We used to joke about the Dume Room, calling it the doomed room, a neighborhood bar on the waters’ edge. For me and my family and friends, it was always great. Great pool, great music, generous drinks but, most importantly, great people with generous spirits (the non-alcoholic variety.)
Without the Dume Room and what came before it, we would not have “Anna Christie” by Eugene O’Neill, “The Time of Your Life” by William Saroyen or “Deadwood” by David Milch, to name a few. We live in Malibu because we love this small town. An unanswered question by one friend will surely be answered in under a couple of hours by another.
The longer one lives here, the more friends one has. Now, that’s communication. Doesn’t the new Pt. Dume Center property owner know that we are a loyal bunch? That we will continue to frequent Pt. Dume even though there is already insufficient parking? That we can drive to How’s, as always, and have coffee at Trancas? Maybe the new owner doesn’t care yet, but we do.
Change is wonderful, and growth is great. But if it’s not broken, why fix it? Old and new Malibu can coexist but let’s keep our mosaic of American culture. Maybe what needs to be fixed and balanced is the relationship between tenants and landlords. Our livelihoods have to be protected. When my daughter and I were the proprietors of Atlantis, in Cross Creek, businesses started to become hobbies or flagship companies that made no money in Malibu.
If May Rindge hadn’t stopped the railroad, where would we all be now? It wasn’t about the view for her, anymore than it is for us regarding the proposed LNG terminal. It is for our safety and those of our children and our environment and Malibu.
Welcome to Malibu! Once a local, always a local, no matter where we came from before. Of course, it’s not the place or the room that can doom us, only ourselves but, hey, it’s free country. We will follow you anywhere, Mario (Vitale, owner of the Dume Room).
Jane Mandy Harfouche