School. While we worried about kids hitch-hiking on PCH, Frank Hendler helped Malibu Park Junior High School kids start and operate their own bus line until the then RTD said we were in their franchise district and we said great we have been asking for bus service for years. Those same kids had the great freedom of safely riding horses and skinny-dipping in the Santa Monica Mountains. Nobody objected when Kathryn Ross cantered along the beach on horseback. We were free and happy living naturally in paradise. Shopping was for necessities and we could find almost everything we needed locally at reasonable prices. A city trip for luxuries was an occasional treat. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well of course there were problems and times when we had to support one another through various crises, but life was really good. Everything changes and life is different, but still good.
Fast forward and try to figure out why the people we’ve elected and the people we pay to manage our town want to make Malibu into a high end shopping destination.
Sarah Dixon