It is amazing to me to sit and watch the City Attorney’s office in Culver City advise City Council members on how they should vote on community matters.
If the Council has the legal ability to vote on a matter, the members should be allowed to do so.
If they do not have the legal authority, then they should not even be hearing the matter in a City Council meeting.
If the City Attorney’s office is worried about legal action against the city if the Council votes a certain way, then they should just resort to their past practice of,
“Go ahead and sue us. We have plenty of outside private law firms that will defend us, for a price.”
Right or Wrong
The question on Monday, April 20, was whether to allow a new 7-11 store at the intersection of La Cienega and Washington boulevards to sell beer and wine.
I am sure that the Police Dept.’s site review of this project already covered all of these facts. But let me go over some they may have missed.
The area of La Cienega/Washington, and of Fairfax, historically have formed one of the highest crime areas of the city.
The crime still is high in that area, but nothing like the late 1970s and ‘80s.
Why was crime so high during that period?
And what was done to reduce crime in that area?
During that period you had a 24-hour Winchell’s Donuts, 24-hour Norm’s restaurant, a 24 hr AM/PM store, and an extended-hour McDonald’s.
When these businesses were operational, the area was a constant crime problem.
Its far East Side location was a drain on police services for the rest of the city. Murder, robbery, assaults, car thefts, burglaries, car break-ins and petty thefts were regular occurrences.
They still happen today, but they have been greatly reduced in recent years.
They Both Know the Truth
The 7-11 Corp. knows that it will get most of its customers from the area’s east of Fairfax Avenue and from persons traveling the La Cienega corridor.
The Culver City police know that most of the crimes committed in this area will be carried out by criminals coming from the areas east of Fairfax and from opportunistic criminals traveling the La Cienega corridor.
Twenty-four-hour businesses attract customers and criminals 24 hours a day.
That is a fact of life.
Alcohol sales add another dimension to this equation, and that is that alcohol consumption is a major factor in criminal activity for both the victim and the perpetrator.
The problem with policing this area is that, unless you are within a minute of the area when the police radio call goes out, that suspect on foot already is across Fairfax and deep into the city of Los Angeles.
A good police supervisor will allow his units to quickly check these areas of Los Angeles, but he cannot afford to allow them too much time outside the city without sacrificing police services for the rest of the city.
I think Mayor Scott Malsin said it very well at the April 20 meeting: This area has changed greatly for the better with new restaurants, art studios, and furniture stores.
What I think Council member Chris Armenta was saying was that he, too, was pleased with the changes to the East Side. He just wants to make sure the East Side continues to get better and does not regress to what it used to be.
I think that if we hypothetically changed this debate to placing a 7-11 store on the Westside of Culver City, at the corner Centinela and Washington, the old U.S. Liquors site, almost everything I said about the La Cienega/Washington location would apply.
Except I think the vote would be different.
I think sometimes the citizens of Culver City look at themselves as a part of the East Side, the Westside, Sunkist Park, or elsewhere, and Crest ECT… and they forget that they are all a part of the same city.
They all share the same services in the city.
If the police are handling a crime on the East end of town, someone in need on the West end may be delayed, or the reverse.
Mr. Smith, a retired police officer, may be contacted at scsinvest@sbcglobal.net
