Smile for the Birdie — People Are Taking Notice of Our Town

Twice in the past six weeks, our Culver City has rated front page treatment from the Los Angeles Times. The first, in early March, gave the Culver Crest neighborhood special treatment. By reporting on the Crest, the Times called it a “close knit community . . . isolated from the rest of the city”, a cozy neighborhood with “no commercial zones,” on a par with the best view homes in areas farther north.

The second was last Monday’s large exposition discussing how Culver City has arrived. While former Planner and Community Development Director Mark Winogrand was given most of the credit for re-imagining our burg, it was welcoming to see how the Times gushed over the success enjoyed by our new Downtown. If we can see the same evolution in the West Washington District as we had in the East Washington District and Downtown, then Culver City will have really made inroads to the dowdy image it’s had in the past.

Test Drive Yourself

Have you seen it? Just drive the neighborhoods, Sunkist Park, Vet’s Park, Carlson Park and even areas near Blanco Park and on the Crest. New home buyers are taking the opportunity to remodel the homes recently acquired in the now forgotten mad boom of three years back. These new homes reflect, in some measure, what soon will be the new Culver City: an area now discovered (remember when people used to call us the Westside’s greatest secret?) and beginning to struggle with its success.

When I moved to Culver City, and for the first 20 years of my experience here, what I saw was an aging population not so quick to move anywhere. People simply moved to improve, from a smaller home to a larger home. Or from a home by the freeways to one on the Crest. More often, they simply stayed put. But move out of Culver City? That was heresy. It was reflected in the slow turnover of Culver City homes compared to our more popular neighbors to the south in Westchester and to the west in Mar Vista. People lined up to move in here. But they were slow to line up and move elsewhere. No doubt a tribute to our small town ways, our fine city services, police and fire and wonderful schools. But now, we are a young person’s (and mature people as well) Mecca.

There Went Our Reputation

New restaurants, art galleries and more have arisen to replace the aging pool hall reputation of the past. Look around. You will see an emerging new Fox Hills Mall, the arrival of Symantec, the Metro Rail and all it will encompass in redevelopment and the western city centers at Centinela and Washington. With all of this comes the arrival of a new crop of successful white collar types: computer nerds from Symantec, techies from Sony and even a slew of attorneys from the main firms dotting Downtown, Beverly Hills and Century City. As prices go up and our older population matures, I anticipate that the new residents will continue their upwardly mobile activities. In doing so, they will create a new market for housing in Culver City, perhaps reminiscent of what took place in the Gillette-Regent Square neighborhood of northern Santa Monica – where older, smaller homes were torn down by speculative developers in favor of mansionized homes. Then they were purchased at even higher prices by those who can’t, or don’t want to, savor the decline now being felt in Santa Monica.

Culver City already has in place zoning codes that will somewhat restrict this trend. But larger incomes by newer homeowners and the desire to maximize lifestyles can expect to conflict with the often more conservative needs of the existing population.

Will West Catch up?

So it’s not just the commercial zones that are undergoing change and experiencing this renaissance. It’s already affected East Culver City (which went from being the dregs of the city to the highest per square foot residences in town, all in one decade). It is sure to happen on the western tongue as well. Are you ready? Have you seen it? Look quickly. It is not likely to remain the same for long.