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Haylynn Conrad Newsletter — September 11, 2026
🌊 The Malibu Current with Councilmember Haylynn Conrad
📅 September 11, 2026
Dear friends,
This week asked a lot of Malibu, and Malibu answered. Before dawn on Tuesday, surf and tides driven by Hurricane Marie opened a sinkhole beneath Sea Level Drive, and by nightfall 31 households were under evacuation orders with a Red Cross shelter ready for them at Malibu High School. Through all of it, 2,977 flags stood on the hillside at Pepperdine, raised by volunteers last Saturday for the 25th anniversary of September 11, which we mark today.
Hard weeks clarify what matters: neighbors, readiness, and the places we refuse to lose. All three run through this issue, along with a Farmers Market homecoming I am overjoyed to share and one last invitation to meet me on the bluff at Point Dume tomorrow morning.
Remembrance: Twenty-Five Years, and the Hillside Still Answers
🔹 2,977 flags stand at Alumni Park: Last Saturday, September 5, Pepperdine students, student-athletes, alumni, families, and neighbors filled the lawn above PCH with 2,977 flags, one for each life taken on September 11, 2001, including the national flags of other countries that lost citizens that day. This morning at 9 AM, the university marks the 25th anniversary with a remembrance ceremony at Alumni Park, where visitors can also leave a written tribute at the Reflection Station.
🔹 The flags come down Friday, September 18: Volunteers are welcome from 10 AM to 2 PM to help lower the display with the same care it was raised. If you missed the planting, this is your chance to take part.
→ 💙 Why this matters: Most of our students have no memory of 2001. Those rows of red, white, and blue do the remembering with us, in a language every driver on PCH understands without a single word.
👉 Visit the Waves of Flags page
🚨 Sea Level Drive: A Local Emergency, and Neighbors Displaced
🔹 What happened: Around 5:45 AM on Tuesday, September 8, a beachfront driveway on Sea Level Drive collapsed into an expanding sinkhole that reached the roadway itself, cutting off the street's only way in or out and triggering a gas leak. The City proclaimed a local emergency that evening and issued an evacuation order for 31 parcels, all of which have been red-tagged. SoCalGas shut off gas service, Waterworks District 29 shut off water, and the American Red Cross opened a temporary shelter at Malibu High School. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.
🔹 Where things stand: The sinkhole did not significantly expand overnight into Wednesday, and the homeowners association that controls the private road began shoring and repairs within hours under City permits, work expected to take about five weeks. The City is coordinating with County Fire, the Sheriff's Department, SoCalGas, and the Red Cross, and is monitoring erosion along the PCH burn area and Point Dume ahead of a forecast strong El Niño winter.
→ 💙 To our Sea Level Drive neighbors: Being ordered out of your home with no certain return date is exhausting in ways the rest of us can only imagine. This whole town is pulling for you, and my inbox is open if you need help navigating what comes next.
→ 🎒 Your move this week: September is National Preparedness Month, and this incident is the argument for it. Confirm you are registered for emergency alerts, consider the City's free CERT training starting Tuesday, September 22, at the Malibu Library, and put the Safety Resource Fair on Saturday, September 26, on your calendar.
👉 Read the latest Sea Level Drive update
👉 Register for emergency alerts
👉 Sign up for free CERT training
🛍️ Economic Development: The Farmers Market Is Home
🔹 A happy correction, and a homecoming: Last week I told you the Farmers Market was still settling into its temporary spot at City Hall. The truth is even better: as of Sunday, August 30, the market is back at its longtime home in the Malibu Library parking lot on Civic Center Way, after the City, the Cornucopia Foundation, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath's office, and Santa Monica College finalized the arrangements. My thanks to Cornucopia founder Debra Bianco and to City staff for refusing to let a 25-year Sunday tradition slip away. See you there this Sunday, September 13, from 10 AM to 3 PM.
🔹 The Chili Cook-Off delivered for our kids: The 43rd Annual Malibu Chili Cook-Off ran September 4 through 7 at Civic Center Way, four days of chili, carnival rides, live music, a skate contest, and local artists. Every dollar of net proceeds supports the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu, funding youth programs, mental health services, and long-term disaster recovery. To the organizers, vendors, and volunteers who pulled it off: thank you for turning a party into a lifeline.
🔹 And a quiet goodbye: On Wednesday, Kristy's served its final plates at Trancas Country Market after 15 years of feeding this town. Aloha, Kristy. The best tribute now is showing up for the businesses still with us, in a construction season when they need us most.
👉 Browse City business support resources
📚 Education & Youth: A Perfect Start in the Pool
🔹 Sharks water polo went undefeated: Malibu High's boys water polo team swept the three-day Malibu Varsity Tournament at 4 and 0, capping it with a commanding 10 to 4 win over Palisades. The Malibu Times coverage describes a team that communicates on every possession, and as a mom who has spent years on Malibu sidelines and pool decks, that is the detail that makes me proudest. Go Sharks.
🔹 Fall recreation programs begin Monday, September 14: Malibu Marlins Swim Team, dance, art, engineering, surfing, dog obedience, and more all start next week, and registration is open now. These programs are where our kids build the friendships and confidence that no screen can replicate, so grab a spot before they fill.
👉 Read the Sharks recap in The Malibu Times
👉 Register for fall recreation programs
🌊 Environment: The Pier Cannot Wait, and Neither Can the Bluff
🔹 My op-ed ran Saturday in The Malibu Times: The ocean end of Malibu Pier remains closed because of confirmed structural concerns, with no repair schedule, no identified funding, and no reopening date. The pier and the Adamson House are state properties under California State Parks, so the City cannot make these repairs ourselves, but we can and will demand urgency. I am calling on the Governor, the California Natural Resources Agency, our state legislative delegation, and the Coastal Commission to help State Parks release its structural findings, stabilize the pier before winter storms arrive, and commit to a timeline in public, at our Council dais. I still remember walking my kids to the diner at the end of that pier for ordinary meals over the water. If we let it deteriorate through another El Niño winter, we may lose a piece of California history that cannot be rebuilt from memory.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Salt, surf, and storms do not pause while agencies study reports. Every season without a plan raises both the risk and the eventual price tag, and this week's sinkhole is a fresh reminder of what the ocean does to unattended infrastructure.
🔹 Final call: meet me on the bluff tomorrow: Our habitat restoration morning at Point Dume Natural Preserve, 29245 Cliffside Drive, runs tomorrow, Saturday, September 12, from 9 AM to noon. We will be pulling invasive plants that crowd out the natives holding our coastline together, with thanks to Restore Malibu Creek for leading the way. Long pants, closed-toed shoes, sunscreen, and water. After a week of watching the coast take hits, three hours of giving something back feels exactly right.
👉 Read my op-ed in The Malibu Times
👉 Explore Malibu environmental programs
🛣️ PCH Safety: Your Voice Wednesday, Cameras This Month
🔹 A workshop that needs you, Wednesday, September 16: Caltrans hosts a public workshop from 6 to 7 PM at City Hall on safety improvements for PCH between Las Flores Canyon Road and Carbon Canyon Road, looking at intersection upgrades, signal changes, pedestrian crossings, and bike facilities. The concepts are still preliminary, which is precisely why your feedback now carries the most weight. Safer design on PCH is the long game behind everything else we do on that highway, and I want Malibu voices all over it.
🔹 The speed cameras are weeks away: The 60-day warning period for the PCH Speed Safety System begins in late September, with citations starting in late November. The City published a plain-English myth-versus-fact rundown this week worth your two minutes: the system records nothing until a vehicle travels at least 11 mph over the limit, uses no facial recognition, issues civil penalties starting at $50 with no license points, and every dollar collected goes to system costs and PCH safety, not the general fund. My ask stands: do not wait for a warning notice in the mail. Slow down now, especially on school mornings.
👉 Share input on the Caltrans project
👉 Learn how the speed cameras work
🗳️ City Hall: A Full Monday, a Court Ruling, and a New Face
🔹 Council meets Monday, September 14, at 5:30 PM: Join us at City Hall or online; the agenda is posted at the Agenda Center. And circle Monday, September 28, when the Community Lands Project, the future of more than 61 acres of City-owned land you helped shape through this summer's survey, comes to the Council for review. As a member of the ad hoc committee, I can promise your survey responses will be in the room.
🔹 The Winding Way ruling: On September 1, the Superior Court ruled against the City's claim to public trail easements near Escondido Canyon, dismissing our case against the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the MRCA. I am disappointed, but the conditions that drove this lawsuit have not changed: trail visitors parking along PCH, sunset closures going unenforced, and vegetation and trash left unmanaged. The Council will weigh our options, including appeal, in the coming weeks, and the door to a cooperative fix with MRCA remains open. Safe trails should not require a courtroom.
🔹 Welcome, Jesse Mays: The City announced Wednesday that Jesse Mays joins us as Assistant City Manager after a distinguished run in Culver City, where he delivered citywide fiber, major community infrastructure, and 100 percent renewable default energy. His Malibu portfolio includes community resiliency, government relations, and the future of our community lands. That is exactly where we need his experience, and I am glad he chose Malibu.
👉 View Monday's meeting details
👉 Read the City's statement on the ruling
🏛️ Get Involved: Second Acts Start in Small Rooms
🔹 A post made the rounds this week retelling my first act: how a teenager raised by a schoolteacher in New York stumbled into a sixteen-year modeling career. I smiled at the memory, mostly because of how far away it feels: these days the only cameras I champion are the ones about to slow traffic on PCH. I mention it because reinvention is real, and in this town it usually starts in a commission room. Planning, Parks and Recreation, Public Safety, Public Works, Arts, and the Harry Barovsky Memorial Youth Commission all meet monthly at City Hall, every meeting welcomes public comment, and the application is open year-round. Whatever your first act was, Malibu could use your second.
👉 Browse upcoming commission meetings and agendas
👉 Apply to serve on a commission or committee
📅 Dates to Know
🔹 Today, Friday, September 11: 25th anniversary remembrance ceremony, 9 AM, Alumni Park, Pepperdine University. Also today: Caffeinated Verse with Poet Laureate Charlotte Ward, 1:30 to 4 PM, Malibu Library, free.
🔹 Tomorrow, Saturday, September 12, 9 AM to 12 PM: Habitat restoration volunteer morning, Point Dume Natural Preserve, 29245 Cliffside Drive. Come pull invasives with me.
🔹 Sunday, September 13, 10 AM to 3 PM: Malibu Farmers Market, back home at the Malibu Library parking lot on Civic Center Way.
🔹 Sunday, September 13, 9 AM to 3 PM: Legacy Park Art Walk with the Malibu Art Association, plus a free Young Actors Project workshop at the amphitheater at 11 AM.
🔹 Monday, September 14, 5:30 PM: Regular City Council Meeting, Malibu City Hall (hybrid). Fall recreation programs also begin today.
🔹 Tuesday, September 15, 6:30 PM: Parks and Recreation Commission Regular Meeting, City Hall.
🔹 Wednesday, September 16, 6 to 7 PM: Caltrans PCH safety improvements public workshop, City Hall.
🔹 Thursday, September 17, 1:30 PM: Mobilehome Park Rent Stabilization Commission Regular Meeting, City Hall.
🔹 Friday, September 18: Waves of Flags lowering, 10 AM to 2 PM, Alumni Park, volunteers welcome. Charmlee Sunset Hike, 6 to 7:30 PM, free with pre-registration.
🔹 Saturday and Sunday, September 19 and 20: Zuma Beach Triathlon brings up to 2,500 athletes to Zuma; Sunday's bike leg runs along PCH between Zuma Beach and Leo Carrillo, so expect delays in western Malibu.
🔹 Monday, September 21, 6:30 PM: Planning Commission Regular Meeting, City Hall Council Chambers, back in its regular first-and-third-Monday slot.
🔹 Tuesday, September 22: Arts Commission Regular Meeting, 9:30 AM, City Hall. Free CERT training also begins tonight, 5 to 8 PM at the Malibu Library, running Tuesday and Thursday evenings through October 8.
🔹 Wednesday, September 23, 3:30 PM: Public Works Commission Regular Meeting, City Hall.
🔹 Saturday, September 26, 11 AM to 3 PM: Safety Resource Fair, Malibu City Hall.
🔹 Monday, September 28, 5:30 PM: Regular City Council Meeting, including review of the Community Lands Project.
🔹 Looking further out: The Harry Barovsky Memorial Youth Commission next meets Thursday, October 1, at 7 PM, and the Public Safety Commission next meets Wednesday, October 7, at 5 PM, both at City Hall.
🔹 Ongoing: Sea Level Drive remains closed under an evacuation order. Westward Beach Road and the Point Dume Beach lot remain closed, with the beach still open on foot from the Zuma side. PCH and Topanga work zones resumed after the holiday, with weekday lane closures between Las Flores Canyon and Sunset and overnight one-lane control on Topanga. Fines are doubled in work zones.
👉 Browse the full Malibu city calendar
🐝 One Last Thought
Twenty-five years ago, ordinary people ran toward trouble, and we promised never to forget it. This week, in our small corner of the world, a road fell toward the ocean at dawn, and by dinner there were deputies knocking on doors, a shelter with its lights on, and neighbors checking on neighbors. Remembering, it turns out, is something you do with your hands.
So use yours this weekend. Stand under the flags before they come down on the 18th, meet me on the bluff tomorrow with gloves on, and shake a farmer's hand at the library lot on Sunday. And if something in your corner of Malibu needs attention, write me at hconrad@malibucity.org. Your emails are still the best map of this town I have ever been handed.
Take good care of each other, Malibu.
Haylynn Conrad
Councilmember, City of Malibu
