City Manager’s Office
Tree Lighting — Mayor Armenta, Councilmember Malsin and Downtown Business Assn. Vice President John Byers were on hand to help light the Downtown Holiday Tree in Town Plaza on Thursday, Dec. 2. The crowd was entertained by the Linwood Howe School and Culver City High School Academy of Visual and Performing Arts choirs. Santa Claus made a visit, courtesy of the Police Officers Assn.; sound was provided by the Fire Dept.; and food and drinks were supplied by Downtown businesses. Personnel from the Fire Telecommunications Division delivered the portable sound system for this well attended event.
Community Development Dept.
9900 Culver Blvd. — L’Epicerie, a French market/café has opened.
JC Penney, Westfield Culver City — A façade remodel is currently under construction.
Five Guys Burgers & Fries — Plans have been submitted for, a 2,000 sq. ft. restaurant at Westfield Culver City.
Green Building Systems Design Training — Building Division staff has completed a two-day course on green building systems design. They are now Certified Green Building Professionals.
New California Building, Plumbing, Electrical, Mechanical and Green Codes — Codes go into effect on Jan. 1.
Music in the Chambers — Staff developed the flyer and the first press release for the 3-concert series. The 7 o’clock performances will be held in Council Chambers on Friday, Jan. 14, Friday, Feb. 11, and Friday, Feb. 25. A dozen members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic will perform.
Tokyo 77 — This long-standing restaurant will officially be closing on Saturday due to a rent increase.
Dolce Vita Bakery Cafe — This restaurant, 4410 Sepulveda Blvd., has closed and will be replaced by Abbot’s Pizza.
Topson Downs — The office, 3840 Watseka Ave., recently received a Gold Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification for sustainability. The 1945 building originally was built for AT&T to house 50,000 square feet of switch gear equipment. It was transformed into a state-of-the-art office space and fashion studio for Topson Downs. The building incorporates energy efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly elements. Standard Conditions of Approval — The Planning Division has presented a new format for Standard Conditions of Approval to the Planning Commission for consideration.
Fire Dept.
Toys for Smiles Chili Luncheon — Last Thursday, the Fire Dept.’s annual Toys for Smiles Chili Luncheon took place at Fire Station 1. Volunteers prepared a chili lunch for any city employee who donated a gift for a child in need. All gifts received will be distributed to a variety of charitable organizations within Culver City.
Westside Children’s Center Holiday Party — Last Saturday, the Fire Dept. hosted the annual Westside Children’s Center Holiday Party at Fire Station 1 for foster children who are part of the Center. Music, games, food, face painting, gifts, and, of course, Santa participated.
Police Dept.
Fugitive Arrested — On Friday, Dec. 3, , detectives from the Police Dept. flew to New York to extradite a suspect wanted in connection in a major fraud and elder abuse case. In 2003, the suspect fled to the Philippines. The suspect returned to New York and was apprehended. The suspect has been returned to Los Angeles and is awaiting trial.
Safety Tips — The Police Dept.’s Christmas Safety Tips for the holiday shopping season were distributed and posted on the city’s cable channel.
Santa’s Sleigh — The Police Officers Assn. began its Santa sleigh visits to all of the children of the city to wish them a Merry Christmas, from Thursday, Dec. 2, through Sunday.
Public Works Dept.
Exposition Light Rail Project — Last Saturday, a temporary closure of eastbound National Boulevard, between Washington Boulevard and Wesley Street, occurred to allow for the removal of falsework from the aerial structure over National. A detour was in place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., involving the following traffic impacts:
Westbound traffic was not affected;
Eastbound National Boulevard was closed, and traffic was detoured to Washington Boulevard, to La Cienega Boulevard, and back to Jefferson Boulevard;
Pedestrian traffic continued to be diverted to the existing National Boulevard pedestrian detour.
Flagmen and directional signage were used to safely direct drivers and pedestrians around the work zones in order to minimize the disruption to traffic;
A Notice (in hard copy and electronic formats) was provided to the standard notification area and mailing lists onFriday, Dec. 3. Public Works staff did not receive any complaints.
West Los Angeles College — The city has been notified the college’s track is open (except for the inside lanes). Residents will need to bring their Culver City ID cards when using the track and other college facilities. More information on ID cards is available on the city’s website at: http://www.culvercity.org/Government/~/media/Files/PW/CulverCityResidentCard.ashx.
Duquesne Project — At a community meeting on Saturday, Dec. 4, in Council Chambers, project alternatives were studied for the Duquesne Avenue project with the surrounding neighborhood. Duquesne Avenue is identified as a secondary arterial in the Circulation Element of the General Plan, and as such should be widened to fulfill that role. This project, to perform a conceptual design study for widening Duquesne, has been in the adopted Capital Improvement Program since FY 2008/2009. In addition, the city has been acquiring right-of-way in anticipation of widening Duquesne for decades. Nevertheless, the majority of the meeting’s 50 attendees, many of whom reside on Duquesne, were unanimous in their opposition to widening the street. Only a small minority supported signalizing the intersections of Duquesne at Braddock and at Lucerne avenues. Residents said traffic on Duquesne has not been a significant problem for them and did not warrant the proposed widening of the street. The alternative that had been favored by staff was a street widening to allow for the installation of a two-way left-turn lane in between intersections and left-turn pockets at intersections along with bicycle lanes on both sides of the street. This would have required eight feet of widening on each side of the street to maintain adequate parkway width and curbside parking. Because of the strong opposition to the project, staff made recommendations to the City Manager, who has directed that work stop on this project and that the Metro Call for Projects application also be stopped.
Mr. John Nachbar, the City Manager, may be contacted at john.nachbar@culvercity.org
