Malibu residents upset at Bob Dylan's outhouse

How sweet is life when you live next to a celebrity in Malibu? Outside Bob Dylan’s house, the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

That’s what some of the singer-songwriter’s neighbors are claiming in an increasingly onerous dispute over a porta-potty at his sprawling ocean-view estate on Point Dume.

Residents contend that the nighttime sea breeze sends a noxious odor from a portable toilet on Dylan’s property wafting into their homes. The stench has made members of one family physically ill and forced them to abandon their bedrooms on warm nights, they claim.

For more than six months, Dylan has ignored their complaints and their pleas to remove the outhouse, the downwind neighbors say.

“It’s a scandal -- 'Mr. Civil Rights’ is killing our civil rights,” said David Emminger, whose home is directly behind the porta-potty -- apparently intended for use by employees of the entertainer best known for his 1960s-era protest songs.

Emminger and his wife have installed five industrial-size fans in their front yard in an attempt to blow the odor back at Dylan. But they say the fans are no match for the ocean breeze that sweeps across the singer’s land.

Dylan, who has lived on a multi-lot compound next to Bluewater Road for more than two decades, did not respond to inquiries about the toilet. Neither did his New York-based attorney.

Malibu municipal officials said they are investigating the porta-potty complaint. But because of that, they are unable to discuss the issue, they said.

But Dylan’s neighbors, who contend their patience has run out, have plenty to say about the odor.

“It started in September. I’d go into the front yard and get nauseous,” said Cindy Emminger, 42. “I couldn’t figure out at first where the smell was coming from.”

But then her 8-year-old son, David Jr., was sickened by the stench. Then she became ill too.

“We both [have] allergies and are sensitive to chemicals,” Emminger said. “I finally noticed that they had moved the porta-potty directly in front of my front door. I figured out that the smell was coming from that.”

She called her husband, an international bond trader who at the time was on the East Coast addressing a group of city and county managers. He suggested she contact Malibu’s municipal officials.

By some accounts, the city’s response has been sluggish.

In January, one inspector reported that a city code enforcement officer was turned away by Dylan’s security staff and told that he was trespassing. “He said they were going to sue the city,” the inspector said.

Guards in security shack that is staffed around the clock near the edge of Dylan’s compound are among those who use the porta-potty, according to neighbors.

The guard house has been the source of controversy in the past. In 1989, when Dylan sought a permit to build it, Los Angeles County building and safety inspectors discovered it was not accessible by the handicapped. According to county records, the singer bypassed accessibility requirements by promising, in writing, that he “would not hire any handicapped persons” to work in it.

Cindy Emminger said material burned in an apparently recently installed stove inside the guard shack adds to the odor problem on chilly nights, when Dylan’s workers use the heater.

-- Bob Pool

Comments

[Steve Jordan]

The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind, the answer is blowin' in the wind.

[Anon]

HAHA, not surprised. First of all, the Emmingers are well-known whiners and hypochondriacs around Malibu. I have little faith in their assertions and calling sense of smell a civil right should show you how ridiculous these people are. They are autism fanatics (you know, the kind that tie it to immunizations with personal stories rather than science, because Jim Carrey told them to?) and I believe rallied against flouidization of the water (yes, apparently they're also board). Moreover, they just bought their home 4 years ago for $2.4 million, which tells you (a) they should have smelled it then, assuming it was around and (b) they're probably trying to milk a very golden cow (Dylan) to recover the huge loss they've probably seen in property value. I hope Dylan lawyers up and buries these whackjobs.

[Trojan Al]

the problems of the super-elite liberals!! God bless them.

Trojan Al

[Andy A.]

This is so rediculous. Get over it, and be happy you live in Malibu you complaining little weasels.
If they were my neighbors, I would get rid of the porta-potty and relieve myself directly on their lawn

[CS]

I don't know which is worst: Dylan disregarding his neighbors concern over the porta-potty or promising never to hire handicapped people to work on the property.

[Anonymous]

Good for Bob! As a resident of Malibu, I can tell you that the residents of Point Dume are (for the most part) elitist, arrogant and into controlling each other's business, children, property, and general appearance.

The only reason that the real estate in this area has climbed so fast and high, and retained its value in bleak economic times is because celebrities such as Dylan, Streisand, Julia Roberts, etc. live there. The Emmingers should sell their property and be happy that the value is so high because Mr. Dylan is their neighbor.

The rest of Pt. Dume should just take a vacation to middle-America somewhere and get into reality.

[what a joke]

Liberals are all the same. The only civil right they care about are their own. The only money they care to donate is NOT their own. WHAT A JOKE. Dylan is a perfect example of an OBAMA supporter. These are the ones we have been waiting for ?

[Bill]

Who cares about these rich people? Why is this even a story. Getting sick from poop stink? I think not. This is just nothing but a sense of entitlement from neighbors.

[Beth]

Wow. Bob certainly doesn't live up to his image of being a friend to the working man in his real life. He doesn't want people who work for him full-time to use the bathroom in his house? Or work in a properly heated work space? And what is up with Malibu for refusing to crack down on such obvious code violations? That heater may be a fire hazard, and it's certainly a health hazard, along with the portapotty (it's unhealthy for the neighbors and unsanitary for the workers forced to use it on a daily basis). I've lost considerable respect for Bob Dylan if this story is true.

[Melaine Samson]

Whiny rich people. Who cares?

[eric von schmidt]

Yo Bob, surely there's a way to provide a privy to your workers that doesn't stink up the neighborhood. Find it dude. And neighbors, don't pester the man with silly complaints. Hope the new album has some of the energy of the young Bob. Forever young.

[John Scheibe]

A side note to Bob Dylan's house. It was once owned by the late L.A. Times sports columnist Jim Murray, who sold it to Dylan over 30 years ago. Jim often mentioned in his columns the joy he got from watching the sun set from his front yard at Point Dume, and if Gerry Murray knew there was an outhouse on the property, there would be hell to pay.

[Adam Zero]

This is surreal. Gotta have a guard, guard gotta have a potty. But no handicapped guards because handicapped guards can't use the non-handicapped hut and can't use the porta-potty.

This is a typically complicated Dylanesque situation but he does have some options.

Dylan can:

1) Buy the neighbor's property. And tear down their house and build a giant porta-potty on the property.
2) Put two porta-potties on his own property. His and hers.
3) Sue the U.S. Gov't for discrimination of the un-handicapped via the American with Disabilities Act.
4) Hire a handicapped guard and pay him/her to use the bushes. Then make an unwatchable movie about it.
5) Write a song. No, make that a dozen songs. All in the key of E. Probably blues.
6) Put the porta-potty on wheels and offer to race the local kids on their scooters. Winner takes all (porta-potty?).
7) Hire guards willing to wear adult diapers.
8) Write a song about Ruben "Hurricane" Carter. (Nix that, been done).
9) Use his mumbling eccentric faux Nawlins cat-daddy accent to confuse the authorities and issues entirely.
10) Spraypaint "What?!?!" on the side of the porta-potty and have it declared a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.

[zango]

Funniest story i have read in quite a while. The answer is blowin in the wind. But is smells like turd.

[JumboSaurus Rex]

Hippies stink even when they're loaded.

[Sal B]

The rich are no different than you or I; they just get to do whatever they want.

[tanaS]

How long must sewage smell b be allowed to be free? Everybody must smell it on the wind.

[Jake]

Wow - seems like his neighbors have been putting up for a short while what the music world has put up with forever - the stink and arrogance of Dylan !

[Nils]

This is a terrible story, from a reporting perspective. I read this as Dylan having one aggrieved neighbor -- the Emmingers -- and they've decided to use the Times to wage a public opinion war against Dylan. There may be more to this story, but you'd never know it from the way it's reported.

[Tini]

Where is A. J. Weberman when we need him now?

[K. Andersen]

Oh puhleeeze... I can't believe what people will complain about! A little bit of an odor from a porta-potty. Big deal. Tell these whiny neighbors to spend half an hour in East L.A. or Santa Ana and they'll get a whole new appreciation for what really obnoxious human smells are like.

Or worse yet, just get in a room full of Republicans.

[Lorenzo]

To other posts, who find a way to write about politics even in these circumstances... :
What are "liberals" (or "conservatives" for what matters) ? Who says that Dylan is an example of "liberals"? Who says that Obama is only a President for "liberals"? Who says that Dylan is an example of Obama supporter? From what we read in the article, Dylan is behaving very anti-socially, and the City of Malibu is not fulfilling its duties towards Dylan neighbohrs, who, elitist and snobby as you like, still have the right not to be bothered by the smell of an outhouse. Dylan is being very arrogant. And politics has nothing to do with it.

[Dose Of Reality]

The only stench I smell is coming from Cindy Emminger and her husband:

“I finally noticed that they had moved the porta-potty directly in front of my front door. I figured out that the smell was coming from that.”

Um....yeah.....right. How often do you use your front door?

Did you really think your industrial fans would counter the ocean breeze? Or are they just a prop? Get real.

Mr. and Mrs. Emminger sound like a couple of out-of-touch elitists with too much time on their hands.

[janet leigh]

If someone put a Portable Toilet, in front of my house,near my door and the fumes came in and stunk up my house, I would go to the Board of Health, call Osha,about the smoke.I would treat them as the inconsiderate SOBs that they are. If the town didn't do something about it, I would sue them and that neighbor too. What a nightmare.

[Ignatius Reilly]

Incredibly mean-spirited, nutjob comments. Suddenly Obama is to blame for a smelly toilet on Bob Dylan's property?

As for Dylan's sensitive neighbour, aren't these 'bond traders' the sorts of people hwo have caused the economic mess we are all currently wading through?