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For Angelenos and for veterans, the most important component of a $555 billion spending bill President Bush signed on Dec. 26, is a provision that specifically bans future commercial development or sale of the West Los Angeles Dept. of Veterans Affairs campus.

“It's been a long fight for us,” said Keith Jeffreys, president of the Culver City-based Citizens for Veterans' Rights. “This frees us up to concentrate on ensuring that
veterans who are supposed to receive services at that hospital are actually getting them.”

Many regulars in the Culver City Democratic Club were eyewitnesses to PBS history, Pre-Britney Spears. If they were trees, they might be redwoods — with very generous trunks, a jeweler’s delight, lots of rings.

And so it is not yet clear whether the Democratic seniors will embrace or reject perhaps the meatiest moment of Mayor Alan Corlin’s first Farewell to the City address at Wednesday night’s meeting.

He rebuked them for not being interested in local politics. Instead, he said, they have dwelled on distant political universes, passionately casting votes that are fun but meaningless.

Cary Anderson, one of the more vocal community activists — especially since the Skateboard Park opened in the autumn — is the latest resident to enter this spring’s race for the City Council.

He often has employed his ever-present video camera to capture what he regards as untoward events that should be corrected by City Hall.

Three of the five Council seats will be open in the April 8 election.

In a different setting, last night’s bizarre, almost surreal, interlude at the monthly meeting of the Culver City Democratic Club would have been a publicist’s juicy dream.

It could have warranted a headline blaring:

“First-Time City Council Candidate Upstages Mayor’s Speech.”

Instead, there was fury and anger, with a sprinkling of shock and puzzlement, over an annoying and ongoing confrontation between an unknown City Council candidate and the Mayor of Culver City.

Of the eight candidates who have taken out papers to run for the City Council, Mehaul O’Leary, seated, left, yesterday became only the third to complete his paperwork. This legally qualifies him for his second campaign. Deadline is tomorrow afternoon. Dep. City Clerk Ela Valladares is at right. Standing, rear, from left, Tom McCabe, Parks Commissioner Charles Deen of the O’Leary campaign team, Susan O’Leary, the candidate’s wife, and former Mayor Richard Marcus.

The long promised transformation — gentrification sounds nicer —of a wounded commercial focal point in West Culver City officially began at last night’s meeting of the Redevelopment Agency.

On a night of spectacular triumph for Agency Chair Scott Malsin, a cluster of residents, formerly exasperated, actually cheered when the hometown development team was unanimously approved for remaking the twin northern corners of Washington Boulevard and Centinela.

Once the corners are refurbished, neighborhood activist Robert Pine said the busy intersection will morph from “blight to a gateway.”

“This is going to be fun,” the high-spirited community activist Jeff Cooper enthused this morning about his embryonic campaign for a City Council seat in the April municipal election.

As the eighth candidate in a gradually crowding race for three term-limited seats, Mr. Cooper has been a regular, and smiling, presence around City Hall since the turn of the century.

He may be best and most recently known as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission.

Having happily attained grandfatherly years, Larry Loughlin’s serenity, in the shadow of The Culver Studios, was severely jolted on Christmas Eve, just as he and his family were sailing into a celebratory mood.

A week and a half later, with the emotional case dangling, he is hoping that Southern California Edison will look kindly upon his claim for close to $2,000 in damages.

A bizarre, actually momentary, event brought the Fire Dept., the Police Dept., and Edison workers into the quiet, compact Downtown-adjacent neighborhood where the Loughlins have raised their children and grandchildren the past 25 years.

Even though football bowl games remain to be played, baseball is at hand in Culver City.
Saturday is the final Registration Day for boys and girls to sign up for the Culver City National Little League’s 53rd season.

Signups will take place between 9 and 3 in the Rotunda Room at the Vets Auditorium.

Now that the Christmas trees have gone away for another year, the southwest corner of Culver Boulevard and Duquesne is ready to start buzzing with a new look.

The developer Joey Miller and his partner Judit Meda Fekete are hoping to start their mixed-use project, “as soon as possible,” Mr. Miller says.

You will pardon Mr. Miller, Culver City’s youngest developer, if he has more than 9900 Culver Blvd. on his mind this morning.