Civility in order
Feb. 3: As one person who first came to Malibu in 1964, was an elected member of The Malibu Township, served as Chairman of the City’s Transportation Committee, I was deeply offended by Andy Stern’s mean-spirited letter to your paper dated Jan. 27, in which he viciously attacks John Mazza for expressing a hope that every candidate for any office has made since the dawn of time, that he hopes to make purposive change.
Regan Schaar, a former student of mine at UCLA, expressed the same sentiment in her letter on Jan. 20. She said, “Our city is at a point where change is needed. My motivation to run was focused on bringing back civility and professionalism to Malibu’s City Council. Increasingly, it became more embarrassing to watch the mean-spirited behavior at the City Council meetings.”
Because of this bad behavior on the part of one council member in particular, she decided not to run for City Council and we lost the services of a particularly able and dedicated citizen. Not only does Mr. Stern attack Mazza, but in his “State of the City” address to the Chamber of Commerce on March 12, 2009, he failed to recognize the significant role that other people played in terms of fighting the LNG project, acquiring Legacy Park, etc. He was not alone in effecting these magnificent achievements. His arrogance is embarrassing.
John W. Buckley
Safety the real issue
July 28:The recent attacks on Susan Tellem by various cyclists in our city divert everyone’s attention from the real issue: bicycle safety on PCH.
One only has to read today’s Malibu Times and see the carnage caused by one deranged driver and then see another upside car on the following page to get an idea of what I think Susan was trying to address. PCH is a very dangerous highway even when one is protected by thousands of pounds of steel and thousands (or hundreds of millions) of dollars of technology, yet alone a 20-pound composite bicycle and spandex shorts.
The issue isn’t legal right of way when the cyclist is laying in a pool of blood under a mangled bike and a devastated driver, who for whatever reason misjudged distance, is sitting in the back of a sheriff’s car distraught and in trouble. Susan’s solution was partly greater enforcement of traffic laws for cyclists. It might help a little -and by this I mean save a few lives-but it won’t counter the aggressive attitude of some cyclists who insist on their legal right of way. Cars are too big and too fast and bikes and bodies are too fragile, and the outcome is too predictable.
As a police officer once lamented to me, people come to the beach and leave their minds at home. They are looking at the waves and the beaches and the babes (or guys) and not focused on their driving. Similarly, most cyclists exist in their own little world. It’s a prescription for continued disaster.
I used to ride my bike a lot on PCH traveling from one canyon to another. I tried to stay as far on the shoulder as possible-not on the edge of traffic lanes and never two or three abreast. But I knew it was rolling the dice every time. And a friend was hit-perhaps intentionally-while doing all the right things so I’m pretty skeptical thinking we’re going to make drivers safer or more bike conscious. Maybe instead of “share the road” signs we need warning signs telling cyclist how many have been killed riding on PCH in the last year.
Scott Dittrich
No names, please
August 4: I feel that as an outstanding community, we do not have to stoop so low as to print a letter that names a person and then continues to demean them because they don’t share the same opinion as the letter writer.
Pat Webb Dahlstrom
What a waste!
August 11: Two weeks ago, I wrote a letter about the Santa Monica Baykeeper costing the City millions of dollars in grant money when its board decided to file a lawsuit to halt Legacy Park two years ago. Baykeeper lost in the trial court and filed an appeal. Then, a few weeks ago, Baykeeper filed an emergency motion asking the appellate court to stop work on Legacy Park. The three-judge panel denied that motion, construction will not be halted and Baykeeper still refuses to withdraw the appeal, which will not be heard until after the environmental park is completed.
Long before the Legacy Park fiasco, Baykeeper filed another lawsuit accusing the City of polluting the Malibu Creek area, including Surfrider Beach. The City and Baykeeper have been presenting arguments before a judge for months. Baykeeper wanted the court to issue a summary judgment on the theory that Malibu has to be liable for any pollution, whether the City caused it or not. The judge just ruled that he will not issue a summary judgment against Malibu, so Baykeeper has to go to a full trial that will cost the City and Baykeeper a ton of money.
The court also ruled in favor of both sides on different aspects of the case and inevitably those rulings will be appealed. Similar claims against the County are already in the appellate court. Baykeeper is claiming a victory. But what a legal mess! The judge ruled that most of the case will need to go to trial and the rest of it will move to appellate court. I guess victory is in the eye of the beholder. I checked the Baykeeper website. No mention of the slap down from the judge on Legacy Park, but a lot of crowing over parts of its other case.
The City built a storm water treatment plant (the odd building in front of the skateboard park) and is about to complete Legacy Park. Together they clean every drop of storm water in the civic center. What has Baykeeper done to clean water? File lawsuits? I applaud the City for the aggressive clean water program they started in 2000 and hope they have enough money to keep up the good work and to prove to the court that Baykeeper’s claims are wrong.
Could someone please ask local board members Ozzie and Steve Dahlberg what’s up with Baykeeper’s vendetta against Malibu and its desire to waste tax dollars that could be better spent on environmental projects?
Lloyd Ahern
Protest misdirected
August 18: Let me preface this by stating that I am a heterosexual man who believes silence equals assent therefore I am not keeping silent.
I am writing in response to Mr. Tait’s letter implying that democracy is lost and undermined at the hands of liberal judges.
First of all, the issue of gay marriage is a civil rights issue and the proposition should have never been introduced into the election.
Defining marriage between a man and a woman that promotes family values is a concept, an idea that just doesn’t hold water in today’s society. Marriage, whether between a man and a woman, two men, two women, a man and a goat is nothing more than a contract to protect one’s personal property and allow reparations to be provided when that contract fails. Having been eviscerated in a divorce I can say this with a certain sense of expertise (also, don’t get divorced in Tennessee!)
Do you think society will implode if we permit gay marriage? If gays or lesbians want to step into the arena of divorce and fight a steel-cage death match, they have the right. And no, I am not a family lawyer!
Since we are talking family values, where’s the outcry of the rampant pedophilia and predatory actions of clergy? Why aren’t you writing letters about how damaging this is to family values?
Now, as for the judicial system and its undermining of our democracy, where’s the outcry by the recent decisions of the Supreme Court, primarily conservative judges, to allow concealed weapons in national parks? And the most egregious blow to democracy, allowing corporations to contribute unfettered to campaigns. This single ruling has all but eliminated fair elections.
Where’s the outcry over this?
If judge Walker is a gay man ruling on this issue he certainly is biased. Who better to rule? He’s been discriminated against for years. Something I doubt Mr. Tait has experienced.
Robert Pousman
NIMBY motive behind Kiwanis criticism
July 28: Poor Steve Uhring. In his letter to the local papers, he says he has been criticized when he had complained about the Chili Cook-off event and Kiwanis Club’s supposed mishandling of the money it receives from the event. H.L. Mencken must have had Steve Uhring in mind when he said, “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.” Forget that the Kiwanis Club and the Chili Cook-off have been around long before Uhring decided to buy his house above the Civic Center. Forget that hundreds of Malibu residents look forward to this annual event where people can gather and have fun. What we all really know is that Steve doesn’t really want to be disturbed by the sound and sight of happy people having fun and cynically uses tax returns to cloud his real NIMBY motives to try to shut down this popular event.
If Steve is so concerned about tax-exempt organizations, I for one would like to see him post the tax returns of his Malibu Township Council and the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy. Steve sits on the Board of Directors for both organizations. Unlike the Kiwanis Club, neither of these organization’s tax returns are posted on Uhring’s web site. So Steve, smell the flowers, life isn’t all coffins.
Ken Kearsley, Former Mayor
Help me rebuild my life
October 20: This is an open letter to the people that burned my house and life away:
If you are interested in helping the community in Corral Canyon heal from the devastation left by your incredible thoughtlessness of roasting marsh mellows in a fire area on a windy evening, call me. I could use some help rebuilding the house that was destroyed that night along with all of my family’s hopes and dreams and belongings of 30 years. My father, a World War II vet, lost his military memorabilia, my mother her high school diary and letters from my father when he was imprisoned in a German POW camp, my son’s precious arrowhead collections and writings are all gone, along with my daughter’s ballet slippers and prom dress. I lost my office with all my files.
I am or was an MFCC, a marriage and child therapist who no longer practices. I lost my studio with all my supplies. I lost all my paintings; my inventory; my future. I do not know how to get by the sadness of this loss and begin again.
I do not hate you. I do not have the energy to be angry. But I sure could use some help rebuilding this house. The insurance money did not cover the actual costs of replacing a home and the permitting process and regulations are designed to crush the dreams of building anything inspirational. The regulations appear to just line the pockets of endless lines of open hands that promise everything and rarely deliver.
Even if it takes the rest of my days, I am determined to proceed. The land is mine and I intend to keep it and do the best I can to create beauty where nothing remained.
Can you help?
Lee O’Keefe-Hardy
River City, more than a state of mind
Editor’s note: Mark Ball’s son Nathan was deployed to Afghanistan earlier this year.
River City sounds inviting but it is not a place you want to be as a U.S. Marine in Now Zad, Afghanistan. You will not find it in a world atlas, you will not find it in a travel guide, but you will find it deeply etched in the conscience of every U.S. Marine. River City is not a place in the physical sense but a state of mind when the solemn words are uttered as a command in Now Zad . At its mention, River City is like an octopus with its long tentacles that wrap around its prey, slowly crushing it, sucking life’s energy from its victim. The tentacles of River City ensnare not only the Marines within its grasp but also their families.
The pall of war hangs over every Marine in Afghanistan, the fear of the unknown bearing down on the shoulders of each and every soldier like an ominous black storm cloud. The call of River City is like a lightning strike to the heart of every Marine who hears it. For a Marine, there is no escaping the weight of dread when the command is called out for it signifies the harsh truth of war-another Marine brother has been killed or grievously wounded in combat.
I first heard the term River City during one of Nathan’s first calls home from Now Zad. I have learned to accept these calls as precious and dear for Nathan’s ability to access a base phone is very infrequent and limited at best. We have gone through periods of weeks of silence since he has been deployed. It was during this rare call that Nathan was making from the base’s plywood communications shed that I heard someone in the background yell River City! I was in the midst of updating Nathan with family and local news when Nathan curtly said, “Dad, I have to go,” and said goodbye. At that moment I did not realize the connection and I was not to hear from Nathan for three weeks.
I finally discovered the significance of River City while browsing the web one day when I came across a blog by CNN’s Chris Lawrence. Lawrence had just visited Nathan’s company in Now Zad and was in fact at the plywood communications shack, observing Marines calling their families when Nathan’s Sergeant stormed in and barked the order “River City.” Within two minutes, the communications shed was vacated, locked and secured. River City is a simple but solemn command to cease communications with the outside world because another brother from the battalion has fallen.
Since that day, it seems Nathan’s calls home have become more infrequent. River City is becoming more of a place than a state of mind. War is a greedy beast for it engorges with a ravenous consum ption the lives of soldiers, their families and the innocent civilians. Like the ravages of a Malibu brush fire, war extinguishes the flicker of life and forever changes its landscape.
Memorial Day is nearly upon us and Nathan asks that his Malibu friends and neighbors take a moment to reflect and honor the fallen brothers from his battalion in service to our country and our community. His fellow Marines killed in combat: Lance Corporal Tyler O. Griffin, age 19, April 1, 2010; Lance Corporal Thomas O. Rivers, age 22, April 28, 2010; and Lance Corporal Richard Penny, age 21, May 6, 2010. Sadly for these heroes and their families, River City is now a place on the map.
Mark Bal
Run-on achievements
January 27: In last week’s paper, John Mazza said he intends to take Malibu in a different direction. So I guess that means he thinks the City Council was wrong to acquire Bluffs Park and save the ball fields, build Legacy Park and clean up our storm water, purchase a new City Hall that will give the community amenities it never had before, build Las Flores Park that restored Las Flores Creek, construct a storm water treatment facility in Civic Center, lead the fight against the BHP Billiton LNH Terminal, construct safe-routes to schools, scale back Trancas Park in order to save the ridgeline and do all this while maintaining one of the highest Standard and Poor’s credit ratings.
So what new direction does John want? The destruction of ridgelines, the quashing of youth programs? Destroying the excellent credit rating of the city? I can’t wait to cast my vote.
Andy Stern
Loss of community with store closures
March 10: I was dismayed to hear that yet another local Malibu small business cannot afford to stay in their present locale. We have lost so many non-corporate businesses in the last few years. As we lose these businesses, we lose something both tangible and intangible. Some of the businesses had been here for years and were owned by hard-working individuals or families. I feel bad for these owners, and I also feel bad for the Malibu community that is diminished by these losses.
Linda Bell
Sign irritation
March 18: Things have gone too far. I just walked out of my house to see a Mazza/Scheinkman sign screwed into my sycamore tree. This is my private property and that’s breaking the law.
Doug O’Brien
Shed this
February 10: What’s this “Ban Septic Systems” stuff anyhow?
The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board claims septic systems are the major cause of pollution in Malibu’s watershed. Watersheds deal with surface water, such a shedding water from a roof, raincoat or the earth’s surface to a lower level.
Water on the earth’s surface in Malibu is eventually absorbed or shed to the ocean.
However, septic systems are subterranean, so do not shed water onto the earth’s surface but directly down toward the center of the earth via gravity. Not into the ocean.
Therefore, they cannot be a major source of ocean pollution so we should not be required to pay for unneeded wastewater treatment facilities.
Jack Singleton
Nurture Malibu farm
March 18: Vital Zuman Farm in Malibu occupies a beautiful 6-acre parcel of land at the intersection of PCH and Heathercliff. Though it’s been operating as a small family farm for decades, its future is now uncertain in these difficult economic times. Beyond its obvious importance as a site of local food production at a time when farmland everywhere is in retreat, a small artisan farm like Vital Zuman always stands an educational opportunity waiting to happen for the benefit of the community it serves.
I say this as someone who did, and still does, this kind of work, and knows the great potential it holds for people of all ages, but especially school children. A number of years ago, with generous cooperation both from Alan Cunningham, farmer and owner of Vital Zuman, and from SMMUSD, I helped to create and run a school-to-farm program for young students to visit the farm, learn about food and agriculture, and engage in simple farming practices. I did this work while employed with the City of Santa Monica.
The program lasted about two years and was a great success. Third and fourth grade students from schools throughout the district came to the farm every week for a healthy experience in food awareness, nutrition and farming. Teachers confided in me that it was the best field trip of their career, and they hoped that it would continue. Sadly, it ran into budgetary concerns largely over the cost of transportation.
If Vital Zuman remains a farm, or can be maintained under some kind of conservation-based development plan, then the hope remains of resurrecting an educational program like this one for the mutual benefit of its owner, the land itself, young people and the entire community. I currently work as Education Supervisor for the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, but I write this piece as a citizen who does not wish to see farmland, and the beautiful opportunity it represents for the community, slip away.
Stephen Vodantis
Strong point of view
March 25: My love affair with the ocean goes way back in time. The sun glittering on the waves, which look like diamonds, has always fascinated me. The ocean and I have a special bond. So, naturally I gravitated to live in Malibu. After seeing that beautiful view erode, a piece at a time, over 30 years, by all kinds of green foliage, growing 365 days a year and neighbors not willing to cooperate by trimming and or cutting their trees, I know something had to be done.
As Barry Tyerman, former member of the Malibu View Protection Task Force wrote, “In June 2009, a group of Malibu citizens, appointed by the Council, after months of open debate, delivered a draft view ordinance that will: maintain Malibu’s rural environment and scenic vistas; Restore view disputes between neighbors economically, equitably and without costly litigation; balance privacy and other view considerations; not require extensive city resources and even be fully self-funding; Withstand court challenges.”
The committee spent long, hard hours in discussion, reviewing other view protection ordinances along the coast and creating an ordinance to fit Malibu’s needs. This is a fair and balanced piece of legislation that needs to be instituted by the City of Malibu.
There are only two out of the ten candidates running for City Council that have openly supported the work of the committee. Harold Greene has stated he “wants to turn the View Protection Ordinance into Law,” and Mike Sidley stated he wants to “pass the view protection and restoration ordinance.”
If you are concerned about views, especially yours, at this point in the election process, it is imperative that you analyze what each candidate is really saying or writing about concerning views. Words can be deceiving.
I am asking you, as a citizen of Malibu, do you want to reinvent the process all over again, or do we move forward and put the new council to work legally putting the View Restoration and Protection View Ordinance into law. In this way, we as citizens will be able to once again enjoy the sparkling ocean that still exists out there.
Be careful when casting your vote. Remember, as Barry Tyerman stated, “Some candidates for council on the ballot in April have opening expressed radical anti-view positions. Do not let politics as usual protect only the privileged.”
Marilynn Santman