John Mazza will serve as Chair. Screenshot of the meeting.
The commission approved the operation of two new restaurants: Clark’s Oyster Bar and Pura Vida Miami
The election of the chair and vice chair was the first item addressed at the Planning Commission meeting on Monday night. John Mazza will serve as chair, and Drew Leonard will serve as vice chair.
John Mazza will serve as Chair. Screenshot of the meeting.Drew Leonard will serve as Vice Chair. Photo screenshot of the meeting.
The commission approved the extension of Coastal Development Permit No. 14-079 to combine two adjacent lots into one, and to construct a new single-family residence and associated development.
The commission approved Coastal Development Permit No. 23-019 and Site Plan Review No. 23-024, an application for a new single-family residence, a second unit, and associated development on Harvester Road. The item was continued from March 18.
Over a dozen speakers attended the meeting in person and shared mixed opinions on the project. Some supporting the project and others disapproved, saying the project is not consistent with the neighborhood characteristics of other surrounding homes in the Malibu park.
Planning Director Richard Mollica answered the commissioner’s questions in regard to ESHA. City Biologist Courtney McCammon said the property was not within ESHA.
Mazza argued that point: “The city biologist has her opinion — that opinion can be appealed, that opinion can be appealed to the Coastal Commission; the Coastal Commission is the final arbiter of that decision, not our city biologist.”
After addressing the ESHA, height, and other public concerns, the commission motioned to approve the item and required a detailed fence plan. Motion carried.
For new items, the commission motioned to approvedCoastal Development Permit No. 17-093, Site Plan Review No. 17-061, and Demolition Permit No. 19-019, an application to demolish an existing single-family residence and associated development, and construct a new single-family residence and associated development, with adjustments.
Commissioner Craig Hill motioned to continue the project, saying the last-minute revisions are “unacceptable.”
“I’d like to continue this project, I find it completely unacceptable that we’re getting these last-second, we heard there’s a Coastal Commission comment that we don’t have here. I don’t get it, motion to continue,” Hill said.
After discussion, the commission motioned to approve the item with adjustments.
After another intermission, the commission motioned to approve Conditional Use Permit No. 24-003; An application to allow the operation of a new restaurant (Clark’s Oyster Bar), including outdoor dining area and onsite sale and consumption of alcohol.
The commission motioned to approve Conditional Use Permit No. 24-004, an application to allow the operation of a new restaurant (Pura Vida Miami), including the outdoor dining area.
The next Planning Commission is on May 6 at the Council Chambers.
A memorial is placed at Marmalade Cafe in Malibu honoring Tracy Vancura who died on Malibu Canyon on March 3. Photo by Samantha Bravo/TMT.
A cheerful presence in Malibu for 40 years, VanCura worked at many popular restaurants over the years
By Barbara Burke
Special to The Malibu Times
“Tracy and I worked together for almost 20 years,” Luis Loza, a waiter in Malibu at Ollo Restaurant tearfully said. “We worked at Coogie’s Beach Cafe together and Tracy was always very kind to everyone — not just toward our guests, but also toward our co-workers.”
Loza and many other restaurant workers and restaurant patrons in Malibu are grieving the sudden, tragic loss of Tracy VanCura, 63, of Camarillo. VanCura died at the scene of a one-vehicle accident on April 3 after she was ejected from her Toyota Scion, which tumbled about 150 feet down an embankment on a steep, winding section of Malibu Canyon Road near Pacific Coast Highway, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner.
A memorial is placed at Marmalade Cafe in Malibu honoring Tracy Vancura who died on Malibu Canyon on March 3. Photo by Samantha Bravo/TMT.
One driver who stopped at the accident scene stated that he was driving through the canyon at approximately 5:30 p.m. when he “saw some bystanders waving their hands and asking for help and shouting, ‘The car went down!’”
William M. Bema said he and those bystanders climbed down the steep canyon wall.
“We rushed down the hill and as we got closer, we saw big tree branches were folded over the car and we saw a body lying there,” Bema said.
As the word spread around Malibu, loyal Marmalade Cafe customers who were shocked by the devastating news brought condolence cards that were added to a small memorial area honoring VanCura at the front of the restaurant on Cross Creek Road.
“Tracy was a beloved member of the Marmalade Cafe family for over 13 years,” said Lindsay Arnold, director of operations for the restaurant. “We are all devastated by this loss. Tracy was adored by her colleagues and guests. Tracy was also a joy to the community and had a special way to make everyone who came into the restaurant feel welcomed and valued. We will miss her warmth, dedication, and most of all, her sweet, gentle spirit. Our condolences go out to her family and friends as they mourn this terrible loss.”
Loza elaborated about how much VanCura meant to him and others in the restaurant community in Malibu.
“She was always extremely hard-working. I don’t recall her ever taking a vacation!” He said. “Moreover, Tracy was always friendly and she always did kind things, such as bringing doughnuts to our kitchen staff each week.”
Colleen Smith, VanCura’s co-worker at Marmalade, also emphasized how important VanCura was to Malibu locals and workers.
“Tracy has been working in the community for 40 years, starting with Sand Castle and then Coogie’s and then Marmalade Cafe,” Smith said. “She and I worked together for 16 years, and we have been friends for 28 years.
Tracy loved her son, Charles, and her cats and dogs. She also had a heart for cars and racing, and she especially enjoyed watching her son drag boat racing.”
Tracy Vancura is shown with her son, a young Charles MacLardie Jr., in this undated photo. Photo courtesy of VanCura family
VanCura is survived by her son, Charles MacLardie Jr., and his father, VanCura’s ex-husband and friend, Charles MacLardie Sr.
“We rekindled our love a few years ago,” Charles Sr. shared. “We will miss her terribly — it was just we three musketeers, Tracy, Charles, and I, and we took care of one another — Tracy was the one who kept us solid. Please tell people reading your article to keep Tracy in their thoughts.”
A memorial will be held in the near future at the convenience of family and friends, he added.
Smith summed up the sentiments of those who loved VanCura: “The sparkle of her eyes, the brightness of her smile, and the goodness of her soul will always stay in our hearts.”
Local Detour for Southbound 101 Starting 4.15.2024. Contributed graphic
New phase of construction for wildlife crossing
Upcoming overnight closures on Highway 101 in Agoura Hills are signaling a major milestone for the world’s largest wildlife crossing right in Malibu’s own backyard.
The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills started construction nearly two years ago. The $90 million project funded through state and private agencies, along with individual contributions, is being built by Caltrans, which is about to start the complex process of installing the large-scale concrete beams that will be the first horizontal supports for the crossing. Caltrans’s plan includes placing the girders late at night as well as other measures to make the process as convenient as possible for highway users.
Beginning around April 16, Caltrans will close half of Highway 101, all lanes in one direction beginning at midnight. Closures will occur on Monday through Friday nights until 5 a.m. each night; only one direction of the freeway will be completely closed. Lanes in the opposite direction will stay open for traffic and there are easy detours at Liberty Canyon.
The entire process of placing these concrete beams is expected to take from 30 to 45 days to complete and will feature the placement of a total of 82 concrete beams, or girders, across all 10 lanes of the freeway. The girders, long boxes of reinforced concrete, will become the first level of the wildlife crossing’s multilayered structure above and across one of the nation’s busiest freeways.
To avoid lengthy closures of the freeway, the girders were manufactured off-site in Riverside County and large trucks will transport them to the construction site at Liberty Canyon. Each girder over the northbound lanes is 103 feet long and weighs 140 tons. Each girder over the southbound lanes is more than 93 feet long and weighs over 126 tons. For context, the weight of just one girder is equivalent to the weight of more than 14 African elephants according to Save The Cougars, one of the nonprofits supporting the project.
Agoura Hills Mayor Illece Buckley Weber told The Malibu Times, “Within the next month, the girders will be placed across the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, bringing the longtime vision for a safe crossing closer to fruition. This is an incredibly exciting step for wildlife conservation and for the residents of the region.”
“We are very excited to celebrate this big milestone in the construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing. With the placement of the horizontal supports, the structure is truly going to start looking like the bridge it will become,” said Beth Pratt, California regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation. “We know that closures of the freeway do have impacts on traffic and the community, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Caltrans has a thorough plan for detours, and we trust their excellent team to manage this to minimize disruption. And these ‘closures for cougars’ are for a good cause: helping to save the area mountain lions from extinction and ensuring a future for all wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains.”
Not only will mountain lions benefit from the crossing, the visionary bridge will help other wildlife, including bobcats, birds, lizards, mule deer, and more travel safely across one of the busiest highways in the country. The huge undertaking is to support local biodiversity, expand refuge for critical pollinator species, and prevent the extinction of the local mountain lion population. Beyond the robust engineering it relies on, a sophisticated ecological restoration plan will create a habitat across the surface of the crossing and in approximately 12 acres of open space, alongside it. These new native wildlife habitats will reinforce the biodiversity of the Santa Monica Mountains and provide the shelter, food, and water the dozens of area wildlife species, need to thrive. The crossing will be the largest of its kind in the world, a first in California, and a global model for urban wildlife conservation.
Cougar supporters say the bridge is urgently needed. As many as 70 mountain lions were struck and killed on California roadways last year. The Los Angeles Times reported the lions are being killed faster than they can reproduce.
Completion is scheduled for the end of 2025 or early 2026.
🚧🛑Malibu Canyon Road Reopening. The rockslide that caused the closure from Piuma Rd to PCH has been cleared, and the road will reopen at 3 p.m. A big thanks to the road crews who worked around the clock to safely reopen. pic.twitter.com/5RxTXmTKuV
— LA County Public Works (@LACoPublicWorks) April 15, 2024
Malibu Canyon from Civic Center Way to Piuma is closed due to a rockslide. ETA to reopen is Monday at 3 p.m. alternative routes are Kanan and Las Flores Canyon Road.
Artist Priya Asencio is shown in front of her artwork at Malibu Village Books Sip and Shop event. Contributed Photos
Malibu Village Books launches artist in residence series as Third Space Malibu hosts Sip & Shop
By Barbara Burke
Special to the Malibu Times
Priya Sharma Asencio greeted attendees warmly as she shared her creative works at Malibu Village Books’ first art exhibition gala on March 26. The bright colors of her acrylic paintings and mixed media works added warmth to the space, embracing and gracing the store’s expansive collection of books for all ages and interests, including works by local authors, that are available at Malibu’s only bookstore, a space whose motto is “Where the page and ocean meet.”
“We are launching an artist-in-residence program,” bookstore proprietor Michelle Pierce said. “This exhibition will be on show until mid-July.”
Attendees mingled as they surveyed Asencio’s colorful works displaying positivity and intriguing perspectives. As she surveyed the upbeat gathering, Pierce smiled broadly as she saw her dream of the bookstore being a place to discuss, share and learn come to fruition.
“I love Priya’s art!” Pierce said. “An intuitive painter, she creates works from emotion, music, spirituality, and nature. Its vibrancy and her use of color, the feelings they emote, bring life to our walls.”
Asencio discussed her creative process, noting that she often paints while listening to an eclectic array of musical artists — from Taylor Swift to Kanye West.
“Painting in the abstract is easy,” She said, noting that her work flows quite effortlessly. “I’m never quite sure what I’ll create.”
Next door, Third Space Malibu hosted a vendor meetup and Sip & Shop event, showcasing the talented artists and makers of Malibu whose works are on show there as attendees sipped on champagne.
Artist Priya Asencio is shown in front of her artwork at Malibu Village Books Sip and Shop event. Contributed PhotosArtist Priya Asencio’s colorful works displaying positivity and intriguing perspectives, are showing at Malibu Village Books’ first art exhibition gala. Contributed PhotoArtist Priya Asencio is shown in front of her artwork at Malibu Village Books Sip and Shop event. Contributed Photos
“The 1st Space is home, the 2nd Space is work or school, and the 3rd Space is a place to care, connect, and create,” A large sign at the venue says, welcoming visitors to enjoy the capsule collections of Malibu-based designers, Stapelstein, the popular modular play concept, and interesting works by local designer DAYTONER (Daniel Hahn) who creates character designs for companies such as EPIC Games. His complete compilation of his concept art, “Enslaving Humanity in Style,”garnered a lot of attention.
“A big thank you to Malibu Bookstore for partnering with us for this event!” #ThirdSpace posted on social media on the evening of the events.
As The Malibu Times prepared to leave, Pierce called out, “Don’t forget that Independent Bookstore Day is April 27! Come see everything that’s on show at the bookstore!”
As the two gatherings winded down and attendees warmly greeted friends old and new, it was clear that the two local creative venues do indeed care, connect, and create as they collectively strive to serve Malibu and its creatives and to also provide gathering places for showing and celebrating the works of local artists.
The 24th annual Chumash Day Powwow and Intertribal Gathering brought powerful storytelling and cultural celebration to Malibu Bluffs Park over two days of traditional music, singing, and dancing, vibrant and intricate clothing, tribal ceremonies, and prayer.
Tribes from across North America unite for a weekend of celebration and ceremony
By Emmanuel Luissi
Special to The Malibu Times
The 24th annual Chumash Day Powwow and Intertribal Gathering brought powerful storytelling and cultural celebration to Malibu Bluffs Park over two days of traditional music, singing, and dancing, vibrant and intricate clothing, tribal ceremonies, and prayer.
Despite the event being named after the Chumash, various tribes and nations from across North America were represented, equally sharing recognition as the original natives of their respective lands.
The tribesmen and women were united in the dance circle in the heart of the park, with the circle signifying Mother Earth and everyone’s connection to the land, and each tribe in attendance was recognized by the uniting symbol of the Eagle staff, held by Ricky Two Bears.
Celebratory dances brought joy and smiles to the circle and social dances brought different styles of dances and clothing styles to the forefront of the event,
Chumash and Fernandeño Tataviam Elder Beverley Folkes, who has participated in each of the 24 iterations of the Chumash Day powwow, said she looks forward to reconnecting with old friends and fellow tribes on that yearly weekend of celebration.
“Oh it’s wonderful,” Folkes said. “It builds camaraderie among all tribes and that’s what it’s all about. There’s no one tribe that feels superior, we’re all celebrated the same.”
Ricky Two Bears carries the Eagle staff leading the procession of the Grand Entry at the Chumash Day Powwow on Sunday, April 7. The Eagle staff signifies each tribe in attendance at the powwow.Head Man John Velasquez, Apache Jicarilla From New Mexico, awaits the commencement of the Grand Entry at the Chumash Day Powowow on April 7.Ba’ac Garcia watches a ceremony during the Chumash Day Powwow on Sunday, April 7. Photos by Emmanuel Luissi/TMT.Head woman Kiara Love Flores dances beside one of the youngest dancers during a social dance at the powwow.
The event succeeded in bringing hundreds out to the park to socialize, observe, and celebrate native cultures, and Folkes said it’s inspiring to see how strongly the celebration has grown and been received by the city.
“It’s an exciting time,” she said. “That a community like Malibu has supported the powwow for this long says something. It’s a feather in their cap, the city of Malibu’s cap.”
A theme across the many representatives of different tribes was the importance put on the preservation of their cultures and traditions.
An Aztec dancer prepares to bless fellow dancers before the Grand Entry at the Chumash Day Powwow on Sunday, April 7.Head woman Kiara Love Flores dances during the Grand Entry at the Chumash Day Powwow on Sunday, April 7.The social dance invites everyone in attendance to dance around the circle at the heart of Malibu Bluffs Park.Head woman Kiara Love Flores dances beside one of the youngest dancers during a social dance at the powwow.
Anthony Loupe is a member of the Chumash tribe, and carried the California state flag in the Grand Entry ceremony. He explained the opportunity to represent his people was very important to him.
“I have never been so involved ever in my life,” he said. “It’s intimidating, but as part of your journey a time comes to step up and lead the next generation in ceremonies, traditions, and values that we must hold.”
Ba’ac Garcia is a professional fancy dancer and a member of the Tohono O’odham nation based out of Arizona. Garcia was among some of the younger dancers at the powwow and he shared his thoughts on the importance of new generations becoming involved with the nation’s cultures and traditions.
“The younger kids need to be part of events like this because here we bring the culture alive,” Garcia said. “The powwows show younger generations that we are still here. We show them that they are native Americans as well and that they could express their culture in their ways as well.”
The 24th annual Chumash Day Powwow and Intertribal Gathering brought powerful storytelling and cultural celebration to Malibu Bluffs Park over two days of traditional music, singing, and dancing, vibrant and intricate clothing, tribal ceremonies, and prayer. The 24th annual Chumash Day Powwow and Intertribal Gathering brought powerful storytelling and cultural celebration to Malibu Bluffs Park over two days of traditional music, singing, and dancing, vibrant and intricate clothing, tribal ceremonies, and prayer.
Despite the evolution and growth of the Chumash Day powwow, some tribe members fear the preservation and celebration of cultures could dwindle if engagement could not be created among the younger generations of Native Americans.
Mari Huehueicoyotl, a dancer and member of an Aztec tribe said she has attended the powwow for the last seven years, and has noticed participation in her tribe’s people has declined. She expressed a desire to spread education on native peoples from Mexico and involve younger generations in the celebration and preservation of their history and traditions.
She said the powwow continues to be an event of unity and cultural education and said the event offers a unique opportunity to explore diverse cultures and understand why these cultures must be preserved.
“Here we have an appreciation for culture and a respect for our history, somewhere where we find common ground in our struggles and eliminate divisions among us that would usually arise between two countries like the United States and Mexico,” Huehueicoyotl said. “We recognize here that all cultures are beautiful and the opportunity to learn about the lives and cultures of others is special and brings us together in a brotherhood.”
The weekend gives tribes the platform to celebrate different cultures, but also allows for educated tribe members to advocate for the rights and empowerment of marginalized peoples.
Kiara Love Flores, head woman, dancer and member of the Kuupangaxwichem tribe of Southern California, said powwows like this give communities that may not be educated on the plight of native peoples an opportunity to get informed, become supporters and advocates for native peoples, and understand the significance of their history and influence.
“A hundred years ago, if an event like this was held, we would have been killed or arrested,” Flores said. “It’s important to continue traditions and support native peoples because, believe it or not, [we] are always being challenged of [our] rights to even gather like this today and many people may not know that’s true.”
Dr. Steven Jensen, Keegan Gibbs, Tyler Hauptman, Brent Woodworth, and LACO Asst. Fire Chief Drew Smith are shown at a press conference for the community brigade program. Contributed Photo
Program aimed to train local citizens to support firefighting, emergency, and prevention efforts
By Barbara Burke
Special to The Malibu Times
For many Malibuites and residents in other nearby communities who experienced the ravages of the Woolsey Fire, one of the most often-stated reactions and criticisms regarding the communities’ disaster responses was that there were significantly debilitating communication failures during the hours, days and weeks following the conflagration. Citizens have repeatedly discussed how communication failures greatly exacerbated the stress involved in trying to efficiently and effectively fight the fire, trying to evacuate people and animals, trying to assess and address the significant damages caused by the disaster, and for many, trying to get a clear understanding regarding how they could rebuild both structures and their personal lives.
The stories of devastation are legion, and over the last five and a half years, several studies have been conducted and several initiatives have been launched in the public sector to address those challenges because we all know that it’s not if, but when, another disaster may befall Malibu and nearby communities.
Many have wondered what, if any, role there is for private citizens as we prepare for future disasters, including developing as much resiliency as possible and having clear disaster preparedness and response plans.
Community brigades provide a roadmap to resilience, responses during disasters
Malibu native Keegan Gibbs, who serves on the City of Malibu’s Public Safety Commission and was a central figure in a citizen-based Woolsey Fire response effort known as the “Pt. Dume Bombers,” and Brent Woodworth, chairman and CEO of the nonprofit Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation, have spearheaded a years-long herculean effort to form community brigades consisting of private individuals who are highly trained and correctly equipped to fight fires.
The community brigade effort has been a collaborative effort by Gibbs, Woodworth, LA County supervisors, LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone and Assistant Chief Drew Smith, and Lost Hills Sheriff Department Capt. Jennifer Seetoo.
Now, a two-year pilot community brigade program will take efforts toward resiliency and community engagement from concept to reality.
Gibbs serves as the director of operations for the Community Brigade program. Woodworth has been instrumental in developing and implementing the effort.
“LAEPF was established in 2008 and focuses on engaging business, community, private sector, academic and-faith based resources in disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.” Woodworth explained.
Notably, Woodworth is extensively knowledgeable about preparing for and responding to natural disasters — he has spearheaded disaster response efforts for more than 70 disasters in more than 50 countries.
“Malibu has faced dozens of fires over the last 70 years,” Gibbs remarked. “However, our approach to addressing the issue at a community level has changed very little. This is an opportunity to draw the line in the sand at the Woolsey Fire, and create cultural change that we can share with future generations, not just in Malibu, but across California. This will be a return to the resilient Malibu of the past, but empowered by joining forces with LA County Fire.
“Community Brigades is a trailblazing pilot program that will help bridge the resource gap between professional first response agencies and local communities during disaster events. The mission is to create lasting cultural change in communities and empower them to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.”
The challenges the program addresses include the level and complexity of risks associated with living in the Wildland Urban Interface, helping to clarify the reasonableness of the public’s expectations of government agency capabilities and urging residents to be proactive in their communities’ resilience efforts so as to minimize loss through encouraging and implementing mitigation strategies and expanding available resources and local knowledge through community engagement. That last task that includes developing collaboration and integration of community-based resources.
One key objective of the program is perhaps one of the most challenging goals — to build trust between agencies that respond to disasters and the communities they serve.
Memoranda of agreements have been signed between the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles County Fire Department and LAEPF to launch the brigades, which will strongly focus on efficient communication, prioritizing life safety and hardening structures and properties so as to better prepare for — and better respond to — disasters, including wildfires, earthquakes, floods, and mudslides. The program’s seven pilot communities are Malibu West, Point Dume, Big Rock, Hidden Hills, Corral Canyon, Topanga Canyon, and County Line.
“The Community Brigade Program is a monumental cultural change in how fire departments work with the community,” Woodworth explained. “It took five years to negotiate the details of the program. The County Board of Supervisors approved the documents in October 2023 — Supervisor Lindsay Horvath and her team were extremely supportive — and we recently gave a program overview to the Malibu City Council.
“The Brigade represents a huge cultural change for how trained citizen volunteers can interact with the largest fire department in the country — the Los Angeles County Fire Department.”
The vision is to provide trained citizens who can collaborate with first responders and assist citizens during emergencies as well as help residents harden their structures before disasters strike so as to mitigate risk.
“In formulating the brigade program, we engaged local people involved in the private sector, the nonprofit and faith communities, business sectors, and local, county, state, and federal government agencies.” Woodworth stated, adding that LAEPF is funded by a grant from CalFire and private donations.
Early on in the effort, The Malibu Foundation provided funding for the program to acquire necessary radio equipment — equipment that will function during a disaster, as opposed to anyone again experiencing the paralyzing communication conundrums that first responders and residents grappled with during and after the Woolsey Fire.
“We have developed a program that is highly sustainable and operational that can be implemented for many years to come.” Woodworth said. “We also designed the program so it can be replicated by other communities.”
Taking a stance that if one is forewarned, he can be forearmed, Gibbs noted that a pivotal part of the program involves pre-incident disaster preparedness — the program conducts detailed assessments of residences and companies to determine what steps are necessary to properly harden structures.
To date, 390 residences in Malibu and surrounding areas have been assessed, according to Woodworth, who added that participating residents receive a free, comprehensive report with colored photos depicting what areas need to be addressed, as well as a video and a written evaluation detailing what residents and business owners can do to mitigate the risks of property destruction.
Such efforts are of paramount importance — readers may wish to read another article in this edition concerning the Wildfire Insurance Townhall sponsored by the City of Malibu, Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin and the California Insurance Commission on April 4, which informed attendees that such assessments may prove to be very useful to homeowners and business owners grappling with the challenges they face regarding obtaining and retaining insurance in the current insurance landscape. Due to an exodus of insurance companies leaving the California insurance market, citizens are facing huge challenges in finding insurers who are willing to write policies in Wildland Urban Interface areas. Virtually all of Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains fall within that classification, Woodworth noted.
A second keystone objective of the Community Brigade program is to thoroughly train, certify, and educate volunteers in compliance with LA County Fire Department requirements so that volunteers can work within the existing command structure of both the fire and sheriff’s departments. To accomplish those goals, participants are provided with comprehensive training.
“We ask that those who undertake volunteering make a commitment to serve for at least three years,” Woodworth said. “That is because the Community Brigades makes quite a sizable investment in each individual, both with regard to providing training and in providing them with VHF radios so they can communicate with authorities, with personal protective equipment that costs more than $2,000 for each person and that meets LA County Fire Department standards.”
All volunteers must undergo complete background checks and training.
“Volunteers are divided into two designations with different engagement roles,” Woodworth added, noting that those who will be in field operations — those who will be out in the community supporting first responders during an active emergency — must meet all certification and training requirements and they will be designated and insured as volunteer disaster service workers. Their field training will include learning about wildland fire behavior, firefighter training, and field training with apparatus, equipment, and appliances. A second designation is for equally important volunteers who will provide support administratively and who will support communications efforts during disasters.
Tyler Hauptman, Brent Woodworth, Keegan Gibbs, and LACO Asst. Fire Chief Drew Smith are shown at a press conference for the community brigade program. Contributed Photo
Citizen involvement opportunities
People who are interested in volunteering can sign up to express their initial interest here: www.communitybrigade.org
“We already have more than 160 people that have signed up, and we anticipate many more as we continue our community outreach efforts,” Gibbs said.
The program aims to be fully operational by September, Woodworth stated.
“Residents should think about it this way — we live in a fireplace and eventually, someone will throw a match into it — the smartest approach to deal with that reality is to be better prepared to identify and mitigate wildfire and other disaster risks, as well as to respond to the emergencies when they happen,” he said.
Toward that end, Gibbs and Woodworth note, all residents in a Wildland Urban Interface should focus on developing and maintaining a unified approach to disaster preparedness and response because we all share the risk, we all bear the responsibility to do whatever we can to limit fire hazards, and we all share in whatever outcomes occur.
Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, was re-elected Feb. 4 in a landslide victory by 80 percent of voters. Why should you care about a small Central American election? Two reasons: People walk to the U.S. by the millions from Central America as illegal immigrants, and there are policy lessons for us to learn from our neighbors. Salvadorans are the third largest Hispanic population in America, now at 2.5 million. Of all the Central American nations, El Salvador is the largest source of immigration to our country. The country is historically a bloodbath of crime and gangs.
In 2015, the homicide rate was 103 per 100,000 people, 6,657 killed, making it the most violent country in the Western Hemisphere. Its capital, San Salvador, was the world’s most murderous city. Gangs like MS13 ruled the streets, openly dealing drugs, walking into homes and taking them over, and extorting money from business owners lest they be murdered. A 15-year-old girl was shot in a crosswalk for selling tortillas in a gang territory without permission. Interesting that many of the ideologies the American far-left embraces were the norm in El Salvador. After a fluctuating civil war from 1980 to 1992, the Marxist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) was elected to power. The Marxists always promise the abolition of financial inequities and a worker’s paradise, but it never, ever happens, and it predictably didn’t happen there. El Salvador also has strict gun control laws, with no 2nd Amendment guaranteeing a citizen’s right to be armed.
They had implemented every gun control scheme espoused by the left in America: licensing to own a firearm with three-year renewals, complete registration of all firearms by the government, bans on private sales of firearms, and a limit of one firearm purchase every two years. Apparently though, the criminals that rape, steal, and murder with impunity weren’t concerned about breaking the gun laws, and preferred their victims to be unarmed and helpless.
President Bukele is the first president since 1984 not of the two major parties, the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance, or the communist FMLN. Promising a return to law and order in 2019, he was elected president and deployed thousands of soldiers and police directly into the gang-controlled areas whereupon homicides dropped by 50 percent, but the fight was far from over. In March 2022, gangs killed 80 people in one weekend, so Bukele’s government initiated “Guerra contra las pandillas” (war against gangs), after their legislature approved a state of emergency called “regimen de excepcion” (state of exception), which suspended rights of association, legal counsel, and increased time spent in detention without charges. Essentially under martial law, El Salvador now has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 79,184 suspected gang members arrested, prison sentences increased from six to 45 years for convicted gang members, and the age of “criminal responsibility” reduced from 16 to 12.
Laws were enacted so anyone disseminating messages from gangs would spend 15 years in prison. Checkpoints are established around gang areas searching backpacks and looking for gang tattoos. The government erased gang graffiti and destroyed graveside monuments with gang affiliations on them to prevent them from becoming shrines. Harsh, brutally harsh, and brutally effective. Murders dropped another 70 percent, now at 2.4 per 100,000, the lowest in the Americas apart from Canada. Our U.S. government expressed concern about these methods, but with a shrug and a “go home Yankee,” politicians in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, and Peru are enacting similar policies to regain law and order. At home, Bukele’s approval rating is at an unprecedented 90 percent.
So, what can Americans learn from this? Critics brand him an authoritarian, defined as enforcing strict obedience to the government at the expense of personal freedom. Really, though, the discussion should be about us here at home. Most of us have watched in hopeless sadness as leftist politicians empty out our prisons of convicted felons and defund the police, while activist DA’s refuse to prosecute criminals. Accordingly, many of our iconic cities are becoming unlivable, and as the roving gangs of criminals smash and grab goods, stores are closing.
Beautiful downtown San Francisco is becoming a ghost town, as is downtown Portland, where they have slashed policing while handing out needles to addicts with safe spaces to inject. It is past time to admit the soft-on-crime policies are an abject failure, and pivot back to the firm legislation adopted in the 1990s, like three strikes and mandatory sentences. Failure to do so will continue the downward spiral toward dystopia, and the backlash could reflect the gravity of our southern neighbor. We can restore the rule of law now without compromising civil liberties, but delay will make the crime cancer worse, and the cure more painful.
The state of the world right now is, to put it into wildly pathetic and dangerously ominous perspective, uncertain. We are without a doubt facing perilously difficult circumstances that threaten our coexistence and with the prospect of nuclear weapons and one fatal miscalculation could find humanity near the edge of extinction.
The prelude to such a catastrophe is reflected in the growing battles over whether nation-states are inclined to choose autocracy over democracy. Even in our country, we find ourselves threatened with a struggle internally that could damage or even relinquish our leadership as the world’s standard bearer for freedom, liberty, justice, civil rights, the rule of law, transparency, accountability, empathy, diversity, reason, religious tolerance, freedom of speech, or other forms of equality ingrained in our short history.
In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published a book entitled “It Can’t Happen Here” just as Adolph Hitler was making Germany great again, and proceeds to outline how an authoritarian individual could manage to wrestle control of our government at a time when raging conversations of American isolationism, fascism, socialism, and communism were being seriously debated.
Writing in the New Yorker in October 2016, Alexander Nazaryan captures the period in which the novel character Buzz Windrip, who manages to win election as an authoritarian president, is modeled after Huey Long, the Louisiana political demagogue who was assassinated the month before the novel was published. Nazaryan asserts “Lewis was never much of an artist, but what he lacked in style he made up for with social observation … and though a novel it may be, the gripes about Roosevelt and the New Deal here have the quality not of fiction but of reportage.” And now here we are in the 21st century questioning whether authoritarian predispositions are preferable to democratic ideology.
Who would have thought that Putin in Russia, Xi Jinping in China, Kim Jong Un in North Korea, Orban in Hungary, and Nayib Bukele in El Salvador could be looked upon as role models worthy of our consideration! While Republican Donald Trump is cruising to accept the GOP nomination later this summer, he is known to have quite an affection for these individuals and sounds downright jealous and envious of their leadership. For purposes of this article, let me introduce you to the little-known Bukele, who was elected president of El Salvador at the age of 39, and if he has not caught Trump’s eye as yet the self-proclaimed “world’s coolest dictator” may appeal to the “dictator for one day.”
The push for authoritarian status, which by its very nature entails concentration of power and loyalty not to the precepts of democratic governance but rather to the power concentrated within both the leader and/or their leadership is at issue here. According to the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) in 2021, “his party was the first to control both the presidency and a legislative majority since the restoration of democracy in 1992 and after the new Assembly was sworn in, his bloc acted quickly with a series of measures that deeply undermined the independence of the judiciary.”
In addition, on May 1, 2022, the Assembly “removed the Attorney General and all five members of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, replacing them within hours …. effectively ended the ban on presidential reelection, which allowed the president to seek his immediate reelection … and Bukele and his Assembly are considering a constitutional reform that would authorize a one-party state, codify the nationalization of pension funds, and require all lawyers and public prosecutors to be approved and affiliated with the national government,” according to the HRF.
Bukele has attacked gender theory and decided he would not allow gender ideology in schools. Ana Piquer, Americas director of Amnesty International, states “every use or trace of gender ideology has been removed from public schools,” without giving more details about the implications of this decision in one of the countries that has one of the highest femicide rates in Latin America. Data from U.N. Women show “in 2019, the rate was 6.48 murders per 100,000 women. In addition, the organization cites reports from the Attorney General’s Office of El Salvador, which indicate that, in the first half of 2021 alone, 315 women were reported missing. Meanwhile, the 2019 National Sexual Violence Survey reported 63 percent of women nationwide expressed having experienced at least one incident of sexual assault.”
According to Allison Meakem, an associate editor at Foreign Policy, “Bukele has amassed a genuine support base by measurably improving the lives of many Salvadorans. But to get there, his government has committed grave alleged human rights abuses and shown a disdain for democracy and the rule of law.”
Forgoing democratic principles and shunning democracy altogether may help in the short run, but when confronting major policy issues and impacts upon the population, it can lead to human rights violations that last for decades. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Do we really want to toy with this potential course of action?
