Take Back Your Power at the Polls Today: Why I'm Voting YES on Measure R

Part 2 of Opinion Piece Regarding Need for Measure R.

The Facts Continued:

2: Measure R will not increase the number of chain stores. Economics 101 describes the relationship between supply and demand and pricing. If the supply for some commodity is low and the demand is high, then customers compete to have the commodity and a high price can be obtained. If the supply is high and the demand is low, then vendors compete to sell the commodity and it can be obtained at a lower price.

Measure R will limit the number of units in a shopping center that can be rented out to chain stores. This means that once a provision like this is created for a town, shopping centers have two distinctly different commodities – units which can be rented to chains and units which can only be rented to non-chain stores, and each of these two commodities will have its own supply and demand curve and its own pricing. The units which can only be rented to non-chains do not even exist prior to the enactment of Measure R (there is no supply of them), and now that they do exist, the demand for them is restricted (only non-chains, which includes Mom and Pops, can compete for them). Thus, because of increased supply and reduced demand, the units that must be reserved for non-chains will have a lower price than the units which can be rented to chain stores, and a lower price than they would have if there was no formula retail ordinance or Measure R.

If that was hard to follow, suffice it to say that supply and demand will dictate that a non-chain store – perhaps a small, community-serving business owned by one of our neighbors – will now have a chance to get retail space here at a viable price thanks to the new supply and demand dynamic that will become evident once Measure R passes.

By the way, Subway will not be affected. It is locally owned and many residents patronize it. Noting that Subway can’t or wouldn’t be here with Meaure R is not true. It won’t go away and if it (or a similar business) were suggested in a future development plan, we vote yes if we want it.

3: Lawsuits. This is my “favorite” developer scare tactic. Because of California Coastal Commission requirements, all large commercial developments in Malibu will go through a discretionary approval process with or without Measure R. Measure R says that it will be the citizens, and not the five City Council members, who make the final discretionary approval on about a dozen future commercial development projects citywide, which qualify to build over 20,000 square feet. When people say that Measure R will lead to lawsuits against the city, they are generally implying that citizens are likely to use their discretion to do something illegal which would justify a lawsuit (or that developers intend to sue even if nothing illegal is done, which I hope would not happen but cannot speak to). It is not true that allowing the City Council to make all final decisions is safer than allowing the citizens to make final decisions. In Mammoth for example, the City Council and not the citizens, denied fundamental rights to a developer; and the developer won a lawsuit against the city for $30,000,000. Lawsuits are always possible if a developer’s legal rights are violated, but Measure R is not advocating for denying anyone their legal rights. Del Mar has had an ordinance for 28 years which allows citizens the right to discretionary approval of large commercial developments, and there have been no lawsuits against Del Mar related to this.

4: There were no back room deals between Rob Reiner and the city or other developers. There were several meetings as community members, attorneys, and political advisors were finalizing the Measure R details to ensure that the Measure was written in a way that would achieve its intentions, NOT have “unintended consequences”, and be legally upheld. Clearly the developers are hoping for something to go wrong with it and were upset about all the intelligence and due diligence that went into it. In speaking with developers and the city to ensure that Measure R did not have any components that would make it impossible to do business in Malibu, some edits were made. As such, Steve Soboroff remains the only developer fighting tooth and nail against it. Perhaps he needs to speak with his other developer friends who provided input so Measure R could serve the community while still allowing for a robust business landscape. Perhaps once he does, he will see that Measure R is exactly what is needed here.

5: Community-serving businesses like grocery stores, banks, and health centers are exempt from the chain store calculation in the shopping centers.

All existing businesses are grandfathered in and will not be impacted once Measure R passes.

6: Not all developers are bad. Thanks Mr. Perkins for your “master of the obvious” opinion piece yesterday.

Of course not all developers are bad just like all priests are not good. Just like every human being and every group of people on the planet are not perfect and have both positive and negative attributes.

Although I will say that the Reiner Bu FaceBook page sponsored by the sole developer against Measure R, Steve Soboroff, is a disgrace. The page is dedicated to people making fun of Mr. Reiner’s previous acting characters, weight, and religious affiliation. There are even anti-Semitic comments calling Mr. Reiner an Israeli sympathizer. Amidst the disgraceful rhetoric is some information about Mr. Soboroff’s anti-Measure R campaign that are simply incorrect. I, as a tax payer and community member went to the page and added comments to provide accurate detail to balance the misinformation that was there. My comments were deleted and I was blocked from the page. So were the thoughtful and fact-based comments provided by other community members. What was left on the page were the disparaging and incorrect remarks personally attacking Mr. Reiner.

What sort of campaign are you running Mr. Soboroff where you (or your PR flacks) create a FaceBook page, a communications channel intended for multi-way communication, and then silence the very residents you claim you are trying to give a voice to when you plan your development projects??

How can you be trusted to listen to the residents and have an open dialogue with them about what they need and want in their community, when you silence them in the one forum you manage that should be allowing dialogue?

By contrast, the Preserve Malibu page, encourages people with differing views to post so they can hear additional ideas, provide additional facts when needed, and be in touch with what our neighbors want.

Don’t bother creating a social media page intended to be a place for public exchange and interaction, albeit digitally, if all you want to do is propagate your own scare tactics -- use pamphlets, mailers, voice mails which are one-way communications vehicles that cannot be responded to. Oh wait, you did that already.

To me, this doesn’t seem very “good” or “nice” but I will not take Mr. Soboroff’s actions and stereotype all developers. I will also not take these egregious actions on his FaceBook page as a complete reflection on Mr. Soboroff. In speaking with him briefly at community meetings, he has seemed “nice” to me. And I’m sure he tries to do the right thing; in development projects in Malibu where additional building rights were provided, he has kept his properties nicely manicured and safe.

But it is important to note that in matters like this, the obvious (thank you Mr. Perkins) does need to be stated. We are in a community that is ripe for development given the vast open land and one-of-a-kind brand that comes with the Malibu name. There are people looking to do business here and profit – profit big time – from our brand. Those people are called developers. They do not live here. There are people who live here who care about having thoughtful planning in the retail landscape. Those people are called community members (maybe neighbors or tax payers).

Simply put, developers, as good-hearted as they may be in their personal lives, are running a business. Because of the unique business dynamic in Malibu the developer business goals do not necessarily need to reflect the community needs and wants.

We have tried, unsuccessfully, for years to work together on community planning via non-legally binding measures.

This is why Measure R is needed now – because the nice developers are just trying to – shocker – do their job and make money. And those money making plans, as nice as they may be, may not be aligned with what the nice community members want.

If we’re equally nice, I say we vote in favor of ourselves to make crucial decisions that will guide the landscape our of our community, our quality of life, and our property values moving forward.

Let’s put the power in our own hands.

Don’t be swayed by voice mails from seemingly “nice” community members who are parents and neighbors – they have vested financial interests, that even in the message say, they were paid for by developers.

Be smart Malibu. I know we are all smarter than the incorrect sound bites being thrown at us. Don’t be puppets for big business. Be a steward of managing your own quality of life and your hard earned property values in this very special place we call home.

Join thousands of your neighbors and vote YES on Measure R today.