What Makes Culver City Work
Yesterday Ms. Evans said that the “magic” and “mystery” she found in Culver City when she transferred here four years ago from Burbank City Hall made this redevelopment gig click for her. If she didn’t turn Culver City into Disneyland, she didn’t miss by much. Redeveloping downtrodden or overlooked neighborhoods and illuminating a Downtown that historically never had been a destination, for locals or for tourists, were her specialties. Whether it was her persona or her conceptualizations, Ms. Evans may have been the first person in Culver City who made redevelopment feel glamourous. In the middle of December, Ms. Evans and her husband Les, who retires from his position as City Manager of Rancho Palos Verdes on the same day, will leave city life behind for green acres for the first time in their lives. Once they arrive at their new 150-acre ranch in the San Luis Obispo area, they will morph into grape-growers and, later, fulfill their dream of becoming winemakers.
Their Strategy Is All Mapped Out
Everything is in place, Ms. Evans said. “We made a commitment to the family we bought the property from — it was not a tough commitment, we would have done it anyway — that most of the land, more than 100 acres, will remain untouched, as it currently is. It is a typical rolling hills property, beautiful, with oak trees and pines trees. Forty of the acres are perfect for grape-growing, but we probably will start with 5 acres.” Ms. Evans and her husband have their separate but complementary assignments. She is a city girl and he is a city boy. Hand in hand, they will dance into a bucolic landscape for the first time, city lights long out of sight. She will be in the fields and he will command the business end of their enterprise. “My primary focus,” says Ms. Evans, “will be the grapes. This is a very specialized business, as most of farming is today. I already have started back to school in San Luis Obispo, where they have a course (at Cal Poly) in viticulture. My focus will always be the grapes, the fruit. You can’t make fine wine if you don’t have quality grapes. That will be my first step. When I am really happy with that, we have decided that we will take the next step, to use our own fruit and start creating wine.”
A Time for Research
Friends of the couple were hardly surprised to learn that the Evanses, scientific thinkers that they are, conducted intense research into every corner of their ambitious undertaking. It was sheer logic. They are new, and it is complicated. “The business will be vertically integrated,” Ms. Evans said. “We have done our research. Typically, there is a tension between the grape-grower and the winemaker. When you can put those two together (as we will), the opportunity for success is much stronger.” Characterizing the distinctions between husband and wife, Ms. Evans says that “he is more intellectual and I am more elemental. He will bring the chemistry to it, and I will bring the elemental component.” As her colleagues around City Hall have known since Ms. Evans arrived in January of ’03, passion drives her to work every morning. Passion also will propel her fourth separate career. Wine, she says, “has been a passion forever.” The idea for the Evanses to become professionally involved in the industry as winemakers is a more recent notion. Two years ago, they began shopping for the kind of sprawling spread they have landed. Like a sun-drenched sky, the idea wafted into their tablecloth dinner space one evening over a “beautiful” bottle of wine at a restaurant in their favorite city in the world, San Francisco. Is this story beginning to take on fairytale proportions? Just listen. This is Ms. Evans talking about their new lives. “The art, the artistry, the chance to create something new, these are the reasons we are doing this. Obviously, we are both involved in city and city-making, with staff and staff-making. This is just a different approach. I had interns that were so important to me. My husband and I have made a conscious commitment that we would, in turn, mentor young people coming into this profession. One of the things we will take with us is a strong connection to the local university to pull interns, to pull young people into our business to give them an opportunity to grow. Selfishly, we want to keep a fresh perspective in front of us, just as both of us have tried to do with our present jobs. We don’t want to grow complacent or stale. This is the beauty of a fresh perspective. Don’t let us believe this is the one, the only, recipe that always is going to work. Always be ready to be challenged. Grow young people.”
Postscript
It will be easier for her to walk away from local government than for her husband, Ms. Evans said. He already has mentioned starting a consulting business. Mr. Evans and Ms. Evans will pursue their individual interests. She loves to read biographies, and her current project is the life of the wicked Lucretia Borgia. A man of the sea, his taste runs to seafaring adventures and such novels.
Finally, animating questions remain open on Ms. Evans’ way out of town. “Why does one area of a community feel so wonderful and another area doesn’t?” she wonders. “Why does one city have the ability to blossom and another city just cannot pull itself out of a rut? I have never found the answers. But these questions continue to fascinate me. I am constantly looking for people who are searching for the answers to these same questions. I want to know from them: What attracts the world to San Francisco? To New York? To Boston? What makes them magical and not other cities? I don’t know. But I will keep searching for the answers.”
