Where the Wild Things Are

A trail camera in a Malibu garden captures an image of a night visitor. Coyotes are just one of many wild animal species that make their homes among us. All photos © 2014 Suzanne Guldimann

Let the wild rumpus begin!

—Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

In Malibu you don't have to go far to find where the wild things are. They are right here, living parallel lives that rarely intersect with their humans neighbors, despite the fact that we all occupy the same neighborhoods.

At the Malibu Post we've been monitoring some of our local wildlife for the past four months with the help of a trail camera. It's an illuminating experience. 

I was anticipating catching the local coyotes at work when I set the camera up. We see constant evidence of their presence: footprints, scat, and holes dug in pursuit of gophers, although this wily wild canine is rarely seen in person. But the very first photo we captured wasn't a coyote, it was this shy beauty:

Madam Bobcat is a silent secret presence in the night garden, where she hunts for rabbits, and rodents. Unlike the coyotes, she leaves no trace of her presence.

I was astonished. I had no idea there was a bobcat in the area, but I learned that a friend who lives nearby has seen her so often that she refers to her as "my bobcat."

The bobcat is shy and secretive. We rarely get a photo of all of her, but we know now that she is a presence in the garden. Bobcats are generally solitary and require a large territory—at least a square mile for females and nearly twice that for males, according to the Urban Carnivore website. 

Bobcats are bigger than a house cat and look impressively wild, with spots and stripes and enormous paws, but they are not a threat to humans and prefer to avoid confrontations. they are also much smaller than most people realize, usually weighing no more than 15-18 pounds. Urban legend provides many colorful tall tales of wildcats attacking people and pets, but National Park Service biologists who have been studying the local bobcat population for over a decade, maintain that there is absolutely no credible evidence of a bobcat ever attacking a human or eating domestic cats or dogs. Bobcats are obligate carnivores, but they primarily hunt rabbits and rodents like ground squirrels, gophers and wood rats. Unfortunately, this puts them at high risk for secondary poisoning from anticoagulant rodenticides. Research indicates that the impact of poison on the bobcat's immune system can lead to death from manage and from a condition called chronic wasting disease.

Madam Bobcat performs a disappearing act, slipping through a gap in the fence in broad daylight. You can just see her nose and her ears, illuminated by the sun. A blueline stream nearby and a buffer zone of riparian habitat, including deep thickets—and plenty of poison oak that keeps human interlopers out—provides shelter and a wildlife corridor for animals like bobcats, who may include gardens in their nightly rounds but require secure places to den and to raise their young.

This is the wild thing I expected to photograph—Malibu's resident trickster spirit, the coyote. I haven't been disappointed. The remote camera, with its motion detector and infrared flash, has recorded the previously unseen adventures of a pair of coyotes.

After carefully checking to make sure the coast is clear, the coyote squeezes through the same small gap in the fence that the bobcat uses. This is a tiny space, barely nine inches high and less than two feet across. This coyote arrived at 3:02 a.m., and left, for a reason she didn't bother to share, two minutes later. 

Mischief managed, I guess. Or perhaps she received word from her mate informing her that the gophers were better on the other side of the fence. Coyotes sing to communicate with the other members of their family, not while hunting, which would defeat the point of being sneaky and stealthy. The local coyotes appear to live in a small family group consisting of a mated pair and their young. They sometimes hunt cooperatively, especially while the youngsters are learning to fend for themselves, but they absolutely do not hunt in giant packs, no matter what local urban legend claims. Coyotes are also smaller than most people realize, rarely weighing more than 35 pounds.

There are always coyotes and many other species of wildlife living among us, whether we are aware of them or not, but the drought has greatly increased contact with humans, sometimes with tragic results for households pets. Pet owners are strongly encouraged to keep cats indoors and make sure small dogs have a safely fenced enclosure and are always walked on a leash.

This coyote is not sure what to think of the infrared flash on the remote camera. Coyotes are intelligent and curious, qualities that help them to adapt and survive in urban environments. 

Coyotes look big, but a lot of their bulk is fur. They can fit through remarkably small gaps and are capable of jumping a six foot fence. Anyone who wants to keep coyotes out of their space should make sure that there aren't any gaps in their fences or gates. Coyote rollers—rotating pipes that prevent coyotes from climbing over fences are easy to install. There are DIY and manufactured options on the Internet. 

There are a lot of urban legends about coyotes and bobcats. The truth is, they are fragile, intelligent, flesh-and-blood animals not that different in behavior from the dogs and cats that share our lives as companion animals.

Unlike the bobcat, coyotes are omnivores. They dig for gophers and ground squirrels and are expert mousers, and yes, they will catch and eat cats and small dogs if they get the chance, but they also eat fruit and insects and anything remotely edible that humans leave outside, including bird seed and BBQ drippings. Coyotes leave scat in the open as a sort of canine calling card, so it's relatively easy to determine what they've been eating at a glance. Lately, ours have been feasting on pomegranates—they wait until the fruit splits open, then pull them off the lower branches, eat the good parts and leave the empty rind behind. They've also been eating large quantities of palm tree fruit, potato bugs and snails. The snails surprised me, but they are abundant, easy to catch and probably provide plenty of protein and moisture—necessities in short supply during drought conditions.

The coyotes and Madam Bobcat aren't the only animals to use the gap in the fence. Rabbits also travel this way. These fierce and intrepid lagomorphs are busy in the garden day and night, and not only thrive but appear to enjoy every minute of their lives despite being at the bottom of the food chain and in constant danger.

There are other garden visitors that have so far eluded the camera: the raccoons that fish for tadpoles in the creek and for koi in a neighbor's pond; the ferocious, secretive long-tailed weasel, glimpsed only twice in all the years we've lived here; and the gray foxes we sometimes hear yipping at the moon on winter nights but rarely ever see.

The sight of a gray fox is so rare that I felt inspired to write a poem commemorating my first encounter with this elusive species in 2008. 

The Fox

I walked on the beach on a winter’s day,

In a moment snatched between rain showers,

When the sea and the sky were pewter gray,

Empty and lonely as the dawn hours.

I heard a curlew’s sweet sorrowing cry,

As bright and clear as the evening star.

I watched a little gray shadow slip by,

Secret as a ghost, across the sand bar,

Between the sea and the storm-swollen creek.

Along the shore I watched him lightly flit

Chasing the silly plover, not to seek

To catch one, but just for the joy of it.

He left his footprints for the tide to fill—

As proof for me that what I’d seen was true:

That foxes live here also, even still.

I’ve lived here all my life and never knew.

After encountering the fox, the bobcat shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was. And it makes me wonder what other unseen creatures may be quietly living among us. 

Henry David Thoreau famously wrote "in wildness is the preservation of the world." One doesn't need to travel to remote corners of the world to find that wildness, it's often just outside the door.  And while no one is thrilled when the skunks take up residence under the deck or the coyotes hold a wild rumpus under the bedroom window at 3 a.m., most Malibu residents appreciate what a gift it is to live in a place that still has room for wild things.

Suzanne Guldimann
16 November 2014

We rarely see coyotes by daylight, but this one appeared right in time for the birthday of the Malibu Surfside New's founder and former editor and publisher Anne Soble. Anne was (and is) an advocate for all wildlife but especially for coyotes. She often devoted her editorials to the issue of conservation and peaceful coexistence with this remarkable wild canine. So it seems entirely appropriate that a coyote should stop by to pay his respects on that particular day. He is one of the celestial beings in Chumash cosmology, after all. One of the Sky People, a creator, shapeshifter, hero, trickster and messenger. 

The Turning of the Tide

Do you hear that rushing sound? Malibu’s victorious Measure R supporters say it’s the tide beginning to turn.

Measure R, which enables Malibu residents to vote on any proposed new commercial development in excess of 20,000 square feet and limits chain stores, passed with nearly 60 percent of the vote on November 4. 

Here’s the official statement from Rob Reiner and the Yes on R campaign:

"Last night’s election result is a major victory for the residents of Malibu, all of whom now have a stronger voice over the future of our community. Measure R will help preserve the unique character of Malibu and combat increased traffic and the destruction of open spaces by giving voters a say on the 1.5 million square feet of commercial development currently planned in the heart of the city and on future development plans. 

I would like to extend an enthusiastic thank you to all those who signed petitions to place Measure R on the ballot, who volunteered on the phones and the streets and, most importantly, who voted for this historic new law for our city. 

We now call on the Malibu City Council and City Attorney to swiftly implement Measure R and vigorously defend it against promised attacks from developers who opposed the law. Passing a ballot measure is no small task and the success of Measure R serves as a wake-up call for all those who dismissed it and campaigned against it."

"This is quite significant," Reiner told the Los Angeles Times. "It's the first time that the people who live here — the residents of Malibu — really have a say over the future of our community. Before it was kind of controlled by a small group of people who had a stranglehold on development. This is a big deal for everybody."

Rob Reiner rallies an auditorium full of Measure R volunteers on the Sunday before the vote. Malibu residents spent hundreds of hours gathering signatures, making phone calls and talking to people in front of Malibu's markets. These weren't paid campaigners, as the No on R campaign alleged, they were friends and neighbors who donated their time to a cause they believe in.

The developer who just about single-handedly funded the "No on R" campaign is Steve Soboroff. He is the developer of the new city of Playa Vista that is being built in the Ballona Wetlands. He used to own the Malibu Village shopping center, and is currently seeking to build a new shopping center in Malibu.  

Soboroff not only opposed Measure R but has threatened to sue the city if the measure was approved. His position is easy to understand, if not to condone. He has a major investment in developing his six-acre property in Malibu.

Soboroff’s quotes in a post-election article in Bloomberg are further verification—not that any is needed—that the developer opposed the measure for the sake of his project. The article states:

“It’s a disaster,” [Soboroff] said of the initiative in a telephone interview before the vote. “It’s hurtful to Malibu and its future from an environmental perspective, from a planning perspective and from a public-services perspective.”

The article points out that: 

“Soboroff, through his development entity Whole Foods and the Park LLC, donated $85,000 as of Oct. 18 to oppose the measure, according to filings. His partnership spent more than $12 million on the site and signed a lease with Whole Foods Markets Inc. (WFM) worth $50 million, he said.

“Limiting commercial development will worsen congestion on Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu’s main artery, because it will force residents and visitors to continue to drive as far as 20 miles to shopping centers outside the 13,000-resident city,” said developer Steve Soboroff.

Really? Malibu, officially a community of 13,000 people, but with only 5000 or so year-round residents, already has four grocery stores, including PC Greens—a locally owned and operated full service health food store. We also have a farmer’s market every Sunday. Not building yet another grocery store may cause a crisis for the developer, but is unlikely to impact the community. 

The media took great delight in making fun of the local move to limit chain stores and commercialization, but communities throughout the country from California to Maine have been watching the Malibu struggle. Measure R passed with 60 percent of the vote because a majority of Malibu residents are increasingly concerned that the community is being forced to become a shopping destination instead of a surfing destination. It's a drama increasingly playing out throughout the country and other communities are also seeking viable ways to push back.

The Malibu Village shopping center, which changed hands recently, was reportedly sold to an out of state commercial real estate company for $150 million. It's a reminder of how much money is at stake in the Malibu version of the Monopoly game. 

However, under Measure R, the developer is welcome to put the project to the vote, once it has passed planning commission review and if it meets city zoning critera. If the people of Malibu think the project offers something needed it will pass. If not, well, maybe it’s time to scale the plan back.

My mom, a dedicated Measure R supporter who gathered signatures to put the measure on the ballot and made phone calls, says she would have no problem supporting a Whole Foods in Malibu, provided the project has adequate parking and traffic mitigation and fits into the environment.

Soboroff seems not to have been aware that Malibu is essentially a small town, and that the people who live here know each other and tend to closely follow what's happening in the community. 

Proponents and opponents of Measure R mingle in the foyer at Malibu City Hall before the debate between developer Steve Soboroff and political activist Rob Reiner. At Soboroff's request, five sheriff's deputies and at least three Men in Black were there to keep the peace. You can see what a dangerous crowd it is. This might have funny if it wasn't happening in our city hall. At least we didn't have to have our bags searched or take off our shoes before entering. 

The No on R campaign claims that R was the work of outside interests was curious, because the people who gathered signatures, and volunteered to make calls, and stood outside of the markets every day for weeks, and who campaigned for the elements that comprise Measure R for more than four years, are neighbors, not faceless strangers. 

This disconnect extended to almost every aspect of the No campaign. At the debate between Soboroff and Reiner an exactly equal number of supporters and opponents of the measure had to present their tickets and then enter through separate doors and sit on opposite sides of the auditorium. 

An exactly equal number of Measure R supporters and opponents were seated on opposite sides of the auditorium at the Measure R debate between Steve Soboroff and Rob Reiner the week before the election. I felt like I was at a very old fashioned church wedding instead of a political debate. One news story quipped that the security was tighter than at a presidential debate. Image: Saint George's Chapel, 1861, from Harpers Weekly Newspaper.

All four of the city’s five council members in attendance sat on the No on R side, with the development interests and their staff and consultants. The press was over there, too, in a roped-off corner where they were supposed to stay, but of course they didn’t. Journalists don’t like to be treated like sheep. Who does?

There were five sheriff’s deputies and at least three private security guards at that debate. It felt like the USSR instead of Sunday afternoon at Malibu City Hall. Were they afraid we would throw shoes or tomatoes? 

Measure R supporters had green tickets and had to enter through the right door and sit on the right side, opponents entered through the blue door and sat on the left side. 

It's true Soboroff earned a few boos and hisses, but his accusation that the Measure R supporters, many in neon yellow Measure R tees, were being intimidated into supporting the measure, was a bit much. And then he followed that statement up by saying he hoped that the people who have spent years campaigning for local control to limit commercial overdevelopment would have the courage to vote no on the measure they worked so hard to get on the ballot.

I was sitting next to Dolores Walsh, a.k.a. the Malibu Godmother, and behind our resident fire eater Andy Lyon, and the person who could intimidate either of those remarkable Malibu residents has never been born. 

No one was allowed to take photos of the debate except for a few select journalists, and both sides agreed not to use photos of the event (a promise the No on R campaign promptly broke), so here's a photo from Alice in Wonderland that expresses how completely bizarre the whole debate experience was for the audience. 

Soboroff may have worried that Measure R supporters would run amok, but it's difficult to understand why our elected officials agreed to this segregation. And it’s troubling when city officials, even those with the best intentions, allow the advice of consultants to drown out the concerns of their constituents. Measure R, as Reiner stated, should be a wake up call to everyone.

In the end, the No on R campaign’s increasingly outre claims, including a certain developer’s statement that only the tooth fairy (yes, really, the tooth fairy) could save Malibu if Measure R should pass, failed to convince the majority of Malibu voters that development is the way to save the community.

“Rob, your Measure has no tooth fairy provision,” Soboroff said, repeatedly. 

I’ve never heard anyone invoke the tooth fairy before. I think, on reflection, that Soboroff probably meant not the mythological creature that leaves pocket change in exchange for baby teeth, but the type of good fairy that grants wishes, like Pinocchio’s Blue Fairy, or the fairy godmother in Cinderella. 

Measure R was built with dedication and hard work, not pixie dust. The tooth fairy has no place in the discussion, and the new law is not going to turn into a pumpkin and disappear at midnight, no matter how much some may wish that it would. Commercial developers will have to learn to adapt or take their marbles and go home. It's true that R is an experiment, much like Malibu's cityhood initiative was an experiment, but this is is a system that is working in other communities like Del Mar. And like the Malibu incorporation initiative, Measure R is intended in good faith to protect this fragile, environmentally sensitive coastal community from overdevelopment, not just for residents but for everyone and, most importantly, for the future. Image: illustration for Cinderella by Edmund Dulac, 1910

 Malibu doesn’t need a godmother. We already have one. And the minority of Malibu residents who opposed the measure? There have been other battles where many of us have fought together for the common good of all, like the fight for cityhood. Now that the battle over R has ended, what we need to do is come together again and work together with respect and good will to craft a future for Malibu that builds on our city’s mission and vision statement, not over it. 

Malibu is a unique land and marine environment and residential community whose citizens have historically evidenced a commitment to sacrifice urban and suburban conveniences in order to protect that environment and lifestyle, and to preserve unaltered natural resources and rural characteristics. The people of Malibu are a responsible custodian of the area’s natural resources for present and future generations.

—The Malibu Mission Statement

Suzanne Guldimann
6 November 2014

Malibu is a remarkable place, one that offers unspoiled vistas of natural beauty, and beaches and mountains that are open to everyone, including the 10 million beachgoers who have visited this year. It's something that's worth fighting for. Photo © 2014 S. Guldimann

Measure R

Depending on who you talk to, Malibu's Measure R is either a sign that the universe does eventually bend toward justice, or a dire portent that the sky is going to fall. Image @ 2014 S. Guldimann

"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."

 —Theodore Parker, 1850

“It’s like trying to decorate a cake before you’ve baked it.” That was a comment from one of the participants at the recent Malibu Civic Center Design Standards open house event at Malibu City Hall. The 10-member design standards task force, chosen last week by the city council, will be working with an urban planning consultant firm and architect to develop an aesthetic for future Civic Center development. 

I liked the cake analogy, but it made me think, why cake at all? Why are the current commercial developers so determined to have their cake and to force us to eat it? And why do we have to put up with bloated, super-sized, over-sweetened development deals, and the attitude that everything will be fine if we just cover the whole thing in an aesthetically pleasing layer of fondant? 

Measure R seeks to give voters a voice in any future commercial development in excess of 20,000 square feet anywhere in the city, and limits chain stores to 30 percent. It's on the November ballot because of overwhelming concern over the rapid mall-ification of the Civic Center, but also from the fear that rampant commercialization will spread throughout the community. This photo shows how close the Civic Center, which sits in the Malibu Creek floodplain, is to the ocean and the fragile Malibu Lagoon. Everything is interconnected. 

The Let Them Eat Cake attitude is a large part of why Measure R is on the ballot, and while the opponents of the measure can threaten that the world will end if it passes, it might be helpful if they kept in mind that the tide of anger and frustration that generated the Measure R movement is continuing to gather steam. 

Very few Malibuites want to see the current exponential growth in Civic Center area gridlock get worse. Turning the center of Malibu into a shopping destination may delight landlords but does remarkably little for the people of Malibu or the 10 million beachgoers who endured the travails of PCH this summer for a day on the beach—more than six million of them headed past the Civic Center to Zuma, according to Los Angeles County Lifeguard statistics.

More than 10 million visitors braved Pacific Coast Highway this summer to spend a day at the beach, presumably in the hope of finding not dozens of boring, generic chain stores and glorified strip malls, but peace and beauty and an unspoiled vista of sea and sky. Photo © 2014 S. Guldimann

And the opponents of Measure R? Although the mailers continue to state  that they are paid for with "major funding from Whole Foods and the Park, LLC-retail shopping center," Whole Foods has disavowed any connection to the political campaign. According to the most recent official campaign finance report, the sole financial contributor to the No on R campaign is commercial real estate developer Steve Soboroff, who has donated $50,000 to defeat the initiative.

Measure R would enable Malibu voters to weigh in on every commercial development in excess of 20,000 square feet. It also caps new formula retail—chain stores—at 30 percent per shopping center. Soboroff owns a key parcel of commercial real estate in the Civic Center. If Measure R passes, Soboroff’s six-acre "Whole Foods in the Park" shopping center project will require voter approval because it exceeds 20,000 square feet.

Soboroff is no stranger to development campaigns. A recent Hollywood Reporter article on the Measure R issue describes him as “a local powerhouse who developed Montana Avenue and bailed out Staples/L.A. Live and Playa Vista projects...”

Playa Vista, Measure R opponent Steve Soboroff's most ambitious development project, rises out of the Ballona Wetlands. There's reportedly a Whole Foods going in there too, Whole Foods in the Wetland. Photo: Downtowngal via Wikimedia Commons

And even in Playa Vista, that brand new coastal city rising out of the Ballona Wetlands and on the bones of over 1000 dead Tongva Indians whose remains were discovered after construction on the controversial project began (they were reinterred on a nearby hill), the issue of commercial development is a problem. 

A 2012 article reporting on how the development of the new city’s commercial center, The Village, a 111-acre development that will feature 2,600 new homes and 3.2 million square feet of office and retail space space, was posed to proceed after eight years of litigation, includes this quote:

"No one wanted the retail to be so large and such a draw that it would become its own mall-like destination," said Con Howe, former planning director for the City of Los Angeles. "Retail will clearly attract some people from the larger area... but it won't become a big shopping mall."

Sound familiar?

In the case of the Playa Vista Village, “an appellate court found deficiencies in environmental review,  [and] Playa Vista was forced to revise its analysis and seek a new round of city land-use approvals,” according to a 2010 Daily Breeze article. 

The No on R campaign has cast a lot of aspersions on Measure R proponent Rob Reiner and the other entertainment industry professionals who have contributed to R. “They don’t live here,” the NO camp argues. Never mind that neither does the leader of the opposition. Perhaps if he did, he would know that those celebrities have always supported the local community, shopping at locally owned business (remember when we still had lots of those?), hiring local kids to babysit and run errands, and volunteering time and money to local causes. 

Dozens of Malibu entertainment industry professionals campaigned to save the historic Colony Coffee Shop, torn down by developers to make way for the Ralph's Market shopping center. Celebrities have campaigned for cityhood; for Malibu urgent care, Malibu's schools; the California Wildlife Center; saving the Point Dume Headlands from, yeah, you guessed it, developers; even passing the coastal act. Can you think of the last time an out-of-town commercial developer did anything lasting and meaningful that wasn't part of a settlement agreement or a Coastal Commission condition? I can't. Photo unattributed.

And never mind that Reiner has had a house in Malibu for decades and is an active member of the community.

In a way, it all boils down to the difference between doing good and doing well. Rob Reiner, the spokesperson for Measure R, is attempting to do good, while the architect and apparent sole financier of the No on R campaign, seeks to do well. 

Remember when you could actually buy lumber at the Malibu Lumberyard?

Today the old hardware store is "an oasis of style," and in the view of many Malibuites, when the city obtained the property and became a commercial landlord, making the decision to transform the lumberyard into an "oasis of style," the paradigm shifted from the need to do good to the need to do well. How can an entity that is now a major player remain entirely neutral, they argue.

There’s nothing wrong with doing well. Having your cake and eating it too is a cornerstone of capitalism, but it often doesn’t end well when you attempt to force other people to eat that cake. 

The projects already in the pipeline for the immediate future of the Civic Center—Soboroff’s Whole Foods shopping center, the 132,000-square-foot La Paz development next to it, the Santa Monica College satellite campus, and the commercial development planned for the lot that is currently used for the Chili Cook Off, already threaten to increase traffic and parking past the tipping point, and those projects are just a fraction of the development planned for the area—more than 1.5 million square feet, if one includes Pepperdine’s new 5000-person stadium, which the city has absolutely no control over; the proposed hotel/condominium/timeshare complex recently transformed into a proposal for a 45,000-plus corpse cemetery opposite Pepperdine; the six-house subdivision at Bluffs Park; and the sports complex the city hopes to build in its newly acquired Bluffs Park Open Space.

Measure R proponents point to the perpetual weekend traffic jam at Paradise Cove as an example of how even just one business' change in density can have a cascade effect on traffic and quality of life. At Paradise Cove, that change involved allowing patrons to bring alcohol to the beach, and the installation of private cabanas and other on-the-sand day-use amenities.

It is admirable that the city is seeking to develop an aesthetic for future development in the Civic Center area, but the design standards can’t limit the scope of that development and won’t help if the transformation from community necessities to international shopping destination continues at the current pace, because the Civic Center area traffic, already at critical mass on weekends, will make Malibu unlivable. That traffic also impedes visitors’ access to the beach. And that's just in the Civic Center area. 

Turning the Malibu Civic Center into a "shopping destination" is rapidly transforming Pacific Coast Highway into a year-round weekend parking lot. This photo was taken on a summer Friday afternoon. On weekends, it can take half an hour to snail down the hill and over the Malibu Creek Bridge, while northbound traffic backs up all the way Las Flores Canyon.

It would be nice if the opposition had the moral fiber to say, “we want to develop our interests in Malibu and we oppose this measure because we view it as too restrictive.” However, it was laughable at a recent Malibu Democratic Club forum on the measure when an opponent of the measure, who is on record for decades as pro development, warned that massive development (and the sky falling) will take place if R passes. Reiner replied, “if that’s the case, why aren’t you supporting it?” 

For months now, the sign on the door of this international boutique chain store has read: "Please call for an appointment."

Here's another sign no one wanted to see. The loss of Diesel Bookstore was especially poignant for me, because the space it vacated was the same space where my family had their gallery for nearly 20 years. Malibu was rocked this week by the news that the Malibu Country Kitchen at the corner of Las Flores and PCH for more than 40 years, just lost its lease. The owner of the building died recently and her heirs sold to an out of area developer who reportedly plans to bring in a Northern California burger chain to fill the location, according to a report in the Malibu Times.

A wide cross section of the community is supporting Measure R because Malibu residents want to have a say in the future of Malibu. Not a token say, not what my dad used to call wheel spinning—events where you fill out questionnaires and write suggestions on Post-It Notes—but an opportunity to directly weigh in and be heard. 

Malibu is the only municipality located entirely within the boundaries of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area—a national park with all the same protections and significance of larger and more famous parks like Yosemite. This community has a real responsibility to protect and preserve our environment. Traffic congestion, air pollution, wastewater, buildings and hardscaping have a direct, measurable negative impact on wildlife like this mixed flock of elegant and foresters terns—California Species of Special Concern. This issue is about far more than aesthetics or human livability.

Measure R won’t stop development and it can’t cause a major increase in development (or the sky to fall). What it is intended to do is to make developers stop and think about the needs of the community. If a proposed project is something the majority of Malibu residents think the community needs, it will pass the process. Essential services, including urgent care and grocery stores, are exempt from the chain restrictions and if the developers don’t seek variances and floor area ratio increases in excess of 20,000 square feet their projects won’t trigger a vote.

If Measure R passes I'm willing to bet it won't cause the sky to fall. If we're lucky it will simple encourage developers to mitigate the impact of their plans on the community and maybe find a way to scale things down. 

The Malibu Vision and Mission statement begins:  

Malibu is a unique land and marine environment and residential community whose citizens have historically evidenced a commitment to sacrifice urban and suburban conveniences in order to protect that environment and lifestyle, and to preserve unaltered natural resources and rural characteristics. The people of Malibu are a responsible custodian of the area’s natural resources for present and future generations.

It ends: 

Malibu will provide passive, coastal-dependent and resource-dependent visitor-serving recreational opportunities (at proper times, places and manners) that remain subordinate to their natural, cultural and rural setting, and which are consistent with the fragility of the natural resources of the area, the proximity of the access to residential uses, the need to protect the privacy of property owners, the aesthetic values of the area, and the capacity of the area to sustain particular levels of use.

And the commercial real estate interests funding the No on Measure R campaign? They have their own vision and mission for Malibu, one that involves doing well, not necessarily doing good. It would be nice if, in the end, we could all work together to do well by doing good. I guess we can always hope.

Suzanne Guldimann

22 October 2014

It's the beauty and majesty of nature, not a shopping destination, that draws all of us—residents and visitors—to Malibu. Most of us would like to keep it that way.