Malibu businesses fighting after fire and PCH limitations

Two months after twin fires destroyed a large number of two Southern California communities, many of the remaining businesses are trying to revive sales in the face of displaced customers, road closure, and a massive reconstruction attempt that is expected to crawl for years.

The secondary crisis has hit hard in Malibu due to the continuous closure of the Pacific Coast highway in most vehicle traffic – isolating the beach community from clients coming from Westside.

Some businesses are closed and others say they are trying to stay open. Sales for some restaurants and shops have fallen in less than half of what was before Palisada’s fire would bury across the eastern edge of the city in early January.

Leaders in the city government and the business community have asked the State Transport Agency, Caltrans, to expand access to PCH as soon as possible. But with the Corps of US Army engineers just to begin cleaning hundreds of houses destroyed along the highway, the essential coastal route seems to remain as a drowning point for months and perhaps years.

Meanwhile, Malibu’s government and business leaders are reminding foreigners that most of the city do not burn and that restaurants and shops are waiting for customers to return.

“The main thing we want people know is, Malibu is open to business,” said President Doug Stewart. “Yes, it’s hard to get in the birth [Santa Monica side] But there are many other ways to get here. Malibu has not been destroyed. Retail sale and our restaurants are open to everyone. “

Fires and floods have surrounded the city with about 10,000 with wonderful regularity. But in recent years, the attack has been particularly challenging. First came Woolsey Fire 2018, which destroyed 465 houses, with less than 40% rebuilt by this year.

Landslides closed PCH last year. Fire Franklin destroyed 20 structures in the central malibu, also closing the energy per day. Then came the fire of Palisades in January, which burned the vast majority of houses along the ocean from Topanga Canyon to Las Flores Canyon, only a part of the total lost structures in Malibu, according to the Army Corps.

“If the businesses here were a boxer, at that moment they could have called it a tko [technical knockout]”Said Stewart. “It has hit them really hard and they’re struggling.”

Mitch Taylor, the long manager of the Becker Surf Store in Central Malibu, agreed: “A guarantee here in Malibu that something bad happens every five to 10 years. But that’s not just bad, it’s devastating.”

The epitomization of local business challenges is John’s Garden, a beloved sandwich, salad and soup store at Malibu Country Mart. Although surviving the fire, the restaurant has seen his bills fall for more than half, with many of his non-local clients unable to pass the PCH checkpoint.

Even workers who have transitions to crossing the checkpoints find the car with slow pain, with the highway reduced in one lane in each direction, and the speed limit cut into 25 mph as working vehicles block the road.

Many workers are forced to take the longest route, from 101 highway to Las Virgenes/Malibu Canyon Road. The change has extended one -way journey for some of maybe 40 minutes in two hours, sometimes more.

When they arrive at work at Country Mart, it is for a strange trading center pressing from the lack of visitors. On a bright, windy day on Thursday, a Spanish courtyard that can be blocked with dinner was largely empty.

Boyan Kinov, a Bulgarian immigrant who bought John’s garden a dozen years ago, said he was trying to stay in the sea. Already, a neighboring boutique and a gym are closed. Other high -level retailers are shorter hours. He worries that, if other businesses fail, this can further reduce foot traffic at the Cross Creek Road Center.

Kinov said his insurer is dealing with paying part of his policy for the bills lost in the business stop, saying he is only responsible for the days that the business actually closed its doors, not the deficits associated with the limited access to the highway.

“We are one of the oldest businesses in Malibu. We celebrate our 50-year anniversary in July, “Kinov said.” We are as a staple, an institution. And we have zero support from any type of agency or government.

“I feel like a loss, do you know? Is unstable as it is. It is very sad, and even incredible, you have to consider closing the doors. “

The other local local, such as Duke Malibu, Tramonto Bistro and Caffe Luxe in PCH near Carbon Beach, have not yet been reopened. These businesses are even more difficult to reach, to hemmed from the checkpoints in the east and west.

Like other businesses in Malibu, John’s garden reminds customers from abroad that they can still reach the city. The highway on the coast from the Marty country remains open and traffic can also come over Kanan Dume Road and Malibu Canyon from the Valley.

But most visitors have always come from the “city” – the Palisades of the Pacific, Santa Monica and the points beyond – making greater access to critical PCH.

In Paradise Cove Beach Cafe, where the business is reduced more than 60%, owner Bob Morris called on political leaders for the governor to focus on a faster expansion of the highway access, also known as the State Road 1.

Morris said leaders should consider offering the type of stimulation given to the highway contractor that rebuilt the Santa Monica highway after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. This builder won a $ 14.5 million bonus to restore a collapsed highway 74 days before the deadline.

Glen Gerson, owner of Calamigos Beach Club Restaurant in PCH, suggested that Caltrans use a reversible divide on the highway to provide two traffic lanes in the prevailing travel direction, and a lane in the other direction.

“No one needs to get hurt. We have to do it safely, “Morris said.” But we have to open this highway, and in government one has to push to make it happen. “

The highway through most Malibu consists of a total of five lanes – two for traffic in each direction and one central lane for left turns. There is also a lane on each side for parking along most of both sides of PCH.

Now orange traffic cones limit vehicles in one lane in each direction. And the highway will soon be filled with trucks waste transporting to be removed from the Army Engineers and private contractors.

Throughout the fire burning area of ​​Palisades, it is estimated that it will take 90,000 loads of trucks to complete the work. Troops have said that the work will be complete in both Palisades and Altadena “Burning Areas”, without giving more accurate PCH ratings and other work sections.

Caltrans spokesman Nathan Bass said the agency is moving “towards opening as soon as we can”, adding that recovery workers remain busy in the area and that they must “work through” their duties, including the removal of risks, before opening PCH to people other than first responses, health care workers, employees.

Locals and visitors who mainly come from the coast or from the San Fernando valley are trying to fill out for missing clients.

The city of Malibu is buying lunch at various local restaurants, every day, for about 100 city employees, Stewart said. On March 15, Morris plans to host a “day of hope” at the Paradise Cove restaurant, with free food for the first response and those affected by the fire.

The service recently resumed on the Metro bus line traveling from Santa Monica to Transcas Canyon Road, near the western city edge. Some locals have wondered if a ferry service can begin to offer daily offenders from Santa Monica Pier to Malibu Pier – an alternative that the city tried during a large landslide decades ago.

Kinov and other businessmen of Malibu said that their souls have been removed from clients who made a special effort to buy extra food or gifts.

Lisa Barron, who lost her home on La Costa Beach, said she came to John’s garden for a sandwich to help strengthen a place where she came in love.

“We do not want what still survives to die before others can rebuild and return,” said Barron, a former business professional at UC Irvine. “With these businesses and the people still living here, we must keep them alive and healthy and safe so that the community does not go to the abyss.”

With the same thought in mind, Vanessa Abbott, a film editor living in Calabasas, rose on the hill on Thursday for lunch. “Everything is still here, and I want to do my part to support it,” Abbott said, “a sandwich at a time.”

Lynn Schulz, the general manager of Marmalade Cafe in Country Mart, said the feeling of support works in both directions.

“We feel our role in the community, even during this tragedy, is to be here, to be open, to be food, or to do catering, whatever it needs,” Schulz said. “We are doing whatever we can to be here and be part of the community.”