Hi friends,

Monday’s Council meeting was a doozy— it went til 2am! Lots of updates to share.

If you prefer to watch instead of read, click my (awkwardly paused) face below and get caught up in 3 mins!

First, we passed the Parks Master Plan, the blueprint for the future of our parks facilities and the result of over a year of work by community groups, the parks commission, city staff, and my colleagues on Council.

This plan has something for everyone.

Like a new pool and new soccer, basketball, pickleball, tennis, and paddle tennis facilities.

But it’s not all about sports.

The plan also includes more arts, cultural, and entertainment facilities that will allow the city to put on outdoor movies, arts and crafts, petting zoos, and community gardens. There’s also a lot more dog parks and dog runs in the plan.

Perhaps my favorite result of the plan would be the added capacity for popular summer camps, childcare programs, and senior programs.

So what now that the plan has been adopted? Glad you asked!

Making all the changes proposed in the plan would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, none which has been secured. We will have to figure out a path forward as a community, considering we face a $18M deficit this fiscal year and a $6-8M structural deficit in our General Fund.

Vice Mayor Puza proposed hiring a staff member in charge of writing grant applications on behalf of the department. We’ll have more of these discussions as the budget process kicks off next month.

4/22 Earth Day Celebration on Elenda Street Approved!

In exciting but considerably less expensive news:

Council approved an Earth Day celebration put on by Walk n’ Rollers on the morning of April 22nd on Elenda Street outside Culver City High School, Culver City Middle School, and Farragut Elementary! Kids and families are invited to walk, bike, skate, scoot, and take transit to school where they will be greeted with an open street festival full of activities related to sustainability.

Protecting Human Rights in the Trump Era

We also heard a report back from staff requested by Vice Mayor Puza and supported by my colleagues to see how our city could strengthen reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights in the wake of Trump’s election. I made several suggestions which my colleagues supported, including:

adding gender identity and disability to our 2016 Anti-Hate resolution
publicizing resources for trans and nonbinary residents
asking for a comprehensive review of our data privacy policies from CCPD and across the city
requesting a presentation from the ACLU on ways we can strengthen data privacy policies.

Supporting Heavy Rail to UCLA

Council also agreed to send a letter of support for two train routes that would run from West LA to Van Nuys, a project known as the Sepulveda Transit Corridor. Culver City is now officially in support of the two fully automated heavy rail options that stop at UCLA. These alternatives have the lowest travel time, highest frequency, and the highest projected ridership of all the alternatives suggested. These alternatives also include critical connections to Culver CityBus line 6 and Rapid 6.

Topics for Future Meetings

At the end of the meeting, I asked staff for a report back on our Section 8 program to help inform how we may be able to help the Jubilo Village project close its significant $16M fundraising gap. I appreciate all four of my colleagues for supporting this item.

I also asked to agendize a discussion of converting our Police Policies Subcommittee, which currently holds its meetings privately between 2 Councilmembers and the Culver City Police Department, into a public “standing” subcommittee. This would allow the public a chance to give input on all matters of public safety, instead of making these important decisions behind closed doors.

Public safety is our most important responsibility as a community, so it’s important that the public has a seat at the table. Thank you to Councilmember McMorrin and Vice Mayor Puza for supporting a discussion.

Finally, the meeting ended with Vice Mayor Puza asked to bring back a discussion of creating a housing trust which would allow us to set aside funds to support the creation and maintenance of affordable housing.

That’s your Council meeting recap! The next one is next Monday, February 24th. Hope to see (or hear) you there!

This Week Around Town

Culver City’s official MLK Jr Day celebration was on Saturday (it had been postponed due to the fires). The event featured remarks from Assemblymember Isaac Bryan and Mayor Dan O’Brien, a motivational speech from Pastor Princeton Parker, and inspiring performances from Sufi Dakks, Crusade Christian Faith Center Choir, LA Drumline and Majorettes, and MLK Jr. performer Gerald C. Rivers. Thank you to the MLK Jr. and Juneteenth committee for organizing!

I also enjoyed attending the closing awards ceremony for the Pan African Film Festival, now over 30 years strong, which returned to Culver City. Congratulations to all the artists and filmmakers featured in the festival!

Hanging out with Board Member Loredo at the city’s MLK Jr. celebration.

Upcoming Events

Have you been wanting to get more civically involved but not sure where to start? Community advocacy group, Our Culver, is hosting its first event of the year this Saturday.

Whether you care about housing, mobility, public safety, there’s so many ways to make an impact in Culver City. Here’s a list of community groups I made a few months ago.

Bike Culver City is also having a handlebar happy hour on Thursday evening.

Thank you for catching up with me!

- Bubba

Parks plan passed! + Council Recap