Malaga Cove

When Palos Verdes Estates became a city nearly 60 years ago after a close incorporation election, the victors were said to have danced around the landmark Neptune Fountain at Malaga Cove Plaza. Now, residents in the seaside community have another reason to do a celebration dance: They have finally raised enough money to restore the aging fountain and give the surrounding outdoor plaza a face-lift.

It had been the dream of a local surgeon: a gray, spaceship-like structure with floor-to-ceiling windows and a facade that jutted out toward the Pacific Ocean. "I don't want a big square house like that one," Dr. Louis Moore reportedly told the architect, pointing to a neighbor's home during a drive around Palos Verdes Estates. And so, in 1958, an avant-garde, five-bedroom home with angular appendages was completed on the cliff above Malaga Cove. Now the current owner wants to build his own dream house.

After your walk--especially if it was a morning excursion--you may want to explore the rest of Palos Verdes Peninsula. The Top 10 places highlighted below can easily be seen on a scenic two-hour drive. From Malaga Cove Plaza, drive south on Palos Verdes Drive West about one mile to Bluff Cove, where the gentle hills plummet to the ocean. From the cliffs you can observe surfers below and radio-piloted model airplanes above. Follow Paseo del Mar along the bluffs to Lunada Bay.

When Palos Verdes Estates became a city nearly 60 years ago after a close incorporation election, the victors were said to have danced around the landmark Neptune Fountain at Malaga Cove Plaza. Now, residents in the seaside community have another reason to do a celebration dance: They have finally raised enough money to restore the aging fountain and give the surrounding outdoor plaza a face-lift.

Inveterate spring-watchers say the Palos Verdes Peninsula is one of the best places in Los Angeles to enjoy that glorious season. And Malaga Cove, the northernmost community in Palos Verdes Estates, displays it like none other on the peninsula. Here, where Mediterranean villas hug the hillsides and the fragrance of sweet anise and sage fills the air, gardens, topography and architecture conspire to make a spring walkers' paradise.

EDITOR ' S NOTE: The following four letters refer to the Palos Verdes Peninsula school board's decision to close the Margate Intermediate School and reassign its students to the Malaga Cove and Ridgecrest campuses next fall. Trustees adopted revised attendance boundaries last week. My sons attended Malaga Cove, but I feel that the present school board has closed the wrong school. In the late 1960s, Malaga Cove had the lowest enrollment of the four intermediate schools, even when teen-agers seemed to be growing out of the streets and some schools were overcrowded.

Four students at Malaga Cove Intermediate School have won a statewide math competition, while a team from Ridgecrest, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District's other intermediate campus, placed fourth. The Malaga Cove team won the annual event, called Mathcounts, in 1986 also. A California team, made up of the highest individual scorers in the competition in Downey on March 19, will go to the national competition in Washington on May 13.

Palos Verdes Estates police Thursday remained puzzled over a string of residential burglaries in the Malaga Cove area. Unlike most such crimes, which occur during the daytime when no one is home, the burglaries began Tuesday night when one or two intruders began entering homes primarily through unlocked windows or doors, Sgt. Tom Vanderpool said. Five homes were burglarized and attempts were made at three others, he said.

The city is moving to improve traffic controls at a problem intersection in Malaga Cove where three people were killed in traffic accidents between 1981 and 1983. Plans call for street widening and installation of a 10-foot median at the triangular intersection where Palos Verdes Drive North meets Palos Verdes Drive West near the Malaga Cove Plaza. "This has been a difficult intersection for years," said Ross Meadows, public works director. "It was rebuilt in 1976.

Geographically, the Palos Verdes bluffs and beaches resemble the Channel Islands. Geologists say that before the Ice Age, the peninsula was an island, separated from the rest of the Los Angeles basin by the sea. However, toward the end of the last glacial period the 18-mile-long peninsula was connected to the mainland by masses of sediment discharged from the mountains to the north.

With great pleasure and a welcome sense of relief I read your article exposing the menacing gangs of Lunada Bay in Palos Verdes Estates (May 8). I grew up in Palos Verdes and learned to surf at Malaga Cove. At the age of 15 I essentially gave up my dream of surfing the better breaks in Palos Verdes because I didn't want to be involved in the hazing, violence and vandalism necessary for acceptance into the Bay Boys. Recently, one of my Japanese ESL students, 32, went out to "Indicator" (PV Cove)

Residents are hoping to convince federal officials that the Malaga Cove Library, with its white-stucco walls, red-tile roof and square tower, has special historic significance. The Malaga Cove Library Neighborhood Planning Committee, in an application to federal officials, says the 1929 Mediterranean Revival-style library is a prime example of work by architect Myron Hunt.

A special committee has called on Palos Verdes Library District officials to scale back the controversial $16-million expansion of the Peninsula Center Library, targeting plans to spend $1.5 million on new furniture and $274,000 on artwork, as well as the board's contract decisions. The 15-member committee, created by the library's Board of Trustees last summer as the district was facing a fiscal crisis, also plans to recommend that more consultants' work be put out to bid. The committee's assessments, released during a series of public meetings over the past two weeks, have not yet been considered by the board.

News of the momentous crime bust heroically executed the other day in the wilds of the Malaga Cove parking lot by operatives of the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department must have sent shock waves of fear through the hierarchy of organized crime (Times, April 28). The overlords of the underworld must now confront the reality that the P.V.E. constabulary convincingly has demonstrated to the entire world that it is not to be trifled with, and that it will absolutely, positively not tolerate any breach of parking protocol within its area of operations.

Rosina Baur, a resident of affluent Palos Verdes Esates, was arrested, handcuffed, jailed, fingerprinted, photographed and frisked the other day--for allegedly wiping chalk marks off her tires. Anne Bisco, an office receptionist, was arrested on the same charge, interfering with an authorized person, a misdemeanor offense. Police say that Bisco and Baur, a real estate manager, were trying to sidestep a one-hour parking limit in the car-choked Malaga Cove shoppping plaza on April 21. Baur says she merely drove around and found a new space but Bisco admits she pulled her car forward and "lightly" rubbed the chalk.

Rosina Baur, a 30-year resident of affluent Palos Verdes Estates who says she was never in trouble with the police before, was arrested, handcuffed, jailed, fingerprinted, photographed and frisked because of an alleged parking violation in the city. Police say Baur, manager of a Coldwell Banker real estate office, and Anne Bisco, a receptionist in the office, wiped chalk marks off their tires to sidestep a one-hour parking limit in the car-choked Malaga Cove shopping plaza on April 21. The two women were hauled down to the Palos Verdes Estates police station and booked on suspicion of interfering with an authorized person, a misdemeanor.

Rosina Baur, a resident of affluent Palos Verdes Esates, was arrested, handcuffed, jailed, fingerprinted, photographed and frisked the other day--for allegedly wiping chalk marks off her tires. Anne Bisco, an office receptionist, was arrested on the same charge, interfering with an authorized person, a misdemeanor offense. Police say that Bisco and Baur, a real estate manager, were trying to sidestep a one-hour parking limit in the car-choked Malaga Cove shoppping plaza on April 21. Baur says she merely drove around and found a new space but Bisco admits she pulled her car forward and "lightly" rubbed the chalk.

Geographically, the Palos Verdes bluffs and beaches resemble the Channel Islands. Geologists say that before the Ice Age, the peninsula was an island, separated from the rest of the Los Angeles basin by the sea. However, toward the end of the last glacial period the 18-mile-long peninsula was connected to the mainland by masses of sediment discharged from the mountains to the north.

Four students at Malaga Cove Intermediate School have won a statewide math competition, while a team from Ridgecrest, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District's other intermediate campus, placed fourth. The Malaga Cove team won the annual event, called Mathcounts, in 1986 also. A California team, made up of the highest individual scorers in the competition in Downey on March 19, will go to the national competition in Washington on May 13.