Dear Editor – Advocacy for More Homes in Culver City

Dear Editor,

When we purchased our home in Culver City in 2015 there were many reasons why: proximity to work and family, a location that afforded a walkable lifestyle with plenty of parks and very important while expecting a child – a highly regarded school district. This was our first home, but even in 2015 we thought of the purchase as a forever home, not a starter, given the explosive growth in California home costs happening then and before that have only accelerated.

Now with our first child ready to enter CCUSD and our second following quickly, I don’t think it’s fair to deny the benefits we have of walking to school and biking to work to their teachers, to the many talented folks that are coming to work for Apple, Amazon, Sony or the many amazing start ups in the area or frankly to our own kids.

If we don’t allow more housing, not just of the single family variety, we impose massive commutes on the Culver City workforce – not just employees of these multinational companies; but the municipal employees we all fund and in many cases chose to live here to benefit from. Finally, our own children will be massively priced out of opportunities to live close to family as we are able to do. Our neighborhood already has several multifamily homes by virtue of ADUs. There is little footprint difference between the new SFH construction and townhomes. Allowing people to live close to work will reduce traffic for the times we do need to drive and building more homes of all types will give our teachers, our police and our children the opportunity to live in the city they work and/or grew up in.

Sincerely,

Ben Patterson

The Actors' Gang

2 Comments

  1. Thank you Mr. Patterson. I am a public school teacher, and I can tell you that as a teacher I can spend my time in my classroom preparing lessons, doing bulletin boards, and grading papers, or I can spend my time stuck in LA’s awful traffic. I would much prefer to spend my time working on being a better teacher. I wish more in CC understood that forcing our teachers into long commutes is not good for our children or our schools.

  2. People can live in Mar Vista, Palms, or any of the other dozen areas in a five or ten mile radius of Culver City. Expecting to live ten feet from your job is…unreasonable. And it’s exponentially more so to to expect the district to do it for you.

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