Have you heard about Surfrider Beach? It has a new official distinction that is bringing worldwide fame to Malibu. It has nothing to do with surfing, though. It is now favored waters for The World Billionaire’s Largest Yacht Competition.
The Legacy Park opening on October 2 may have been the grandest single event in Malibu civic history. The city’s incorporation on March 31, 1991 at Malibu Park Junior High was more important, but took place at night indoors. The park dedication was outside, a flourishing day and memorable as point zero from which the blank slate of the landscape will begin to grow and change. Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich was there and I wonder if she still wishes the entire town had changed their schedule for the opening so she could attend her child’s soccer game?
When Malibu first got phone numbers with a prefix 456 in the late ’40s, numbers were identified as “GLobe 6-xxxx,” as the GL represented numbers 4 and 5 on the phone dial. Later, when 457 was given to West Malibu, “GLenwood” was the prefix word. Prefixes 317 and 589 were added to Malibu in the early ’90s.
There are five fire stations along the coastline. Do you know the number of the Los Angeles County station closest to you? At Carbon Canyon is the division headquarters, Fire Station No. 70. At the Colony on Malibu Road is Station 88. Zumirez/PCH, Station 71. Along Encinal Bluffs is Station 99. Inside the Ventura County line is Ventura Station 56, near Yerba Buena. There is a Fire Camp 8 in the hills up Rambla Pacifico. And back in Encinal Canyon near the golf course is Fire Camp 13.
My favorite part of the Legacy Park opening was seeing Jeff Jennings, Andy Stern, Joan House, Sharon Barovsky and Ken Kearsley together on the podium. They were the true heroes of past councils to get the park created.
News item: Starline Tours is doing business in Malibu now, taking tourists past celebrity homes. Comment: What took them so long?
If you’ve never done so, make yourself get up one morning, an hour before sunrise, go to the beach and walk it during the last half hour before sunrise. Spectacular! It is one thing to do worth a little less sleep. At least every once in a while. Any beach near you will do.
The baseball field at Pepperdine, where our local university won the national collegiate baseball championship in 1992, is named Field Stadium. Actually, Mr. Eddy D. Field Stadium.
The geographic population center of Malibu, where half the people access their homes to the north and half do so toward Santa Monica, might surprise you. It’s near Geoffrey’s.
Isn’t it nice that two problems from a generation ago have essentially vanished: hillsides sliding onto PCH, closing the highway; graffiti everywhere.
Ever notice that every single decision made by the Coastal Commission and all other outside agencies is against the will of the Malibu majority?
The Colony Plaza exit onto PCH should have two distinct lanes: One on the right for those wanting to make a quick right turn into their own lane, and lane two on the left for those waiting for a full traffic break to shoot like rocket toward the Webb Way left turn lane.
As a longtime Realtor in Malibu, I have seen dozens of circumstances where a view protection ordinance was in order. There is no question that blue view always trumps green view. And a few thousand dollars spent trimming or taking down trees often creates far more financial and aesthetic value. I hope a few key elements are included in the final draft of our city ordinance. First, the party benefiting should always be the one who pays for tree trimming or removal. The offending trees should be within 500 feet of the beneficial party, but only seen from windows in their house or patio areas. Some limit should be made on the number of trees cut or the tally of reduction for each case. Also, ocean views that can be newly established in the present or future, no matter past history, should benefit. We should be moving forward to create views. Lastly, the city government will need to have some teeth to rule upon and enforce disputes. Having ocean views blocked by neighboring trees is frustrating, devaluing and often unnecessary.
The 18th and 19th city council members in Malibu’s history were seated this year: Laura Rosenthal and Lou La Monte. Seventy-two different citizens have dared to run for local office since the 1990 election.
Only us old timers remember when there used to be a gas station on the new Legacy Park site, along the PCH between the animal hospital and Super Care drug store. Hard to imagine. It was located about where the bench is (next to the largest mound), which nobody ever sits on.
I’ve always been impressed that Broad Beach residents exiting right onto PCH heading east at the Trancas signal usually defer as a courtesy to Malibu West residents turning left onto PCH to make their turns first.
It’s getting to where I make sure to see every play that comes to the Malibu Stage Company?-they keep getting better and better.
It may become even worse with California Coastal Commission (CCC) bureaucrats controlling the lives of Malibu citizens. The coastal town of Gualala in Northern California has been denied a July Fourth fireworks show for two years in a row by the CCC, which claimed the fireworks show is “development,” and hurts the ears of animals and causes smoke in the air. The courts have upheld the CCC! So now, far from the original mandate of 1972 that the CCC monitor actual construction within 1,000 feet of the coastline, the unelected body has unilaterally expanded their purview. As well as determining whether a town can have a fireworks show or dictating when a high school like Malibu’s can play football, the CCC now controls, as long as it within five miles of the coast, “all human activity.”
Names of movies with “Malibu” in the title, that even the kids can watch: “Malibu’s Most Wanted,” “Malibu Spring Break” ….well, that’s about it. The many others, the kids can’t watch.
For those who will be regularly walking or jogging around the new Legacy Park, the distance around the outermost perimeter is .77 miles. If you prefer your exercise in 10 mile increments, that is 13 trips around.