Let there be no doubt about the breadth of support for Thomas Small’s fledgling campaign for the City Council in April.
The Carson Street home of Diana and David Hauptman – Mr. Small’s neighbors — was bulging with visitors – from the progressive wing of the community, including fellow candidates Meghan Sahli-Wells, the only incumbent in the race, and Marcus Tiggs — during yesterday afternoon’s three-hour formal launch.
With campaign manager Karlo Silbiger serving as master of ceremonies, he introduced a roster of enthused endorsers — Jim Lamm, founder of Ballona Creek Renaissance, Len Dickter, vice chair of the Cultural Affairs Commission where Mr. Small serves, and Dr. Kelly Kent, freshman member of the School Board.
Mr. Lamm, Culver City’s most prominent environmentalist, known for his soft speaking, drew ironic lines between his career, an architect who writes, and Mr. Small’s, a writer specializing in architecture.
Mr. Dickter reported on an agenda of Mr. Small’s promotional successes since being appointed to the Cultural Affairs Commission a year and a half ago.
As for Dr. Kent, her backstory is not so dissimilar from Mr. Small’s. She spoke with vigor of the parallels between her young family and Mr. Small’s young family arriving from out of town – and the reasons both were drawn to the garden of opportunities in Culver City. “We moved here 10 years ago from Santa Monica,” Mr. Small said, “because of the schools and because of the community. (Joanna Brody and I) had gotten married not too long before, and we wanted to move up. We wanted to buy a house and have a little bit more room.”
Up to here, Mr. Small’s principal public identify has been with the entrepreneurial aspects of fine arts – and so it was fitting that the formal portion of the afternoon opened, sophisticatedly, with a cello solo of a Beethoven composition.
An adept speaker, sounded his best-known themes, his birth to a Filipino mother and Western rancher father in Northern California, his European education background, his professional travels about the world for the past 20 years, and about his passion for design and development as applied in Culver City.
