You Know Who Goofed

     Hereafter, the one city park on the west side of Culver City is to be known as Culver West-Alexander Park.
     Nothing personal against Mr. Alexander, who died a year ago last July, but neighbors, feeling like geographical orphans, prefer the old name. And that is what they are going to call it, regardless of what City Hall has determined.
     The City Council badly miscalculated neighborhood sentiment about renaming Culver West Park for one of the premier political servants in Culver City history. 
     Residents of the neighborhood surrounding the Wade Street park long have felt like stinky-poo in-laws in Culver City because of their distance from City Hall and because of their perceived treatment by City Hall. No subtlety here.

     When it came time to formally, officially change the name of Culver West Park, after more than a year of dithering, the City Council was doubly shocked. They could not believe that scores of community members vehemently disagreed with the their hurry-up decision last year to re-name the park for Mr. Alexander.

     Council members were even more incensed that the rushed decision was challenged by the public whom they govern.
     Propelled by the raw momentum of last year¹s vote, Mayor Albert Vera and Councilmembers Carol Gross and Steve Rose formed the majority for a three to two vote.
     Nominally, the majority may have agreed with Councilman Alan Corlin, a moderate dissenter. He argued that a decision on honoring Mr. Alexander should be tabled until a precise Naming Formula for All City Heroes was created to determine how to salute prominent persons before or after they die.

     But the three-person majority locked arms and took a vow. They said no matter how desirable a Naming Formula was, it was more crucial to affirm

last year¹s controversial decision.

     One problem that apparently was no one¹s fault was that the controversial City Council ruling laid around gathering dust for a year. That allowed the decision to accumulate legitimacy by sheer dint of the passage of time.

     The other nagging problem was the confusing demarcation of Culver City West. Because Los Angeles City and Culver City streets are incoherently

intermingled in the neighborhoods west of Inglewood Boulevard, the west side of Culver City has suffered from an identity crisis.

     That is why neighbors organized and fought hard to retain the name Culver West Park. They take pride in belonging to our town.

     Ms. Gross promptly scolded them for saying they felt like stepchildren to midtown Culver City. She was tired of the complaint, she said, because it

is invoked frequently by residents who feel disaffected.

     Last September, the very active Culver West Neighborhood Assn. enthusiastically voted unanimously to retain the Culver West Park name, without accoutrements. A few days later, the Parks and Recreation Commission, mindful of lopsided citizen sentiment, made it clear it did not support incorporating Mr. Alexander¹s name. With one of its five members missing, the Commission further was unable to reach a verdict of any kind. It asked that the topic be brought back at a later meeting.

     Which was where matters uneasily rested until two months ago when the City Council insisted that its year-old decision to honor Mr. Alexander not

only was irreversible but incontestable.

     Last year, bare weeks after Mr. Alexander¹s death, the City Council found itself caught up in a swash of nobly motivated sentiment for honoring

his popularity and worthiness.

     Instead of taking time to reflect, the overeager City Council performed the act backward. The only soles they consulted were on their shoes. Unable

to detect popular resistance, Council members voted unanimously to rename Culver West Park for Mr. Alexander.

     Ultimately, it was decided the Council should seek someone else¹s rubber stamp approval to make its rush-rush conduct look legitimate.

And so, fifteen months ago the Council shipped the decision off to the (advisory) Parks and Recreation Commission and the citizen Culver West

Neighborhood Assn. Each body was directed to come back with a formulation for a new park name that included (or highlighted) Richard Alexander.

     This was just one of three occasions this autumn when the City Council was confronted by overwhelming popular sentiment and then more or less gone its own way. It happened earlier when deciding the status of the forty-three households at the two mobile home parks on Grandview Boulevard.

     More recently, the City Council declined to take a hard stand against the MTA, rather meekly accepting a wildly unpopular decision on the ground

level location of a "temporary" light rail station.

     Looking ahead to next April¹s elections, you wonder how those verdicts will play when City Council incumbents Albert Vera and Gary Silbiger are soliciting votes.

     In his characteristically elegant, reflective manner, Councilman Corlin offered his colleagues a dignified exit, urging them to wait until after a

permanent Naming Formula had been approved. Swiftly choosing pride over prudence, however, the majority thumbed their offended noses at Mr. Corlin.

     And then Council members wonder why they are burnt toast instead of the toast of the town. One fundamental problem is that too many of the five City

Councilpersons are prisoners of their emotions, exactly the way not to govern.