Caltrans Once Again Blunders With Center Paddles That Obscure Oncoming Traffic

Caltrans may have acted to increase safety …. but they have created dangerous driving conditions with their latest PCH improvements.

Again.

New yellow paddles have been installed along the center of the state highway in the Point Dume area.

The paddles are so high … that traffic waiting to enter the roadway cannot possibly see over them … to spot oncoming cars.

Pesdestrians?   Even worse.  They can’t see cars until they are stranded in the middle of the highway.

A Cavilieri Drive resident told the city council last night … the yellow paddles are dangerous.

Julie Blinden [[PHONETIC SPELLING]]:

70253 PADDLES JULIE BLINDEN

“For anybody now that is trying or from Cavalieri to Pepperdine turning left onto PCH towards Kanan … you now have a blind left turn.

“And from PCH looking at a Cavaliere blind to the left turn that is coming. 

“… We think that this is an issue where it’s a mitigation not a remove it all.

“It is a make-sure that everybody turning left onto PCH can do so knowing whether or not there are cars coming their way.”

The wall of paddles blocking the view of traffic may sound familiar.

This is exactly the same mistake that Caltrans made at Guernsey Drive years ago. 

Residents also raised a ruckus about that.

It took Caltrans two years to replace the tall paddles … with shorter ones … that drivers and pedestrians can see over. 

 

Silverstein Busts College Kid Driving Like A Jerk, Pepperdine Promises Discipline

Pepperdine University administrators have taken action against a student who was witnessed driving like an idiot in Malibu Canyon by city council member Bruce Silverstein.

Silverstein says he saw a car edging his bumper and passing over yellow center lines … on Malibu Canyon Road right near his house. 

70257 PEPP DRIVER 

“A car came speeding around on the canyon, seeming to be going at least 80 miles an hour road right up on my bumper. You know that’s par for the course. 

“The driver decided to pass me, just flew around my car, almost hit a car that was coming, this was one lane, one lane in each direction with a solid yellow line. 

“And then he whipped into Pepperdine. Turns out he was a student”

Silverstein says he followed up … at Pepperdine. 

70258 PEPP APPALLED 

“That to me was really atrocious. 

“I let Pepperdine know what was really going on and they’ve responded… They responded really quickly. 

“They convened a hearing …  they can’t tell me what the results were … but they told me they were serious.”

City council member Steve Uhring also lives right off Malibu Canyon Road … up the road from Pepperdine. 

Silverstein and Uhring met last week with university administrators to discuss how the school would act to make sure its students were not driving like idiots.  

After four Pepperdine students were killed on PCH last October … some students appeared before the city council to demand that Malibu do more to enforce traffic laws.

It appears a significant part of the problem … is other Pepperdine students. 

 

Because Felony Stupid Is Not A Crime, 805 Woman Charged With Felony Child Abuse

How do you get arrested for felony child abuse???
Get whacked out on drugs … strap your kid in a car … and start ramming things near paradise Cove.

Sheriff’s Sgt Chris Soderlund says that ’s what happened on Winding Way in Malibu last month. 

70259 RAMMING 

“A 32-year-old female resident of Westlake Village was driving under the influence of prescription medication on Winding wWy when she intentionally rammed the gate of a front property there. Then rammed a parked Tesla, and drove through an adjacent fence where the vehicle became disabled. 

“She was arrested for felony child endangerment as she had her child in with her at the time of the incident.”

Her name was not released. 

 

County Wants To Add Gear To Illegal Radio Tower Next To College

L A County is insisting on adding more height to that giant … illegal radio tower … half finished but towering over Santa Monica College’s new Malibu campus. 

But first … they need a city permit.

County radio engineers installed the monstrosity without the proper city permits two years ago.

The college and the sheriff’s office says it wasn’t them … it was the county radio people who designed and installed it. 

City planning director Richard Mollica told the city council last night … the matter 

still has to go before the Planning Commission.

70254 TOWER APPEAL

“There would be at least a 21 day public notice for the application and then it commission and the applications because they are discretionary of course would be appealable to this council.”

It should be pointed out that the radio tower is supposedly necessary for the new sheriff’s station to be located at the new building.

But the county does not have deputies to staff the new station. 

The city has yet to reach a financial deal with the county to pay for the deputies …. Who aren’t there.

And the old tower behind the courthouse worked perfectly well in the area … making there new tower’s need very questionable from a radio engineering standpoint.

One piece of good news from Planning Director Richard Mollica.

70255 TOWER COLOR 

“They have agreed to repaint the tower. I’m sorry I don’t know the name of the final color but definitely something that blends more into the building… not orange and white.”

As it stands now… the tower is higher than permitted by the city. 

And the county radio communications department needs to get city planning commission permission to add antennas to the metal super structure… to make it functional.

The Planning Commission members have already indicated they are very not happy with the candelabra like structure.

 

In Move With Major Malibu Impact, Steelhead Salmon Get Endangered Status

The Southern California steelhead trout has been officially listed as “endangered” by the State of California.

The fish … native to Malibu Creek … Trancas Creek … Topanga Creek … and a few other creeks between San Luis Obispo and San Onofre.

The move by the state Wildlife Commission may accelerate state support for removing Rindge Dam … a useless but historic structure that is a concrete barrier to steelhead habitat in the moutnains above Malibu. 

The dam was built in 1926 … it immediately filled dup with sand and rocks … and serves no water storage or flood control purpose.

Rindge Dam walls off 50 miles of streambed trout habitat.

The Army Corps of Engineers has plans to demolish the dam and truck out the sand and rocks … some of which will deposited on Malibu Surfrider beach. 

Scientists say removing Rindge Dam will …  over time … allow Malibu Creek to flow freely once again … to help bring the steelhead trout back from the brink of extinction.

But the transport issue will be a major impact.

The state plans to truck out tens of thousands of dump truck loads of sand up the canyon … across Ventura County on the 101 … and back to Malibu via an oceangoing barge … that will be a major impact. 

 

Eulogy For Zuma Beach’s Mystery Man, Who Died In The Cold 

We told you last Friday about a 70-year-old man who was found dead at Zuma Beach April 19th.

Malibu resident Kaye Gabbard composed an obituary … she read it last night at the city council meeting. 

The man’s name was Russell McMonigle … he was actually73 … and he was a longtime Malibu resident.

70256 RUSSELL MCMONIGLE

“For 15-plus years we have watched Russell walk up and down the Zuma parking lot, picking up trash and treasures. 

“The last six or seven years pushing or pulling various carts … loaded with his carefully stacked belongings, more and more hunched over from arthritis and sleeping on hard, cold surfaces. 

“Many of us walked by with a smile, some offered him food, or a new cart, listen to his stories, and others avoided him. 

“He could be rude or chatty. He could smile and laugh or snarl and yell, but in the end, he loved deep deep down that we noticed him.

We tried to befriend him, help him, or ignore him for a sense of his privacy.

“He left us the day after hour to outstanding people concern workers took him to see the apartment that could be his in Santa Monica.

“he left us knowing the had friends and was loved for who he was.”

The eulogy by Kaye Gabbert,.

Russell McMonigle … was 73.

No services have been announced.