Build more Homes For Everyone

Dear Editor,

I acknowledge our presence on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples. When this is expressed, some people think, “so give your house back”. Maybe. Maybe we all do it so we live in a society that owns its atrocities. For now let’s start with more educational support for Native people and more just housing policy.

When my kids were little I used to drive through Culver City to get them to day care. Cruising at pedestrian safe speeds, I loved the trees, older homes and lack of excessive, 95 Theses-style parking restrictions. It felt like a place I could call home.

Years later, the market was rebounding from the crash. And my family was in a position to buy a home before things got out of control again. As it is for many of my neighbors, Culver City was my little daydream that became reality.

And it has to change. We need more homes to address our housing and climate crises. To keep thinking that our Harry Culver white fantasy is sustainable is to eat a handful of blue pills.

Culver City remade downtown without a good housing plan. With all the people that the tech businesses and restaurants attract, where can new people go? It seems like the answer is ‘where the less affluent used to be’. So now homeowners (as long as we keep paying the bank) like myself are reaping the benefit of living in a desirable neighborhood while others suffer the consequences of displacement. That mess sure seems like a setup and an inequitable practice.

Along with displacement comes reduced diversity and longer commute times. The latter only exacerbates the already terrible climate crisis. Rent is expensive here and many in the service sector here have to drive long distances to make a living wage. We can’t solve the climate by ourselves, but we have to do our part. To ignore that is entitled behavior at its’ lowest.

Besides, when we die our kids will fight over our houses, sell them and split the money. It’s all temporary fantasy. So let’s act like we really care about justice, community and future generations. Let’s enact just policies and make more homes for everyone.

Sebastian Hernandez