The Malibu Surfside News mailed its
pre-election questionnaire to the five candidates for the three
Malibu City Council seats this week. Everyone at the newspaper
who is involved in the coverage of local political issues is
looking forward to their replies, which will be part of a
special 2008 election section before the April 8 vote. One of
the issues that candidates are being asked to comment on
is where they shop for basic necessities, such as the kinds of
things that the writer of one of this week’s letters to
the editor laments having to drive to Agoura to purchase. The
story may be apocryphal, but it has been reportedly said at
more than one Chamber of Commerce meeting “over the
hill” that commercial development policies in Malibu are
benefitting businesses in these other communities financially.
One of the managers of a store specializing in household goods
reportedly told a customer that requests for a customer’s
zip code during cash register checkout indicate that more and
more 90265 shoppers are crossing Kanan Dume Road in search
of items that were purchasable in Malibu as recently as two
years ago. Another local shopper came in with a similar report
on another store in an adjacent center.
This is said not to disparage business
windfalls in other communities, but to ask how the policies
being generated now that the City of Malibu is a commercial
landlord are going to further impact local commercial options.
The drive to bring in as much revenue as possible to reduce the
city’s indebtedness could continue to push
commercial areas toward becoming visitor-serving
destinations instead of focusing on the needs of residents.
Malibu welcomes its visitors, but commercial development should
not be an either/or proposition, and that seems to be happening
on the local front. As Malibuites find themselves required
to make more frequent runs to Agoura, Westlake, Channel
Islands, or other points west and north, it may be
inevitable that Malibuites’ shopping
habits will change and calcify. It could even become
increasingly difficult to rationalize buying a birthday or
anniversary gift in one of Malibu’s fine specialty
stores, when one has to drive somewhere else anyhow to purchase
a drill bit, or place mats, or anything that doesn’t have
a designer label. The attractive cosmetic
upgrades and the charm of local centers notwithstanding,
many Malibuites do not decide where to shop based only on
ambience. They go where they can find what they need when they
want it.
