History
If one is to enumerate the top 100 or perhaps the top 10 richest cities in the entirety of the United States of America, let alone the whole world, one of the cities that is sure to make the cut is the city of Malibu.

Malibu is a very homey and closely knit residential community characterized by its carefully preserved rural and laid back atmosphere. Malibu’s combined incorporated and unincorporated areas cover approximately 45,000 acres, is 27 miles long and one to eight miles wide. Within these boundaries are a variety of climates and terrain including beaches, mesas and canyons that create a unique environment. You can find the city of Malibu in the western area of the Los Angeles County, California, United States of America. According to estimates done in the year 2000 United States census, the population of the city of Malibu numbered approximately 12,575 persons.

The City of Malibu is a strip of land on the United State's Pacific coastline measuring approximately 27-miles in length. It is a beachfront community known the world over for its warm, sandy beaches, and for being the home to countless famous, fabulous, and rich denizens on and off the silver screen. It is also home to famous others associated with the Southern Californian motion picture, music and recording industries. Most Malibu residents live within a few hundred yards of the thoroughfare known as the Pacific Coast Highway (also known as California State Route 1) which goes through the city almost laterally from East to West.

If one looks at a map of Malibu, one can see that it can be said that the city is bounded (more or less) by Topanga and Pacific Palisades on the east front, the Santa Monica Mountains to Malibu's geographic north, the Pacific Ocean to the city's south, and Ventura County due to the north and west area.

Famous for its beaches (and it being one long beach itself) Malibu's other beaches include the Malibu State Beach and Topanga State Beach. One can also find parks in Malibu particularly those like the Malibu Creek State Park and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

The city of Malibu features a lot in an increasing number of bumper stickers, mottos and shirts. A popular bumper sticker reads, "Malibu: A Way of Life." Other slogans pertaining to Malibu are: "Where the mountains meet the sea", "27 miles of scenic beauty", "Malibu - life is too short to live it elsewhere".

An eccentric feature of Malibu is that the United States Postal Service considers Malibu to cover a larger area than what the incorporated city recognizes. The contention occurs because of the ZIP code 90265. 90265 is an actual ZIP code in Malibu. Although most of 90265 actually lies outside the incorporated area of the city, the U.S. Postal Service considers all addresses in that ZIP code to be Malibu addresses. Real estate agents designate these adjoining areas "Malibu Post Office". A somewhat similar issue can be found in the city of Beverly Hills and the famous 90210 ZIP code.

A long time ago, during the time that Malibu was yet unseen by caucasian eyes, the Malibu area was a part of the territory of the Chumash tribe of Native American Indians. The Chumash aptly named it "Humaliwo" in their native tongue, that would roughly translate into "the surf sounds loudly."

The Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo is believed to have dropped anchor somewhere in the Malibu Lagoon, at the mouth of the Malibu Creek, to obtain fresh water in 1542.

The Spanish presence returned years later with the coming with the Californian mission system.

Back in those days, the area was part of a larger tract of real estate measuring 13,000 acres (120 square kilometers) rewarded as a land grant in 1802. It was later transformed into one long and vast ranch.

In the year 1891, when the sovereign monarchy of Spain left the North American area (coincidentally during the time that Mexico gained its independence), that ranch was passed intact in all its entirety to Frederick Hastings Rindge. He and his better half, Rhoda May Rindge, guarded their privacy zealously by hiring guards to evict all trespassers and fighting a lengthy and costly court battle to prevent the building of a Southern Pacific railroad line.

Before 1929, there were a few roads that even entered the area. In that same year, the state won another court case and built what is to be known as the Pacific Coast Highway.

Around those dates, Frederick has long since departed the mortal coil and May Rindge was forced to partition of her vast domain and begin selling and leasing lots. Their house - the Rindge Estate, known currently as the Adamson House, is now part of Malibu Creek State Park and can be found between the Malibu Lagoon and the Surfrider Beach, beside the Malibu Pier that was originally built for the family yacht. The Malibu Colony was one of the first areas settled, and is on the opposite shore of the lagoon. In 1926, sudden entrepreneurial inspiration struck. Rhoda May Rindge created a small ceramic tile factory, in an effort to avoid selling more of her land to stave off insolvency. At its greatest financial peak, the Malibu Potteries employed over 100 workers, and produced decorative tiles which furnish many Los Angeles-area public buildings and Beverly Hills residences.

The factory, located about half a mile east of the pier, was ravaged by a fire in 1931. Although the factory partially reopened in 1932, it could not recover from the effects of the Great Depression and a steep downturn in Southern Californian construction projects. A distinct hybrid of Moorish and Arts and Crafts designs, Malibu tile is considered highly collectible. Fine examples of the tiles may be seen at the Adamson House and Serra Retreat, a fifty-room mansion that was started in the 1920s as the main Rindge home on a hill overlooking the lagoon. The unfinished building was sold to the Franciscan Order in 1942 and is operated as a retreat facility. It burned in the 1970 fire and was rebuilt using many of the original tiles.

Malibu has long been an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County before the 1990s. In 1991, Malibu was recognized as a city in order to allow for exercise of local control. Prior to incorporation, the local residents had fought proposed developments including a freeway, a nuclear power plant, and several sewer line plans.

Famous residents
Some of the more well-known or affluent residents of the Malibu area are:

• Shannon Marketic - Model Miss USA 1992
• Dominique Swain - American actress
• Britney Spears - American singer
• Mel Gibson - American-born, Australian actor, director, and producer among others

Actor Martin Sheen was named honorary mayor in 1989 because of his contributions to Malibu’s betterment and for his help in taking stands against some of the projects listed above.

Geography
The United States Census Bureau categorically estimates that the city of Malibu has a total land area of 261.5 square kilometers or 101.0 square miles. Thus, Malibu is one of the largest cities in California and the United States in terms of land and water area.

An astounding 19.68% of this land area, roughly equivalent to 51.5 square kilometers or 19.9 square miles is composed of verdant land and sandy beaches. The remaining 80.32%, an estimated 210.0 square kilometers or 81.1 square miles, of it is water. The reason for this amazing percentage is that the city boundaries extend three miles into the ocean. As a direct result of this, Malibu only has a population density of 632.9 persons per square mile of land area.

Throughout its history, Malibu's unique geography placed it at the mercy of numerous natural disasters, namely floods, fires, and mudslides.

Another feature of the Malibu geography is that it is marked by a common and deeply-ingrained misconception. This misconception in Malibu geography is that the coastline in California is uniformly north-south. In Malibu, the coastline runs almost entirely east-west, as does its main artery, Pacific Coast Highway.

While going north on Pacific Coast Highway through Malabu, one would actually be traveling west. Likewise, the Pacific Ocean is due south and the inland Santa Monica Mountains are north. Malibu residents often feed into this misconception by referring to areas near the Ventura County line as "North Malibu" and areas near Santa Monica as "South Malibu," even though they are on virtually the same latitude.

Carbon Beach, Surfrider Beach, Broad Beach, Pirate's Cove, Westward Beach, Zuma Beach, and Trancas are places along the coast in Malibu. Point Dume forms the northern end of the Santa Monica Bay, and the public park there affords a vista of stretching to the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Santa Catalina Island.

Malibu Ozarks
Malibu Ozarks is a term sometimes used derogatorily (or ironically) of inland land or property within the U.S. geographical zip code of 90265, receiving mail to Malibu, California, which lacks a traditional Malibu ocean view. Property within the Malibu Ozarks is generally beyond the first mountain range and outside the incorporated city limits of Malibu itself (despite its city zip code).

Some people define true Malibu Ozarks property by an 818 home telephone prefix. By contrast, all seaside Malibu property is wired for 310 home area code telephone services. As a rule, "818 Malibu" property is five or more miles distant from the Pacific Ocean. The dividing line between the two area codes is roughly at Mulholland Highway, which runs along or near the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Although homes and property in the Malibu Ozarks may easily cost more than one million dollars (and a number of estates and ranches are valued in the tens of millions), even wealthy people living within the Malibu Ozarks often live off-road and rely on septic tank systems, a rural aspect that afflicts the rest of Malibu; there is no public sewer service, so every residence in Malibu has a septic system, which results in ocean-pollution at most beaches where the houses are at sea-level. Because of its relative geographic isolation within Los Angeles County, and the dramatic and accident-prone nature of the Santa Monica area, property in the Malibu Ozarks is particularly susceptible to power outages and other inconveniences due to inclement weather, rain, and mudslides.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 5,137 households out of which 25.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.5% were married couples living together, 6.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.4% were non-families. 27.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.86.

There were 12,575 people, 5,137 households, and 3,164 families residing in the city. The population density was 244.4 per square kilometer or 632.9 per square mile. There were 6,126 housing units at an average density of 119.0 per square kilometer or 308.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 91.91% White, 0.90% African American, 0.21% Native American, 2.49% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 1.67% from other races, and 2.72% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race was 5.48% of the population.

In the city the population was spread out with 19.6% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 32.0% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 97.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $102,031, and the median income for a family was $123,293. Males had a median income of $100,000+ versus $46,919 for females. The per capita income for the city was $74,336. About 3.2% of families and 7.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.8% of those under age 18 and 1.1% of those people aged 65 or over.

Education
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District provides public education at elementary and secondary levels. Malibu High School provides public secondary education for the Malibu community.

The following are the schools officially part of the City of Malibu:

• Juan Cabrillo, 30237 Morningview Drive, Malibu, CA 310-457-0360
• Point Dume Marine Science, 6955 Fernhill Drive, Malibu, CA 310-457-9370
• Webster Elementary, 3601 Winter Canyon Rd., Malibu, CA 310-456-6494
• Malibu High School, 31215 Morningview Drive, Malibu, CA 310-457-6801
• Santa Monica - Malibu Unified School District, Malibu, CA 310-450-8338
  

The community of Malibu is served by Santa Monica College, a community college in the neighboring city of Santa Monica. Pepperdine University, an independent college affiliated with the Church of Christ, is also located in the heart of Malibu, though technically outside city limits. It has its own ZIP code of 90263. 

In the media
Malibu has been used as a location for countless films and television programs. It was home to Gidget, and surfing movies of the 1960s. Important scenes in the Planet of the Apes series were filmed at Point Dume. The hero's trailer in The Rockford Files was parked by Malibu Pier. Love American Style and the Mod Squad are among many TV series and commercials filmed in Paradise Cove. In the 1990s and 2000s it was the setting for MTV Beach House, Malibu's Most Wanted, the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana, and Nickelodeon's Zoey 101. In the Cohen Brothers 1998 motion picture The Big Lebowski, the fictional chief of police describes it thus: "We've got a nice, quiet beach community here, and I aim to keep it nice and quiet."

Many products have been named for Malibu or its neighborhoods, none of which are made in the city or environs: Chevrolet Malibu, Malibu Barbie, Piper Malibu, Malibu Grand Prix, and Malibu Rum (which is really rum of Caribbean origin)

Closing

Malibu’s unique location by the ocean and in the mountains provides for a beautiful area in which to live or visit.
Imagine waking up each day and breathing in the fresh, ocean air while gazing at the vast horizon of the Pacific. This is Malibu - where people from the four corners of the world live and celebrate each day. Where the term tropical paradise is equated to everyday surroundings and life is full of excitement.

Malibu is a community that brings a bit of utopia to your doorstep. It is a place to call home, or a dot on the map that establishes a sanctuary bringing reason to a hectic life. Malibu embodies all that is good: good people, beautiful surroundings, and a community that cares about the quality of life. Come see Malibu for yourself! We can almost guarantee that you will not be leaving this city without thinking of when you will be coming back.

DR. JOHN CHAVES
5312 Comercio Lane, Suite A
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
Phone 818-999-2707
Fax 818-703-1998
appointment@cosmeticdentalservices.com