Sorted by date Results 26 - 48 of 48
By David W. Myers Managing Editor Love them or hate them, more Birds are arriving in Culver City. By a unanimous 5-0 vote, the Culver Council has agreed to allow Bird, the motorized-scooter firm that lets one paying customer to pick-up an electronic scooter and then drop it somewhere else, to expand its local fleet from its current 50 or so to about 200. The Council also took steps to authorize a second company. Lime-S, to add yet another 200 to the motor-scooter pool. "This is our chance to...
By David W. Myers Managing Editor A robbery at the Bank of America branch on Culver Boulevard in Downtown was thwarted Monday because the robber fled before the teller could hand over the cash that he had demanded. Details of the bungled hold-up at the branch at 9453 Culver were still sketchy at press time, and Branch Manager Gilbert Morales refused to take phone calls about the incident. But according to police reports, a man entered the bank and handed a note to a BofA representative...
The median price of a single-family home in the state reached a record $600,860 in May, the California Association of Realtors said last week, while prices in Culver City and the rest of the Los Angeles Metro Area jumped 2.9 percent from the previous month and a whopping 9.3 percent from a year earlier. Separately, though, figures published by real estate web site Zillow.com this week suggest that many of the houses and condos that are currently for sale in Culver City are already in the...
By David W. Myers Managing Editor With Independence Day around the corner, it’s interesting to look at the way that U.S. real estate has evolved since 1776. DEAR DAVE: How was property bought and sold in the U.S. during the 1600s and 1700s, before America declared its independence from England? ANSWER: Frankly, there wasn’t much buying or selling for several decades after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620. But with July 4th just a few days away, I’m devoting this entire column to answ...
Fresh off a solid victory in last week’s statewide primary elections, the assemblywoman who now represents Culver City and surrounding areas in the state Legislature is already preparing several proposals to tackle issues ranging from education to poverty and criminal justice reform. Fewer than 48 hours after the June 5 election that Democrat Sydney Kamlager-Dove won with nearly 55 percent of the vote, she also introduced her very first piece of legislation in Sacramento—a bill to fas...
More than 150 residents of Culver City and surrounding communities turned out for local Boy Scout Troop 113's annual spaghetti dinner last Saturday at Culver High. Guests dined on all-you-can pasta, garlic bread and fresh salad. They also had the opportunity to bid on about a dozen large gift baskets, many of them filled with items donated by local grocers and other retailers. Many of the diners there were courtesy of Troop 113 itself, which donated several tickets to the Culver City Senior...
One more Culver City Eagle Scout flew into a crowded Carlson Park nest on Sunday, when 18-year-old Culver High senior Matthew C. Rummelsburg officially joined his father and his older brother to become the proud family's third member to achieve the Boy Scouts of America's highest honor. Matthew Rummelsburg beamed as his mother, Rosalie " Rosie" Odell, pinned the vaunted Eagle Badge of Honor to his uniform in a ceremony at the local Elks Lodge in the 11000 block of Washington Place. His...
Carlson Park residents Patti and Tony Bravo, stalwarts of Culver City’s blossoming Scouting movement, are stepping down from their key leadership positions after 16 years of positively shaping the lives of countless Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts throughout the city and across the Westside. Neither of the Bravos was available for comment at The Observer’s press deadline. But “it has been a good run,” Patti Bravo wrote to members of Culver’s Troop 113 and their parents in an email to confirm their pla...
By David W. Myers Contributing Editor Under a gray sky and setting sun, a combined 535 teenagers from Culver City High School and Culver Park High School walked up to a podium at Jerry Chabola Stadium last Friday to receive their diploma and then march away into a bright future. “These deserving students represent our collective hope for the future and exude the best in us all,” wrote Culver High Principal Lisa Cooper and Culver Park Principal Veronica Montes in their joint forward pub...
By David W. Myers, Contributing Editor School district officials, business leaders and members of Culver City’s various philanthropic groups joined hundreds of proud parents Monday night at Robert Frost Auditorium to honor nearly 100 local college-bound teenagers and award more than $140,000 in scholarships and grants. In all, 92 students who will attend schools ranging from West Los Angeles College to USC and Yale received a combined $144,000 to help with their upcoming college expenses. B...
By David W. Myers Contributing Editor Culver City Boy Scout Troop 113 will hold its annual all-you-can eat spaghetti dinner on Saturday, April 18, at Culver High School's cafeteria. The popular event drew about 500 local residents last year. A feast of spaghetti, garlic bread, salad and non-alcoholic drinks will be served cafeteria-style from 3 p.m. to 7. The cafeteria is on the western side of the campus, 4401 Elenda St. Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased at the door. The spaghetti...
By David W. Myers Contributing Editor Erik Mayer, one of Culver City's most active volunteers in community-oriented events and organizations, has been honored with the prestigious "Silver Beaver Award" by the Boy Scouts of America. Mayer, age 45, has served as Scoutmaster of Culver's Troop 113 for 21 years. He is also one of the driving forces behind the city's Community Emergency Response Team, commonly called "CERT," and works full-time as a youth-development counselor at the Vista Del Mar...
By David W. Myers, Contributing Editor Leonard "Lenny" Rubien, a decorated Army Air Force veteran of World War II and longtime resident of Culver City' Sunkist Park community, has passed away. He was 94. Rubien died peacefully in his sleep earlier this month at the Westside's Vista Del Sol Care Center, where he was recuperating from a fall. His family was at his side. Rubien was born in 1920 in Melrose, Mass., the younger of two boys. His father was a goldsmith and his mother was a homemaker....
By David W. Myers Contributing Editor Two local boys sponsored by the Culver City Elks will toe the free-throw line at Staples Center on Saturday, hoping to net their way into the finals of the Elks’ annual “Hoop Shoot” competition and have their names engraved on a placard inside the NBA’s Basketball Hall of Fame. John Matthews, age 11, and Michael Yang, 12, sank more than 20 of their allotted 25 shots during the preliminary round last month in the gym at the Boys and Girls Club in Venice....
By David W. Myers, Contributing Editor Five local students were awarded thousands of dollars in college-scholarships by the Culver City Elks Lodge last Wednesday, helping the teenagers to pursue degrees-and careers-in fields ranging from education to veterinary medicine. The scholarships were presented at the Elks' Lodge on Washington Place as part of its annual "Youth Awards Night," which honors some of the area's top-performing students for both their scholastic achievements and service to...
Nearly 50 war veterans and current service members were treated to a tri-tip dinner at the Culver City Elks Lodge last week, part of the Elks' celebration of Veterans' Day weekend. About a half-dozen teens from Culver City Boy Scout Troop 113 joined in the festivities. Many of the vets are also members of the local Lodge. Others came from the VA Medical Center in Westwood and the Los Angeles facility of The Fisher House, a worldwide network of homes that provides free or low-cost housing and...
Mortgage giant Fannie Mae has opened a large new facility in Culver City to provide free, comprehensive help to Southland homeowners who are struggling to make their housing payments or are even facing foreclosure. The office, at 6041 Bristol Parkway in Fox Hills, is one of only six so-called “mortgage help centers” that the quasi-government company operates across the nation. The center is run with the help of local nonprofit housing organizations and mortgage-related companies. A key obj...
The Culver City real estate broker who was rescued after six harrowing days without food or water in a Southland desert told reporters Tuesday how he “tried to stay calm and focused” even while writing down the names of the people he wanted to serve as his pallbearers on the brim of his cotton sun cap. “I tried not to get excited because if you do that, you die,” , the Culver resident and brokerage-owner said. Tuesday’s press conference at the famed Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles...
A Culver City man accused of supplying illegal drugs to a street gang was still on the run earlier this week, while a woman who owns a massage business on Sepulveda Boulevard is awaiting a hearing in connection with what the Department of Justice says was the largest human-trafficking ring in U.S. history. Authorities in the drug case were still looking for Culver’s Nathan Nwobi, age 36. He was among 20 individuals—most of them already in custody—implicated in a multimillion-dollar drug ring...
Efforts by the local police officers’ union to oust Chief Don Pedersen took another turn this week, when Interim City Manager Lamont Ewell said he has informally investigated the five specific charges that the union recently leveled at the chief and determined that most of them have “very little merit.” “And frankly,” Ewell told The Observer, “some of them have no merit at all.” Ewell’s remarks came just days after the Culver City Police Officers’ Association announced that 86.5 percent of i...
Despite the bleak report by State Schools Chief School Board members say everything will be OK if cost-cutting programs continue The Culver City Unified School District is among the roughly 15 percent of districts statewide that regulators say are in questionable financial shape and may eventually be forced into bankruptcy. The CCUSD is one of 160 districts across California to receive a “qualified” financial outlook in a report issued by the state Department of Education last week. The ratings outlook suggests that more cuts at local Cul...
Hundreds of people flocked to Culver City’s downtown Fire Department station last weekend to watch local ham-radio operators show how they can quickly swing into action and provide critical help when traditional communications sources have been knocked out by wildfires, earthquakes, floods or other unexpected emergencies. The event capped the weeklong “Amateur Radio Week,” sponsored by the Amateur Radio Relay League. The ARRL is the national association for such operators, who are commo...
3 Time Mayor Suffers Apparent Heart Attack Albert Vera Sr., an Italian immigrant who came to the U.S. as a penniless teenager and grew to become one of the most admired government officials and store-owners in Culver City’s history, died in his Sunkist Park home earlier this week. Vera was 75 years old. He is expected to be buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, but a date for memorial and funeral services had not been set as the Observer went to press late Wednesday.- UPDATE - June 3 2...
