Caltrans Warns Motorists That Chopper Will Be Lifting Mesh For Cliff Stabilization Next Week

Caltrans plans helicopter operations next Wednesday and Thursday above Pacific Coast Highway in the eastern part of Malibu. 

The state announced this morning that they’ll be putting in rock mesh on the cliff about midway between Las Flores Canyon and Big Rock Drive … just above the old Moonshadows site.

They say this is needed as part of a slope restoration project resulting from winter storm damage two years ago.

Helicopter and ground crews will be installing the heavy mash above PCH just to the west of the former Moonshadows restaurant.

Once the mesh is bolted down … it will help catch rocks and debris before it lands on the highway. 

No lane closures will be scheduled on PCH for this particular part of the project.

But the state warns that the helicopter will draw attention from those in the area as it has it ferries material back and forth … on multiple trips… as it picks up the mesh nearby and then a places it on the cliff. 

The work will start as early as seven in the morning next Wednesday and Thursday.

And this will be in addition to all the other lane closures for debris removal, digging by Edison and other stuff that’s going on along Pacific Coast Highway.

Between SCE, the state and the continuing fire ash removal … PCH will only have one lane in each direction all day … seven days per week … for the next two months or so.

Council Still Has No Plan To Replace City Manager As Projects Stack Up

Malibu’s city council has formally cancelled its scheduled meeting … next Monday … as the city is still functioning without a full-time city manager.

Candace Bond .. a longtime Malibu resident who served the Biden Administration … is serving as the interim temporary administrator.

The council has had a series of special meetings this summer … to interview finalists for the position and supposedly settle on a finalist.

Those have come and gone without any final vote.

Council members have said the need to hire a permanent city manager is acute as fire recovery tasks are delayed at the city council by lengthy discussions.

Arrest Made In San Vicente Blvd Knife Attack

We told you yesterday about a man who was stabbed to death outside the Whole Foods in Brentwood.

LAPD arrested a suspect yesterday.

Witnesses said the attacker may have been a homeless man who had been seen in the area.

Woman Missing From Upper Malibu Canyon Area is Found, Safe

We told you Wednesday about a woman missing from upper Malibu canyon …

27 year old Aashi Makan had last been seen at an apartment building off las Virgenees Road just north of the 101 Freeway … in upper Malibu canyon.

The woman was described as five foot three and weighing just 80 pounds.

She as off her meds and deputies were worried about her safety.

Deputies asked for public help in finding her.

Yesterday … she was located alive.

But there are no details as to where. 

Corral Canyon Is Raising A Fire Station

Residents in Corral canyon are building a new fire station.

For 15 years … the unusual group of professional  county firefighters have kept their truck … Engine 271 … in a small structure in upper Escondido Canyon. 

The firefighters are called on-call firefighters… they are trained as regular LA county firefighters.

But they don’t work full-time at the firehouse. 

When there is an emergency up the canyon … the on-call firefighters are paged .. they are called in and put “on the clock.”

It’s a very rare situation in LA county … professional firefighters who alive in a remote area and only called in on emergencies. 

And it’s not the same as the volunteer fire brigades being set up down here in the city of Malibu.

Matt Haines has worked for nearly 20 years on the Corral Canyon Fire Safety Alliance.

And he says the existing temporary station needs to be replaced. 

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“So the property got sold here a few years ago, and we knew there was going to be a house eventually built on the five acre parcel where the temporary station was… 

“So a few of us went around the neighborhood looking for properties that maybe somebody would be willing to sell that we could put a temporary station on. 

“And we came across the property but the house on it and there was a second property next-door.

“We were able to negotiate to deal with them .. where they would sell off the vacant property separately. 

“So four of us were able to purchase that property.”

It took a long time … but the permits to build a new fire station up in the canyon are now nearly in hand.. 

The final county zoning review is at the end of August. 

After plan check .. comes fundraising to build the fire station. 

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“We’ve had a couple fundraisers in our community to raise response for the call fire program and for other purposes that we use for fire, defense and fire education. 

“Obviously it takes a village to make this happen, so we’re reaching out to people. And I think our goal was kind of wait until we had with permit in hand, and then we are going to go hard and getting some donations nfrom our community and make this thing happen.”

The state has already chipped in 230 thousand dollars … via the MRCA .. the Mountains Resource and Conservation Authority.

The Corral Canyon Fire Safety Alliance hopes to start construcutnn on Malibu’s newest firehouse … next year.

It will be on Cool Glen Way … in the tiny little community of the Upper Corral Canyon Bowl. 

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“It has a little bit of a steep driveway, but it’s a double lot. We’re able to feed a 36 x 32 building, so that’s 1150 ft.², and the width are just perfectly for a fire engine and a fire patrol tr, plus have a little office and storage area. It’s gonna be a nice structure for community events too.”

The new fire station … station 271 … will be just big enough for the fairly-new fire truck … the wildland fire engine that was donated to the local nonprofit by the National Park Service … which oversees neighboring Solstice Canyon. 

The little station will also house a patrol truck … which is a heavy duty pickup truck with a small water tank … for immediate response. 

The Corral Canyon Fire Safety Alliance and its affiliated agencies go back to 2009 … when they organized in response to the devastating 2007 Corral Fire.

It destroyed 49 homes with another 27 damaged. 

The on-call firefighter program has residents are trained through the Los Angeles County Fire Department and then work as paid firefighters on an on-call basis.

And … raise money for the new fire station.

Palisades Fire Wiped Out $51.7 Billion In Property In City Of LA Alone

A new estimate from a real estate research company says the Palisades fire took out a whopping 51.7 billion dollars worth of property over in the City of Los Angeles.

But there is no estimate for the property destroyed by the very same fire just over the city line … here in Malibu.

Redfin .. a financial analysis company … put out a news release yesterday that makes the same mistake that most analysis of the Palisades Fire makes.

It only analyzes the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades … part of the City of Los Angeles.

Redfinb somehow managed to ignore the fact that about one fourth of there destroyed houses were not in Los Angeles … but were in Malibu. 

Redfin says that around 11,000 Los Angeles homes were affected in the wildfires in January.

That would be an estimated $51.7 billion worth of damage, according to a Redfin report released Thursday.

Each average … typical home damaged or destroyed by the blaze was valued at $3.7 million before the fires.

In addition, there were nearly 100 properties previously valued at $20 million damaged by the fire.

But again … Redfin only analyzed data from the City of Los Angeles.

The blaze was estimated to be the third-most destructive wildfire in the Golden State’s history, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

There are other errors in the Redfin report. 

It claims there have still been no grocery stores reopened in the Palisades Fire area.

The Vons on Sunset has been open for months. 

Questions As SCE Heads Towards State Bailout For Eaton Fire Damages: Will Malibu Be Left High And Dry?

More details are being made available on the Southern California Edison fire reimbursement fund for there Eaton Fire.

The Eaton fire was in Altadena … near Pasadena … it hit the same day that Malibu got hit by the palisades Fire.

Even though SCE has nothing to do with this latest fire in Malibu … the payouts in Altadena will affect people here and everywhere in California. 

That’s because electric ratepayers and the power companies across the state have amassed a $21-billion state wildfire fund.  Half of the fund’s $21 billion came from charges to electric bills of customers of Edison, PG&E and SDG&E.

The other half was contributed by shareholders of those three companies, which are the only utilities that can seek reimbursements from the fund.

And that fund will reimburse SCE for nearly all or most of the amounts paid to victim

But here in Malibu … SCE did not have anything to do with the 2025 Palisades Fire .  

Our fire was apparently caused by a combination of illegal fireworks … and a subsequent brushfire that was not fully extinguished by there City of Los Angeles ..,.

There are also allegations that a City of Los Angeles power line may have contributed to the palisades Fire Spread.

The cause of the fire is conjecture right nwo.

The federal government and the State of California is still investigating the cause.

So … if Edison exhausts the statewide fund from the Eaton Fire … where does that leave victims from the Palisades Fire … in L-A and in eastern Malibu??

The victims of the Palisades fire maybe short changed … because the Palisades fire may have been started by the Los Angeles department of water and power… Not SCE.

That question literally has not even been asked … much less answered.

Congressional Boundary Lines May Move Malibu Back To Julia Brownley

Malibu may end up in a new congressional district … very soon. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to fight the political dirty tricks being played in Texas …

Texas is redrawing congressional maps to help Republicans and toss pout democrats …. It’s called Gerrymandering … it’s shamelessly political … and the U S Supreme Court says it’s perfectly legal.

But a lot of states have tried to remove politics from redistricting… And handed the political task over to a non-political committee.

That’s a reform that has been done in California.

And now Governor Gavin Newsom wants to undo that reform… And get down and journey by playing the same political games on California Republicans … that Texas is playing on Democrats there.

The governor says there California legislature should repeal Californias voter-approved redistricting system … and redraw California lines to oust  6 Republican incumbents.

Newsom said the California Legislature, where Democrats hold supermajorities in both chambers, “could gerrymander like no other state” and could do the same thing as Texas.

Potential maps showing a gerrymandered California would put Malibu back into the congressional district currently represented by Julia Brownley.

She’s a former Santa Monica member who represents Ventura county in Congress.

And she represented the Malibu area in Congress for a decade… Until we got lumped in with the San Fernando Valley.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi is urging California lawmakers to avoid unilateral surrender to Texas. 

“In California, we’re saying to the Texans, you shouldn’t be going down this path. You want to go down this path, we’ll go down together,” Pelosi said Wednesday. 

The California Democratic House delegation is in lockstep behind her.

Cool Summer On The Pacific Coast, Roasting Heat In Inland Mountains And Deserts

Malibu’s cool summer continues.

But inland from here … California is in a major heat wave.

The California coastline .. including Malibu … is in a major … record breaking cool spell.

UCLA meteorology professor Daniel Swain says … drive a dozen miles inland … and the exact opposite is true:

One of the hottest early summers on record.

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“It is literally the difference between a location that is seen one of the coolest if not the coolest to summer and 30 or 40 years versus the region that seen among the hottest if not the hottest start to summer and over century.”

Swain says the interior part of California has been so dry .. and so windy … that the evaporative thirst has been great … in the mountains and deserts of inland California.

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“Everywhere away from the immediate California coast in this entire region, the atmosphere has been extracting well above amounts of water since spring.

“And the reason why that’s important is what we see is there’s been an explosion in wildfire activity across most of the west, but not along the California coast. It hasn’t been raining on the coast, but it’s been cool damp and cloudy.”

Daniel Swain at UCLA.

The forecast for the next two weeks is more of the same.