Dear Editor,
We are Culver City for More Homes (CC4MH), a grassroots volunteer group of Culver City residents and stakeholders, fighting to fix our town’s housing crisis.
Our city and state are struggling with environmental, economic, and social disasters all rooted in the same basic cause: not enough homes are being built where the jobs are. Increasingly, the jobs are in Culver City. But we just aren’t building the homes to match them. In fact, it’s currently illegal to build most of the housing we need in Culver City, thanks to restrictive zoning which dates all the way back to this town’s origins as an exclusive, whites-only enclave. We see the results today in Culver City’s sky-high housing prices… prices that force more and more of us out into the exurbs (from which we make long, CO²-belching commutes to work), into unsafe and overcrowded lodging, and even into homelessness. This is especially true for those of us who struggle financially, or are people of color.
Culver City can do better.
If we want a town that’s vibrant and diverse, a community that’s equitable and healthy, and a place that our own kids can someday afford to live in, then we need to build more (and more affordable) housing. We need to continue to protect renters. And we need to finally unwind Culver City’s historic legacy of racist and restrictive zoning.
The good news is that we can do all of that. But not without your help.
Please visit our website: www.cc4mh.org. Or subscribe to our email list by contacting us at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Nancy Barba Planning Commissioner, Culver City
Mary Daval Founder, Women on Bikes, Culver City
Dylan Gottlieb Culver City resident
Kelly Kent, PhD Governing Board Member, CCUSD
Disa Lindgren Social Justice Team Convener, Culver-Palms UMC
Patrick Meighan Culver City resident
Elias Platte-Bermeo Culver City resident
Leah Pressman Steering Team Member, Culver City Community Coalition and Delegate to the California State Democratic Party from AD54
Jeff Schwartz First Vice President, Culver City Democratic Club
The problems that this group ignores include: lack of sufficient infrastructure, inadequate parking, additional smog, significant increase in crime, overcrowded schools, increased neighborhood noise, increase traffic, damaging relationships with nearby Los Angeles neighborhoods, increasing traffic
If the housing is occupied by people who currently commute into CC, then smog would be reduced, as would traffic. I have no idea why there would be more crime, and our schools have plenty of excess capacity. We maintain our student bodies by granting permits to non-CC residents.