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The fallout from Wednesday night’s turbulent City Council meeting continues to roll in waves across Culver City, and this morning it was the mayor’s turn to speak out.

The noisy — you will hear that word a lot — argument that poisoned the air for (a probably unprecedented) 270 minutes centered on the proposed installation of an automated car wash at Jin Kwak’s neighborhood gas station that was born before most residents were.

Too noisy, complained 10 neighbors. Besides, they beefed, the car wash will knock the bottom out of our property values.

Do the five members of the advisory Planning Commission need a therapist this afternoon?

Does their delicate psyche feel more vulnerable than it did yesterday?

In the two highest profile redevelopment cases of the year in City Hall, the Commission, typically in the background, has had its unanimous rulings overturned by the big brother of elected bodies, the City Council.

Were the results that clean and simple?

Worth just a shrug?

In one of the bitterest homeowner showdowns at City Hall in recent years, neighborhood gas station owner Jin Kwak overcame small but mighty residential opposition early this morning to handily win City Council approval to renovate and expand his business at the corner of Culver Boulevard and Motor Avenue.

This caps a fragile but sophisticated vision Mr. Kwak has nursed for the last five years for his family-run business.

Only the predictable populist Gary Silbiger dissented when the Council finally voted 4 to 1 at 45 minutes after midnight to green-light Mr. Kwak.

Enthused about Steve Gourley and Scott Zeidman being elected to the School Board last week, Teachers Union President David Mielke brought what he thought was a capital suggestion to last night’s Board meeting.

The opening round of budget discussions is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 4.

Since negotiations with the Teachers Union form a crucial part of the hash-out talks, Mr. Mielke thought it would be a terrific vehicle for introducing Mr. Zeidman and Mr. Gourley to the sometimes-gory process.

True, the replacements for Board President Marla Wolkowitz and Stew Bubar will not be seated until a week later, Tuesday, Dec. 11.

See yesterday’s story, “Were the Planners All Wet When They Said ‘No’ to Valero Car Wash?”

One of the curious facts that may emerge at this evening’s 7 o’clock City Council meeting is that the natural rival of mid-town gas station owner Jin Kwak has no objections to his plans.

What competition?

Operators of the Union 76 station several blocks away, at Culver Boulevard and Overland Avenue, offer car wash services. They are not opposed to Mr. Kwak’s plan to cut his building in half, placing an automated car wash in the rear and a convenience store up front, while continuing to sell gasoline, too.

After stubbing his toe the first time he walked into City Hall last spring, Korean-born Jin Kwak hopes to write the final — happy — chapter of his classic American Dream saga when he stands before the City Council on Wednesday night.

His case and his cause are familiar to anyone who has studied populist Culver City politics in the past year.

The most intriguing question about new School Board member Scott Zeidman one week after his election is whether he can maintain the frenetic pace he has set for himself.

An international businessman and lawyer who is no stranger to the departure terminals at LAX, he has, if anything, accelerated his production pace the last seven days.

Looking backward over the shoulders of Culver City voters, a statistical analysis of last Tuesday’s School Board election inspires fascinating theories and
explanations for why The Kid and The
Old Man, Scott Zeidman and Steve Gourley, distanced themselves from the other three candidates.

The two new Board members, who will be seated next month, triumphed because they spreadeagled the field. By far, they had the widest and most consistent appeal.

They did well in nearly all13 precincts, and they did not fare poorly in any.

Hard-luck Roger Maxwell was the only other contender to win a precinct, capturing Vets Park, home territory for him, by a hefty margin over the runnerup Mr. Zeidman (180 to 116).

In the City Council’s recently renewed enthusiasm to broaden the community’s role in future development plans, Steve Rose, the lone conservative on the Council, wonders if his colleagues have gone too far.

Although the details are far from being finalized, the City Council has approved a concept to increase notification to the public — probably a combination of individuals and neighborhood organizations — on building permit applications filed at City Hall.

If the mother of all events is a spectacular deal, Culver City’s School Board election yesterday must have been the father of all voter turnouts.

Those rootin’, tootin’, all fired-up, all het-up critics of the School District and the School Board truly showed the community how they perform when they are burnt up.

Something like 21 of every 22 registered voters in Culver City stayed home yesterday.

About 95 percent of registered voters thumbed their noses at an attractive list of candidates.

Do they even need to hold elections in Culver City anymore?