[Editor’s Note: Mr. Romano, a prominent Westside businessman, addressed this letter to City Councilman Chris Armenta.]
Dear Chris:
I was pleased that at Monday night's City Council meeting you took a very productive position for the Heart of Screenland Museum on Parcel B.
Will you reconsider the exploratory committee?
I am directly affected by what happens in Parcel B.
An exploratory committee is essential — it wouldn't commit the city to anything, nor would it slow down the process of building on Parcel B. Rather, it would open more options for a successful development on the lot.
The Museum should not be on the ground floor but on the second or third floor so the developer has enough ground floor retail to make the project viable. The Academy on Wilshire Boulevard has its museum on the second floor.
A museum is a natural — adjacent to The Culver Studios. Culver City already self-identifies as the Heart of Screenland, the location where Selznick produced Gone With the Wind and where Gregory Peck and many major stars had their offices or certainly trod the pavement.
Don't forget Kirk Douglas and all he does for Culver City.
Think of the additional income: Books, teeshirts and other memorabilia could be sold from such a museum.
With the assistance of Sony Pictures and their enormous library, and with the assistance of the Culver City Historical Society and the wealth of Julie Lugo Cerra’s knowledge, a Heart of Screenland Museum could be fascinating and profitible for the city and also bring tourists.
Town Plaza could even become a mini-Hollywood.
Organizations such as The Museum of Radio and Television in New York (which has a branch in Beverly Hills) may be interested in participating or even in managing the museum. The American Film Institute could be involved. A museum has to be managed by museum professionals.
But we won't know any of this unless we explore the possibilities.
The Downtown stakeholders need to see that something is happening in this important matter. I think they will approve of the people who open up the possibilities.
I can't leave you without speaking for the future: whatever we put up on Parcel B will be there long after we are gone.
What do we want our children and grandchildren to say about what we did there?
Did we work so hard to give Culver City the special place it has in the Los Angeles landscape just to have our efforts go into yet another empty office building?
We have a Metro stop right there. It can bring people to Town Plaza as a destination, not merely ferry office workers in and out of Culver City.
I think that the Parcel B development needs to be mixed use. Combining residence, retail and the arts is a successful and organic formula in established and still-viable communities around the world.
Mixed use is being rediscovered by the most forward-looking developers, poiticians, economists in the world today.
Mr. Romano of the European Business Council may be contacted at renatoromano@eubc.us
