Filmed on Monday, March 4 2024, I drive around Malibu, CA to see what's going on.
Malibu is named for the Ventureño Chumash settlement of Humaliwo, which means "the surf sounds loudly".
Few roads even entered the area before 1929, when the state built what is now known as the Pacific Coast Highway.
Malibu Colony was one of the first areas with private homes after Malibu opened to development in 1926. Frederick Rindge paid $10 an acre in 1890. Long known as a popular private enclave for wealthy celebrities, the Malibu Colony is a gated community, with multimillion-dollar homes on small lots.
HRL Laboratories, the research arm of the former Hughes Aircraft Company, was established in 1960 in Malibu. Among its research accomplishments was the first working laser. Despite the aerospace industry's downsizing in the 1990s, HRL is the largest employer in Malibu.
Wildfires periodically occur in Malibu, and the area has seen dozens of them since the area was settled. One of the most problematic side effects of the fires that rage through Malibu is the destruction of vegetation, which leads to mudslides.
After the 1993 wildfire stripped the surrounding mountains of their earth-hugging chaparral, torrential rainstorms in early 1994 caused a massive mudslide near Las Flores Canyon that closed down the Pacific Coast Highway for months. Thousands of tons of mud, rocks, and water rained down on the highway.
Following the opening of Passages Malibu in 2001, the city has become home to numerous residential drug-abuse treatment centers. As of 2013, there are 35 state-licensed drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities in Malibu, in addition to a multiplying number of unlicensed sober-living homes.
Pepperdine University, a private college affiliated with the Church of Christ, is in central Malibu, north of the Malibu Colony at the intersection of the Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road.
Malibu has been used as a location or setting for dozens of films, television programs, fashion shoots and music videos.
#drivingtour #malibu #california