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Letters and Commentaries are the opinion of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the newspaper. The Culver City Observer takes positions on issues and will be marked as editorials. E-mail letters are required. E-mail letters to: letters@culvercityobserver.com Letters provide a community forum open to all. Due to space limitations we ask letter writers to limit their topics to local concerns, Letters should be limited to 400 words or less. Letters must be received...
Dear Editor, As a fifty-year resident of Culver City, I can no longer support Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin for another term on the Culver City Council. Her staunch opposition to considering a ceasefire resolution by the Council is an inexplicable betrayal of her purported progressive values. Has she no empathy for the ongoing slaughter and starvation of innocent children in the Israel war against Palestinians? Over the past six months, Culver City residents again and again urged the Council to...
Dear Editor, Unless you're paying close attention, you may get confused between the two Democratic Clubs in town: the longstanding Culver City Democratic Club, and the relatively new Culver City Democrats United. Democrats United was formed in large part as an alternative to the more progressive Culver City Democratic Club. If you oppose the city's rent control ordinance or you don't want Culver City's minimum wage to be on par with LA, then you'll find like-minded individuals in Democrats United. But what you may not know is that while both...
Dear Editor, The language in your article, "New Details on Fatal Pedestrian Accident at National Blvd Intersection" normalizes traffic deaths and essentially treats pedestrian life as expendable in the name of vehicle speed. First, the title: Why no mention of a vehicle? It's like the title implies some agreement with readers that our streets should be deadly if you step into them and that being designed for speed (and death) is good and unavoidable. Was this just a pedestrian tripping and...
Dear friends, Welcome to "Antics with Semantics." Concerned Culver City residents have pointed out for months that current City Council Candidates Bryan "Bubba" Fish and Nancy Barba are involved with the lawsuit that's stopping the city from changing the pilot project, MOVE Culver City. Bubba Fish and former mayor Alex Fisch have taken issue, saying this claim is "false." A keen eye will understand they're playing with semantics. Here are some facts: ● Bubba Fish created the GoFundMe page d...
Dear Editor, In the "letters to the editor" section of the Culver Crossroads, on July 22, 2024, a letter by Dr. Yolata Oszkay Febres-Cordero was posted which asserted that neither Bubba Fish nor Nancy Barba were involved in the Friends and Family of MOVE Culver City (FFMCC) (https://culvercitycrossroads.com/2024/07/22/dear-editor-calling-out-lies-on-move-lawsuit/). The main portion of this letter was originally sent to Culver Crossroads as a reply, but the editor, Judith Martin-Straw, refused...
Asbestos use was prevalent in the U.S. armed forces during the 20th century, as the WWII war effort demanded accessible materials for producing military equipment quickly and in large amounts. It made exposure to this toxic material an ongoing worry for all veterans, including those among Culver City's veteran population. The Navy exploited asbestos the most, putting naval personnel at an outstandingly high risk of asbestos exposure. Even so, this doesn't exclude other military bases from being...
Letter to the Editor The Culver City School Board has been severely negligent in handling their budgets for decades. When I was asked to run for the School Board in the 1990's, while I decided not to, I helped someone run instead. As an ex-accountant and business efficiency expert at that time, I did a deep analysis of the School District's budget. What a hot mess. Even back in the 1990s, I found around a million dollars that they had squandered that they could have retained with just a few...
Taggers have graffitied what appears to be more than 25 stories of a downtown Los Angeles skyscraper that's been sitting dormant for several years. Construction on Oceanwide Plaza, a $1 billion mixed-use retail and luxury apartments project with three towering unfinished structures, stalled in January 2019 after the Beijing-based developer lacked the funds to complete it. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) Taggers have graffitied more than 25 stories of a downtown L.A. skyscraper in the abandoned Oceanwide Plaza development. (Robert Gauthier...
With the sunsetting of COVID relief funds, CCUSD is faced with the same budget concerns that all districts up and down the state are. While CCUSD is not currently in deficit-spending, a projected deficit is anticipated if we don't make adjustments that account for no longer having access to these one-time funds. As a district, we are committed to meeting the needs of our students and families by providing sustainable programs to secure the resources our students need to thrive in a nurturing...
Letter to the Editor re: CCUSD Budget Stabilization Plans With the sunsetting of COVID relief funds, CCUSD is faced with the same budget concerns that all districts up and down the state are facing. While CCUSD currently has sufficient reserves for this fiscal year, and we are meeting our financial commitments, we anticipate that reserves will be below the state's 3% reserve requirement during the next two years. Therefore we must make adjustments and develop plans to reduce spending. As a...
At Monday's City Council meeting, a seismic shift in city governance occurred, though if you blinked, you may have missed it. Buried inside a list of seemingly mundane proposed changes to the city's committees, boards and commissions (CBCs) was a clause to enable the removal of a CBC member "with or without cause... upon a majority vote of the City Council." The previous policy required a 4/5 vote, a much more difficult threshold to meet. The "Council majority," referring to Mayor Vera and Counc...
Dear Editor, I am a concerned Culver City resident who regularly appreciates your publication. I realize that politics is so important these days, just not to me…but here are my quick thoughts on recent Culver City issues that impact CC residents’ daily life: 1) Eliminating Single Family Zoning is an affront to all that invested in CC before us, and all that currently pays for CC infrastructure, schools and services. The idea that increasing the density of available housing will help anybody who can’t currently afford CC is silly at best....
We have officially filed the Repeal the Death Tax initiative with the Attorney General's office and the public comment period is open! You can tell the Attorney General, "I support Initiative 23-0005." This important initiative will restore the ability of parents to transfer their home and a limited amount of other property to their children without any change to the property tax bill. It will also restore the same rights for grandparents if the children's parents are deceased. As you know,...
In recent months, there has been an epidemic of gun violence in California and throughout the nation. Why is this so? According to CNN, dated June 2, 2022, there are 393 million privately owned firearms in the United States. The population of the United States as of 2021 was 331.9 million. In other words, there are more firearms than people in the United States! In a study conducted by the American Journal of Public Health, dated November 2013, they stated, "We find a robust relationship between gun ownership and firearm homicide rates." What...
Dear Editor, In her letter of Jan. 5, 2023, Ms. Alexander belittles the role of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, stating it is “involved in making recommendations on the use of the public right of way”. When I chaired the BPAC we actively tried to support staff who are implementing the Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan adopted by City Council in June 2020. The plan is extensive, and available on our city website. Ultimately of course, the BPAC can only listen, discuss, req...
Dear Editor, In a democracy, vigilance is required. Over the last decade, the City Council has created three Advisory Committees, in the areas of Bicycle & Pedestrian, Equity and Human Relations, and Finance. In a progressive worldview, these citizen groups would be used as a catalyst for public engagement and public transparency. (As an eight-year member and Chair of the Finance Advisory Committee, I can attest that public fiscal transparency was front and center in the work we did.) In the...
Dear Editor, In my former life as a Catholic nun (I left the convent at 27), I dealt with a lot of difficult and controversial issues. But I didn’t really think about abortion at all — until a family member needed one. Catholics for Choice has helped me realize that pro-choice Catholics like me aren’t alone — in fact, we’re in the majority. Will you join us today? The more I examined my conscience, the more I realized I had absorbed the onslaught of messaging from the all-male Catholic hier...
As a retired engineer, having worked for the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) for 29 years, I have been following this story along with fellow retirees and employees. I'm at a loss as to why MWD is seemingly covering up this story, as I've heard from employees and have observed by the dearth of reporting on such an investigation. Of particular interest, I would think, is the unexpected announcement yesterday that Brent Yamasaki - the MWD manager responsible for operation of the entire...
On November 17, 2022, our new councilmember-elect Dan O’Brien described his plan for addressing homelessness in an interview with Culver City News. It’s incomprehensible. O’Brien starts with the premise that not enough housing is available for the homeless, that “providing housing is a long term game,” and so until that housing is available we need “enforcement of encampment laws.” He wants to approach unhoused people with services and housing and if they refuse say, “I’m sorry you can’t b...
Dear Editor, Avoid a Holiday Tragedy The holiday season comes with family gatherings, social time with friends, and office parties. These joyful events can lead to life-altering consequences, like drunken driving. When I was 16 years old in 1992, a drunken driver hit me. I had a four-month coma, broken bones, paralysis and brain injuries. My gait and speech are affected and I lost my driving and hearing abilities. For 30+ years, I read lips and cannot enjoy holiday music anymore. Drunken...
There are far too many atrocities that both have occurred in recent times and that continue to occur. They need to be reported upon, discussed, and universally condemned. Moreover, we need to do what we can to punish those who are behind the atrocities and eradicate the seeds that sow them. However, the Holocaust can not be the comparison when an atrocity does not rise to the level of genocide. Even Wikipedia starts out its description of the Holocaust by saying that “[t]he Holocaust, also known...
As a lifelong Feminist/Progressive/Pro-choice Democrat, I am writing to ask you to vote by November 8th for Dan O’Brien and Denice Renteria for Culver City Council. I believe that in our nonpartisan local election, they are the leaders we need to represent our wonderful community. As members of the Creative Community (Dan is a film editor/director and Denice is a properties artist), both Dan O’Brien and Denice Renteria show through their actions that the way to bring people together and solve pr...
I’m writing to voice my strong and unwavering support for Alex Fisch in this critically important upcoming election for City Council here in Culver City. The actions the next council takes on the issues we face as a city; homelessness and our housing crisis, climate change, mobility and transportation and more, will leave a lasting imprint on our city and I am proud to support Alex for another term on our council, to help our city continue to lead our region and state on these issues and m...
I feel the need to share that Dan O'Brien, candidate for City Council for Culver City is incredibly responsive and involved with his residents and business owners in Culver City. I felt the need to approach him via email about a month ago to see if he would help us with our new Culver City Cuisine located in 5660 Selmaraine Dr. Not only is located at an isolated/industrial zone, but struggles with a few areas for improvement such homelessness, lighting zones, cleanliness, etc. I was not sure...
