I sympathize with the plight of the income and housing dilemma that Janet Baker and her children are faced with, as described in your front-page article last week. It is true, Malibu does not have a wealth of median-priced housing. However, I trust that if Ms. Baker perseveres, she, like our very own mayor, will get by with a little help from her friends.
George Camplain
There are changes in the wind with the Malibu Planning Commission.
The City of Malibu’s planning structure is now up to full strength with the recent reappointment of attorney Andrew Stern by Councilmember Sharon Barovsky and the addition of the new permanent Planning Director, Barry Hogan, who is beginning to settle in to the job after replacing interim Planning Director Henry Engen.
The planning commission now consists of Chair Ed Lipnick, a House appointment, Vice Chair Charleen Kabrin, a Hasse appointment, Richard Carrigan, a Kearsley appointment, attorney David Fox, a Jennings appointment, and Stern. Gone from the commission is Ken Kearsley, now on the City Council, and Jo Ruggles, former planning commission chair, a longtime Keller/Van Horn supporter and Kabrin ally.
The impact of the changes became apparent in a series of votes at the last planning commission meeting when Kabrin, who in the past had frequently been in the majority, now found herself on the short end of several 4 to 1 votes, where she was a minority of one.
Malibu city attorney Stephen Amerikaner gave the commission a brief orientation on procedures, the Brown Act and, an area of major concern and some unease to most of them, the question of what Amerikaner characterized as Ex Parte communication.
Ex Parte is a situation where a permit applicant or someone opposed to an application communicates with commission members directly outside of the hearing. The city attorney indicated it was perfectly legal as long as they disclose the gravamen of the communications at the time of the public hearing.
Rather than creating a rule that would have stopped Ex Parte communication, the commissioners opted for the more practical approach where they are able to receive oral communication from the parties and to be able to call the parties to arrange visits to property locations before the hearings, with the admonition that if in the future it turned out to be a problem, they could always revisit their decision.
Most commissioners indicated they had no problem with giving out their home number and it was recommended that anyone wanting to communicate with them could call Planning Department Secretary Roberta Morowitz at the city, 456-2489 Ext. 245, to obtain phone numbers or to make contact arrangements.
In commission action members:
-Approved, in a 5-0 vote, a change in both the general plan and the zoning ordinance relating to the zoning of a particular parcel that had been erroneously zoned originally as public open space, when, in fact, it was intended that it be Single Family Medium, which was consistent with the surrounding area.
-Approved in several 4 to 1 votes (Kabrins dissenting) a new 2-story, single-family home of 4,295 square feet with attached garage, swimming pool and spa at 27495 Latigo Bay View Drive on a steep hillside. Kabrin’s objections went principally to the proposed terrace, which went off the pad and the house, and had the appearance of three stories though it was actually two stories. Rather then eliminating the outside terraces, the commission approved it and gave the architect an opportunity to modify the terrace design. They also turned down as unnecessary a suggestion by the city biologist that a large wall be built at the base of the lot.
-Approved 4 to 1 (Carrigan dissenting) a proposal to construct a 8,524 square feet (6,541 sq. ft. primary residence plus garage, guest house and covered patio) house and an 882 square foot basement at 27454 Winding Way. Neighborhood character and public views were the primary issues and most on the commission felt that the architects redesign and attempt to accommodate the commissions earlier objections overcame the objection of some that the hillside house might be too big for the site although within the allowed size in the zoning code.
One day short of his 22nd birthday in May, a popular Malibu native locked himself in the bathroom of his Escondido Beach residence, put a 410 shotgun to his head, and pulled the trigger. Last September, a young man from El Segundo, an apparently untroubled 17-year-old student at Santa Monica High School was found asphyxiated in his car in Corral Canyon. Both suicides devastated their family and friends, and, like all teen and young-adult suicides, the losses left the aching question: “Why?”
Both deaths also became statistics in a phenomenon that is not unique to Malibu nor Los Angeles: teen- and young-adult suicide has become a national tragedy.
In a recent letter urging the National Rifle Association to expand its gun safety education to include instruction involving teen-age suicide, Rep., Mary Bono, (R-Palm Springs), pointed out that in Riverside County last year, there were 53 suicides out of 558 attempts by young people. In the United States, Bono added, the suicide rate for young people ages 15-24 has tripled in the past three decades.
On the surface, the young man who died here last May, a graduate of Colin McEwen High and an avid surfer, diver, and fisherman, was seemingly secure in his life and career ( he and his partner’s charter boat participated in the rescue efforts following January’s Alaska Airlines crash off the Channel Islands). But, according to the L. A. County Coroner’s office, he suffered from a two- and-a-half year addiction to the powerful pain-killer Vicodin, which stemmed from a near-fatal car accident and the subsequent never-ending pain.
Suicide, of course, can be motivated by situations far more benign than a car crash. Dr. Bruce Lockwood is a psychiatrist who has practiced all of his 16-year career in Malibu, and is also the psychiatrist for Pepperdine’s Student Counseling Center. Within his practice, he treats young people in whom suicide warning signs have been noticed by their parents, friends, or teachers.
“I think one of the reasons for the rising suicide rates,” Lockwood said in a recent interview, “is the breakdown of the traditional family with both parents working all the time, and kids left more on their own.
“Parents are unable to monitor their children as in the past, and people seem to be doing drugs at an earlier age, too,” he added. “Today, many kids tend not to learn how to cope with problems, and often take a drug to avoid pain.”
As a sobering example of the kind of latchkey upbringing often found in Malibu, one interviewee, who preferred remaining anonymous, related a story of a teen-aged son of a high-profile actor and Malibu resident who used to scour his neighborhood seeking someone–anyone other than his dad’s housekeeper–just to talk with.
Another problem may be unique to affluent communities like Malibu.
“Maybe I’m biased by being in Malibu,” Lockwood said, “but it seems there is also a lot more pressure to succeed. It’s hard to say, though, that suicidal tendencies are any more prevalent here where there are a lot of affluent families, than it is to say drugs are any more prevalent here than in the ghetto. There are different kind of pressures (like gangs and drive-by shootings in the ghetto), and different kind of drugs.”
Seeing the signs
No one in our community is responsible for the health and safety of more teens than Michael Matthews, the 38-year-old principal of Malibu High School.
“Teen suicide is an issue that raises its head every year in our school,” he said. “Knock on wood, but I’ve never had a student commit suicide in a school where I’ve worked, but I’ve had many students put on alert; students whose behavior worries us, and whom we watch very carefully.”
At Malibu High, the alert process is finely honed, involving not only Matthews, but two full-time, state-credentialed counselors as well as interns working through the Jewish Family Services organization. “First of all we involve the parents,” Matthews said. “It’s the most important thing we can do.”
“A student may come to a teacher or counselor expressing worry about someone, or a teacher may see a dramatic change in some student’s behavior or attitude, or they may see something in the student’s writing,” he explained. “That’s a very common way of spotting potential trouble.”
Another warning sign, according to J. T. Manwell, a deputy at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station and member of their Juvenile Intervention Team, popularly known as the “J-Team,” occurs when a child starts giving away beloved possessions (see suicide warning signs box, page A1.)
“One of our counselors will then have a very low-key session with the child,” Matthews says. “It may lead off with a question as simple as ‘Tell me how you are?’ and go on from there. Sometimes a student will be honest, but, more often, they’re not. The counselor goes to the parents immediately, and we notify the teachers.”
Three cases a year “would be a high number,” adds Matthews, whose school population numbers 1,200. That includes the Middle School composing grades six through eight, and whose 11- through 14-year-olds the principal sees as possibly more vulnerable to suicidal tendencies than the more visible older children.
“I’ve said that until they’re juniors, they’re only about 75 percent human,” he laughs.
Unlike a notification of drug use (which parents often deny, says Matthews), the principal said the school’s warning about possible suicidal tendencies are taken very seriously.
“When we make that call, every parent’s heart skips a beat.”
For Lockwood (who adds anti-social behavior like a “pissed-off” attitude, and the tendency to get into fights all the time to the warning signs), parents are also the crucial element in suicide prevention.
“In all the years I’ve been in practice,” he said, “I’ve never had a kid call and say ‘I want to see someone.’ It’s always the parents who bring their child in.”
And many times, they’re not too happy about being in Lockwood’s office.
“Most teenagers or adolescents aren’t going to want to talk about it, and they’ll tell me they’re here because they’re forced to be here,” he said. “But then, hopefully, they might relax enough to come back a second time.”
Above all, Deputy Manwell adds, do everything you can to keep open the lines of communication with your child.
It’s also a perilous mistake, Lockwood said, to write off a child’s threat of suicide as simply teenage self-dramatization.
“I’ve actually had people tell me ‘I know my kid won’t commit suicide [just] because he threatened to do it.’ If anyone tells me anything like that, I’ll often put the child in the hospital,” Lockwood said. Unlike school officials, Lockwood has the power to commit a patient to a 72-hour observation stay in a psychiatric hospital.
“They may think I’m wrong, and they may get pissed off at me, but I think taking it seriously is always the better way to go,” Lockwood said.
“It’s difficult enough with teenagers because its so easy to say, ‘That’s just a difficult teen,'” he added, “but you can’t ignore it.”
One hurtle to overcome with a suicidal teenager, according to Lockwood, is that many of them do not look at it as a final thing. “It’s probably easier to say that the person is in such pain that they have a narrow view of the future,” he said. “They have reached a point of hopelessness where there is no light at the end of the tunnel, but they also frequently believe that somewhere, somehow, they’ll come back. Older people who have lived through more situations have a greater sense of the finality of it all.”
According to the psychiatrist, girls are more prone than boys to suicide.
“If you look at the surveys,” he said, “females, who tend to use pills or slit their wrists, try suicide more often, but males, who tend to use guns, succeed more often.”
Lockwood also suspects that many deaths considered accidents are, in fact, suicides.
“It’s hard to know for sure,” he said, “but I think a lot of the time when young people drive off cliffs, or into a tree or pole, that’s the case.
“They’ll be drinking or using drugs, and whatever inhibitions would otherwise stop them from doing it disappear.”
Other help is available as well; however, it took this reporter more than 50 phone calls to find it (see sidebar). Nevertheless, doubt frequently remains.
“When we’re watching a student,” Matthews said, “we’re scared to death if he or she doesn’t show up for school one day. You just never know. You try to do what you can, but sometimes it seems you can never do enough.”
The father of the Malibu youth who died adds: “I guess my son’s pain from the accident was more terrible than anything we will ever know. Post-traumatic stress disorders are not just isolated to war veterans as many people believe, but can be the tragic residue of accidents, rapes, even child abuse. Building awareness, and finding answers, is a cause which is going to be the rest of my life’s work.”
(His family has established a foundation whose mission is to raise public awareness of such post-traumatic stress disorders.)
“I have tomato sauce running in my blood,” said Tarcisio Mosconi, 49, co-owner and operator of the Tra Di Noi restaurant in Malibu’s Civic Center area.
The name of the restaurant is fitting–it means “just between us” in Italian–for the small, intimate, newly rebuilt restaurant
Mosconi was rejoicing at the reopening of the restaurant Thursday, which was closed by the city since a December, 1999 fire destroyed a neighboring business and damaged the restaurant.
Tra Di Noi, which is also owned by Antonio Allessi and Claudio Borin, was originally founded in 1991 by Alessi and Borin at the site of the former La Scala restaurant.
Although the restaurant was closed for several months, Mosconi said he was able to find work for all the cooks and waiters at two other restaurants he is affiliated with, one in Marina Del Rey and the other on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Borin runs another Italian restaurant named Sage Room (at the former location of Indigo Cafe at PCH and Kanan Dume Road). The president of the corporation is Alessi. Tra Di Noi is Mosconi’s favorite “because it’s small and personal,” he said.
Trastevere in Santa Monica is, by contrast, “a machine that feeds 1,200 a day,” and the one they own in the Marina, Il Faro, is for tourists.
“Here, in Malibu, we have many local families who come several times a week,” he said.
Mosconi was born into a restaurant family. He tries in every way to make Tra Di Noi like the restaurant run by his family in Rome.
“When customers from Malibu tell me they are going to Italy, I tell them the name of my family’s restaurant in Rome and they go there and have their picture taken with my sister,” he said.
Mosconi often buys the vegetables for the restaurant himself.
“I feel fresh vegetables are important,” he said. “You cannot get the same taste with frozen vegetables. The same for fish.”
The average meal at Tra Di Noi costs $18 to $20, plus drinks. Mosconi stocks three types of wines at the Malibu location–Italian, French and Californian. One of the most expensive wines is Solaia at $140 to $145 a bottle.
The fare is Northern Italian. Pizza is served as well. While some might think it is a “given” at an Italian restaurant, upscale Italian restaurants think pizza is beneath them.
“We have pizza because a lot of our customers bring kids and kids love pizza,” said Mosconi.
Seafood is also big in the Malibu location, “because we are by the ocean and you expect it, and Italians love fish,” said Mosconi.
One unique selling proposition offered by Tra Di Noi is that they are located scant feet away from a children’s play area.
“We have parents come and request an outdoor table on the patio so they can dine while keeping an eye on their children only a few feet away,” he said.
Mosconi takes his job seriously. He is there seven days a week, sometimes up until 11 p.m. He greets each customer, and knows their taste in food if they are regulars. He takes a 10-day vacation once a year. Ironically, what he does while on vacation is “go to other restaurants,” he said. He said his one pet peeve is so-called Italian restaurants that don’t know how to prepare Italian food.
“I ordered a pasta up north in San Franciso and they were supposed to have egg inside, but had whipped cream,” he said. “I asked the chef who planned this recipe and he wouldn’t let me talk to the boss. I think they were afraid to be confronted by a real Italian chef.”
Although Mosconi won’t admit to being “star struck,” he does say that he was impressed when a movie star he had just seen on TV arrived in person and proved to be “a regular guy who talked about the weather and food.”
For those Malibuites who want their ambiance authentic, Mosconi strives daily to create an Italian ambiance.
“I have Italian music piped in from a satellite,” he said. “I had the chairs reupholstered with cloth from Italy.”
The walls feature paintings of vegetables from the gallery next-door, paintings he changes monthly so no one will get bored. He wears only Italian-made clothes. He said he wasn’t able to find Italian tablecloths as colorful as the French ones he chose for the patio. The implication was that French country was all right, but nothing compared to Italian country.
Tra Di Noi was booked through the weekend from the day they re-opened–word spreading fast that they were back in business.
“I regret that the building next door wasn’t repaired enough so that we can’t have a nice wall behind the patio instead of a board,” said Mosconi.
The fact that the building next door is not repaired is what prevents them from installing a more permanent canopy over the patio. His temporary solution is a canvas umbrella over each table to cope with the sun, and portable heaters to cope with the chill that comes at nightfall.
“In Italy the canopies are more permanent,” he said, “so you wouldn’t need the heaters.”
He said the secret of being a successful restaurateur is, “You have to love your job, and I do. And you need to understand what you’re doing. It’s like I said, I’ve got tomato sauce running in my veins.”
I’ve been following this last ditch attempt to make an Israeli/Palestinian peace. It’s pretty clear that the clock is running out. Barak barely has a government, Arafat is ill and probably doesn’t have very long, and Clinton is in the waning hours of his Presidency. If peace doesn’t happen now it’s probably not going to happen for another generation, if ever, and yet, all three are being reviled for their efforts.
Both Arafat and Barak appear to have the same marching orders from their supporters, their opponents and their people. They say to them: Go out and deal with the enemy even though we all know you can’t trust them and their word is meaningless and no matter what you agree to they’re probably going to screw us anyway. This is the list of what we want you to get and nothing less than the complete list is acceptable, so if you come back with less than 100 percent of our demands, you’ve failed and we won’t support you. You can negotiate with them, provided you don’t give up anything, because if you do, you’re a traitor, you’ve sold us out and we won’t support you. And most of all, whatever you do–make sure to come back with lots of money from the Americans.
Now, good, luck and try not to be the dirty rat we know you really are.
One would almost begin to believe that people must like conflict. There must be something very satisfying about it, because it appears to be so much a part of the human condition. It helps you define who the good guys are, and that of course is you. It also helps you to identify who the bad guys are, and that, of course, is them. The ambiguity of peace appears to be harder to live with the the clarity of war. Besides, in war, you don’t have to make any really tough moral choices.
What’s ultimately going to happen really boils down to a few things that are doable and a few that are not.
The Palestinians want the Israelis to take back some or all of the Palestinians that left Israeli during the variety of wars, the so-called “right of return.” That will never happen. No country the size of Israel could take back one million-plus people. It would make it a totally different country and certainly no longer a Jewish state. There could be some reparations or payment for land, but those people, in any large numbers, will never return, ever.
The Israelis want the Palestinians to hold off declaring statehood in September. It’s an Israeli pipe dream. The Palestinians should and will declare themselves an independent nation. In fact, Arafat has almost no choice about it at this point, and he certainly doesn’t have to ask the Israelis permission to do it. Nevertheless, after they become a state they will still need electric power from Israel, they will need water from Israel, their people will need to continue working in Israel and they will need lots and lots of money to make their nation work. The rule is simple. No deal equals no money, and probably less water, power and jobs in Israel. There are refugees all over Europe who would be happy to work in Israel, so the Palestinian labor card is certainly weaker.
No one wants to give up any part of Jerusalem because it’s everyone’s sacred grounds–so call it something else. Expand the borders of Jerusalem so there is an Arab part and an Israeli part. Jerusalem has been a divided city for several thousand years. Once you get beyond the noise there is nothing new to it.
The borders of the new country are going to have to reflect, to some extent, what exists on the ground, which means that some of the settlements on the West Bank will be part of Israel and some will have to be abandoned, with some compensation to those moved out. I imagine that the last thing either country needs is a continual tinderbox of the Israeli settlements in the new Palestinian country. It would be a source of constant confrontation and a constant flashpoint and a political nightmare for both.
What happens if they fail? Suppose the peace talks fall apart? Or, suppose they hammer out a deal and either the Israelis or the Palestinians turn it down. Then I fear we’ll see the ghost of Northern Ireland come to Israel. The Israelis have the power to starve the Palestinians out. The Palestinians have the power to keep the Israelis living in a terrorist hell.
It’s gone too far, I fear, to turn back. They’ve got to make a deal or it’s a mutual suicide pact.
As a 32-year resident of Malibu, it is clear that our city government has made many errors in their relatively short life and have not always done much to make our little paradise better, but from time to time they do very good things and one of them deserves some comment and praise.
For many years we had clusters of day workers at Las Flores, Civic center, Zuma and at other locations at odd times. Some years ago they decided to have a Malibu Labor Exchange and put it at the Civic Center near the old Sheriff’s station at the west end of the parking lot. They finally got a trailer, a phone number, tables, chairs–in short, they were organized and effective.
Over the years I have used their services many times and, as with other more formal contractors, have had some good and some not so good workers. Overall, they have provided a valuable and much needed source of occasional workmen for all kinds of odd jobs, etc. Clearly, much of the success of this impressive labor exchange is due to the man in charge, Oscar Mondragon.,
He is unfailingly polite, very helpful, fair and honest in his dealing with workmen and customers alike. This letter is simply to extend plaudits, praise, a well deserved thank you to everyone in and out of the Malibu government for this good public service.
William F. Pollock
The Malibu Pier is in play again.
The state of California, owners of the Malibu Pier, are in the early stages of deciding what they want to see on the Malibu Pier after it’s been rebuilt and they’re taking that decision process out for public input. There was a kickoff planning meeting July 7 with the Malibu Business Roundtable at City Hall. They’re also taking potential bidders for the pier repair contract through what they call a bid-walk this week, to give them a better idea of what the pier will need.
The funding also appears to be getting into line. The County of Los Angles will probably be putting in $2.9 million of Prop A Bond funds and the City of Malibu will be putting in $700,000 of their bond funds. Both the county and the city want, as a condition, a commitment from the state that they will maintain the pier, which would include setting up a trust fund of $95,000 per year for repair, in addition to regular maintenance. The proposal, along with the finalized details, should be going before the Board of Supervisors for a vote at their next meeting. To date the state has spent approximately $700,000 on repairs.
Hayden Sohm, a park ranger and Malibu sector superintendent for the Department of Parks and Recreation of the state of California, who has charge of the pier said there will be a meeting for public input in August and noted that the meeting date will be publicized.
The repair and rehabilitation of the pier was scheduled to be done in three phases, but Phase 1 was cut short by the state because the two partners who where joint venturing the project couldn’t get along with each other. The state finally stepped in and terminated them both. The project has been put out for rebid, and the state hopes to have a new contractor by early fall.
Phase 2 will include getting another contractor to complete the incomplete portion of Phase 1, and will also include completing the structural aspects of the pier and buildings, and deciding what concessions get to set up business on the pier. Phase 3 will be to build those concessions and finish the pier for its entire length. Construction is expected to resume in early October.
When completed, the building that once housed Alice’s Restaurant will be once again be a restaurant, though major structural repair work has to be done first. The building will have to be raised so that the support structure underneath can be repaired. The smaller building on the other side of the entrance, which housed the prep kitchen, will be torn down and rebuilt. Since the Malibu Pier is a historical structure, the look of the buildings can’t be changed and have to be replaced as they were before.
No decisions have been made as to what restaurant will be going in there, said Sohm. There is room on the pier for two restaurants, he said, indicating the one of the two structures at the seaward end of the pier could be a restaurant.
As far as what level of restaurants go out on the pier, Sohm was noncommittal.
“We would like to see a restaurant that is supportive of what we do in the state parks in Malibu,” Sohm explained. “Maybe a restaurant with a display of the history of Malibu.”
But nothing is carved in stone.
The public will have an opportunity to say what they would like to see on the pier and how they would like to see it developed, Sohm said.
Sohm said it is not true that there is any problem with parking. Once the parking lot is opened, it will have room for 100 cars.
However, there will not be a provision to park cars on the pier as with the pier in Santa Barbara.
We have it strong enough to take a fire truck, said Sohm, but don’t plan to have cars out on the pier.
As far as other amenities the pier may have, Sohm said it is possible that sport fishing boats may be brought back. Fishing off the Pier is permitted, and with 380 feet of the pier reopened, the pier is being used for that now. A fishing license is not needed to fish off the pier.
On the short length of the pier the day before the Fourth of July, those using the pier talked about what they thought should be the proper direction for the pier. Jose Irheta, 32, a native of El Salvador, was fishing for halibut and sand bass.
“I’ve been fishing off piers for four years,” he said, “and one thing this one lacks is a restaurant and bathrooms.”
He also said he would like to see a bait shop. As far as a restaurant, Irheta said he doesn’t care if it’s expensive, but he would like to see one on the pier itself.
Hector Holguin, a 72-year-old senior citizen, said, “I’d like to see Alice’s open again, or a restaurant like it. Something where dinner is about $12 and I could buy a drink or two.”
He said he’d also like to see sport fishing boats come back to the Malibu pier. Holguin, who is from Mission Hills, has been coming to the pier since 1941. A grandfather of five, he plans to have his ashes scattered from the pier. As far as what level of restaurant he’d like to see open, he’s a little more in favor of a fancier place.
“I don’t want to see graffiti on the pier,” he said, indicating that Santa Monica’s pier has gone to the dogs.
Greg Battitt, 25, of Northridge, was also fishing for halibut. A plumber, he said he has tried the Oxnard pier “but the crabs ate all my bait.”
Battitt said he would like to see a bait shop, and a cheap restaurant “a little above Jack in the Box,” or maybe a coffee shop.
Abdul R. Pasta, manager of Malibu Inn, said he looks forward to the re-opening of the pier to its full length.
“I remember the crowds we had on weekends when the pier was open,” he said. “The parking lot will be good for use”
Pasta said he doesn’t care if the restaurant on the pier is expensive or middle class.
“We will benefit as people will come and eat here too,” he said.
The pier is open 8 a.m. to sunset daily to pedestrian foot traffic only. It is anticipated that the pier will be open until early October when construction activity is planned to resume. Entrance to the pier is free, however, parking in the adjacent lot is $6 per day.
“They will have to move to other Communities.”
This single quote by Harry Peacock, the retiring city manager of Malibu, is a disturbing indication of what Malibu has become.
Plato once defined Hubris as, “The ego that blinds.” I would have expected to read this type of quote from a documented account of a French aristocrat or clergyman, speaking about the French Peasants in 1775. Unfortunately, this quote was found in a local newspaper on the eve of the Twenty-First-Century. This only proves that the only thing that has changed, in 225 years of civilization, is our tools and gadgets. We as people have grown very little.
What type of city shows such blatant apathy towards a 20-year resident that educates its children intellectually and spiritually? What type of city shows such blatant apathy towards a single mother? This is not the Malibu I remember from my childhood. This is the type of attitude I would hear about when adults would describe the type of people that lived in Bel-Air, Beverly Hills or Brentwood. Where has the humanity and warmth of Malibu gone?
I was so hurt by Mr. Peacock’s words when I read them last Thursday that I turned to my two friends and carefully said, “When I become wealthy, I want to be slapped down so hard if I ever start sounding like him.” It is human nature to protect those weaker than our selves, it is our obligation. The only time we stray from this is when our ego has the reins of our fate. History is riddled with accounts where man has strayed from this path, and as a result, some of the darkest chapters in our earth history have been written. Think about some of them for a moment. . .
Man is capable of such beautiful things. Why do some of us choose beauty’s diametric? I ask only one question of Mr. Peacock, “Mr. Peacock, would your parents be proud knowing you said what you did?”
Please understand I feel it is my duty to write this document, and my sin if I do not. For those of you that do not understand still, please ponder the following examples. If all of the non-wealthy people of Malibu moved away to other communities, who would be left to serve and keep the city running?
Who would be left to teach your children how to read?
Who would be left to prepare your gourmet coffee in the morning as you drive to work? Who would come to your home, and help rehabilitate your wife through physical therapy, after she was hit by a drunk driver that nearly took her life.
Who would be left to serve and wait on you at the local restaurant you have grown so attached to. Who would deliver your pizza when you and your spouse are too tired to prepare dinner for your children?
No one should ever be taken for granted. It is arrogance to expect a human being (born equal in every way) to sacrifice family, happiness and hope, to travel an hour by car, or 2 hours by bus, 5 to 6 days a week to a job in Malibu that barely pays them enough money to live month by month. While at the same time these incredible people turn the other cheek when some wealthy or not so wealthy resident tries to make them realize that they are here only to serve, and never to share in the beauty of a community that they sacrifice 1/2 of their lives to create.
There is a subtle but brilliant exchange of words between two characters in the movie “Braveheart” with regard for how much a rich man has to lose as opposed to a poor man. The numbers are different, but the loss is equal.
Mr. Peacock simply believes that the not-so-wealthy of Malibu do not deserve to share the beauty they have worked just as hard to maintain. Malibu is geographically isolated from the rest of Los Angeles. This isolation is the reason why we have strange weather patterns. It also should be a reminder that we do not have the luxury of being able to bus and ship workers in from 30 to 40 miles away, especially with gas prices being the way they are. Just ponder the problems that occur during very wet winters. Malibu once was and still can be a place where people are not judged by how much or how little money they have. The rich man and the poor man have something very special in common, a true love for nature in all of its splendor. Malibu once was and still can be a place where people encourage each other to have faith in themselves to carry out their dreams. Only in Malibu could a millionaire encourage a homeless man to follow his dream of becoming wealthy and happy himself, and in return the homeless man encourages the millionaire to take the time to learn how to play the guitar, because it was simply something the millionaire always wanted to do, but never had the time.
These were two priceless gifts exchanged between two human beings. Malibu once was and still can be a place where people can be whatever they want to be without the fear of their lifestyle being socially put on trial.
When the world looks at Malibu they say, “Malibu, what a beautiful place to live.”
Let’s do our part to compel people from other parts of the world to say, “Malibu, that’s the place where some of the most decent and loving people live.”
September C. Edwards
It may be safe to enter the ocean again. But, then again, it may not.
Local lifeguard Capt. Dan Atkins was out for a swim Monday at Zuma Beach when he was stung on a good portion of his calf by a jellyfish hanging out in local waters in Malibu.
However, it seems as if the jellyfish rush has abated from Memorial Day weekend when the first rash of stings occurred, with about 150 stings a day being reported. Atkins said there were 25 medical assists due to jellyfish stings on Monday, however, that number is less than the 40 reported the week before on July 5.
“I thought they were backing off a bit,” said Atkins. “They’re still here stinging people.”
Lifeguard Capt. Kirk Thomas said that on Memorial weekend they were caught unprepared and had to use rubbing alcohol and seawater to treat the stings. Now, all towers are stocked with vinegar, the best-known remedy to stop the activation of new stinging cells.
“The biggest fear is being allergic to them,” said Atkins.
Just as with allergic reactions to bee stings or other causes, there could be breathing problems and it could lead to death, said Atkins.
However, there have been no serious reports of reactions to the stings.
“There have been some nice specimens out there,” said Thomas of the jellyfish, with some having 2-foot round heads.
The Baywatch patrol during duty took an underwater picture of one jellyfish that had a coffee-plate size head with a 12-14 foot long tail, said Thomas.
According to the California University of Berkeley web site at www.ucmp.berkeley.edu, jellyfish can range in size from a “mere twelve millimeters to more than two meters (about six-and-half feet) across.” One classification of jellyfish, the cyanea arctica, sometimes have tentacles more than 40 meters (approximately 131 feet) long.
Jellyfish sightings have been reported as far south as Bolsa Chica in Orange County where a surfer told Thomas they were everywhere.
Capt. of Lifeguard Operations Jim Doman said that 1988 was the last time they had such a large amount of jellyfish in local waters.
As to why, recently, there are so many showing up, Mike Schaadt, exhibits director of the Cabrillo Marine Museum in San Pedro, said, “Nobody knows for sure. There are no definite answers.”
However, he did say that the El Nino weather event a couple of years ago brought a lot of warm water and now with colder water pushing up nutrient-rich food from deep waters to the surface of the ocean, there is a larger food source available for the jellyfish.
“Microscopic-rich plants [called copepods] are growing well [which jellyfish eat],” said Schaadt.
Schaadt explained that jellyfish are plankton.
“People are shocked when told that jellies are plankton,” said Schaadt. “We’re all taught that plankton are microscopic organisms.”
Which he explained they are, but plankton also includes larger creatures.
Schaadt explained that the jellyfish washing ashore are “all less than a year old. They grow from pin-size to the large monsters we are seeing in three to four months.”
In explaining the life-cycle of a jellyfish, Schaadt said the fertilized egg of a jelly lands on a dock or anchor and grows into what a sea anemone looks like–a polyp, up to a quarter-inch tall. After two to three years the polyps reproduce by cloning (Schaadt noted that cloning has been around much longer than the famously cloned sheep Dolly). In late winter or early spring the polyps undergo another type of cloning, which produces rings of 12 to 20 stacked jellyfish. Each one is the size of a pin head. These then grow to the 2-foot diameter giants that people are seeing today.
“It’s not every year they get this big,” said Schaadt, “because the food source is not always that abundant.”
Jellies have no brain, no heart, no lungs and no gills, said Schaadt.
“They do have a mouth, stomach and reproductive organs,” he said.
Seeming that jellies do not have much of a life, Schaadt is asked what is the purpose of a jellies’ life?
“To make more jellies,” he said laughing.
The last council meeting’s discussion topics of home office laws and permits for grandfathered buildings appear to be two different issues, but they have something in common. These regulations affect us in our most private sanctuaries-our homes. The council’s recent interest in looking at these issues represents a new direction in tackling something other than Committees, Development Agreements, Budgeting and Procedures.
With real sincerity, the councilmembers grappled with our right to conduct business in our homes and the need to make permitting affordable. I applaud them and believe that the prospects stopping the over-regulation of Malibu are improving.
Paul Major
