Dear Editor,
We shop at the Malibu Farmer’s Market every Sunday and have been in communication with Debra Bianco on the status of the Market’s future. As you already know, the Santa Monica City College, without any prior notification and despite having a contract with Debra for her to utilize this space, arbitrarily encroached and took over 80ft of her space and closed off one of the exits. That was over six weeks ago, and there is still no resolution.
Debra informed us that she recently had a phone meeting with the City of Malibu regarding relocating the market at the perimeter of Legacy Park. This is a wonderful idea, but in order to salvage the market’s viability, resolving any issues that may prevent this from happening needs to be done as soon as possible.
Debra’s endeavor is a small nonprofit business, and this situation is destroying everything she has worked so hard to achieve. Additionally, Debra has been a Malibu Resident since 1997. The situation in which she finds herself is a sad example of not only how Malibu treats its residents, but in Debra’s case, one who has worked so hard and long to benefit both her community and those from the outlying areas, like ourselves, who travel long distances to support it and her vendors.
Please do all in your power to keep this resolution to the problem moving forward by continuing to keep the situation before the community’s attention.
Angela and David C. Smythe, Malibu