Priorities

Our City’s most pressing priority must be public safety.

Violence and property crimes have increased over the last few years in Culver City and residents are feeling less safe in the community they call home.

I will ensure our police department maintains normal staffing levels to protect our neighborhoods and residents. Law enforcement must have the resources needed to stop violent crime and when elected to the City Council I will ensure our budget reflects that.

And while I always prioritize the safety of our neighborhoods, I will also hold our law enforcement accountable to the community they serve and ensure they engage with the public equitably and transparently.

As a popular destination and the crossroads between Los Angeles and the beach communities, Culver City is a dangerous place to be a pedestrian. I run over 30 miles per week in Culver City and have traveled by foot on all our streets and sidewalks. We need to have a pedestrian-first mentality. There are many places, on some of our busiest streets, where there are no sidewalks or protected crosswalks; and even more places where the existing sidewalks are unsafe to walk upon. Street crossings can be treacherous, especially in our school zones. And walking at night can be dangerous due to inadequate street lighting.

One of my priorities as a city council member will be to make our sidewalks more walkable and accessible to people of all abilities. Sidewalks need to be repaired, new ones built, and obstructions removed.

Crosswalks need to be more visible. This can be done with in-ground, pedestrian triggered lights, raised crosswalks, curb extensions, and more frequent painting of the crosswalks. We need to work together with our school district leadership to improve traffic flow during drop-off and pick-up times.

Finally, our traffic signals need to be smarter: During peak driving hours, their timings must work towards moving traffic through our city as efficiently as possible, but during the remaining 18-20 hours per day, the pedestrian signals should favor the pedestrian on demand.

Culver City is one of the most desirable places to live in Southern California. This truth, coupled with a regional housing shortage, have made it almost impossible to rent or purchase a home for a person or family with a middle to low income. Whether it’s your children’s teachers, your gardener, the manager at your favorite restaurant, or even your accountant, if they didn’t buy their home before 2010, they probably can’t afford to buy or rent in Culver City today. Culver City has been tasked by state housing law to make actionable plans to build 3,341 new units by 2029. We need to do this not just because we must, but because we have a moral obligation to do so. To maintain a diverse and vibrant community, a portion of it needs to be accessible to people of all incomes. This will reduce the number of cars on our streets and will maintain a community that is diverse in character and content.

Too much of our time has been focused on dismantling our R1 neighborhoods. The focus needs to be placed where we can have the greatest impact: in large-scale developments on land that could be zoned as such.

Culver City isn’t the sleepy town it once was with our vibrant downtown and changing cityscape, we seem to have left behind our parks and community spaces. We need a community performing arts venue and meeting center that adequately supports our citizens’ needs. Veteran’s Memorial Building must be brought into the 21st century. The size and scope of what the current building provides is inadequate for our community. The adjacent “Plunge” pool needs to be expanded so that our schools’ athletes can have access when they want it, and our children have a place to  play.

Built on an ever-shifting landfill, Bill Botts playing fields provide a place for our youth and adult baseball, softball, and soccer teams to play. However, there are only short periods of time when the fields are not dangerous surfaces due to the constant settling of the ground surface. We need a permanent solution to provide a state-of-the-art sports complex with lighting to expand the times of day which it is available. I believe there are opportunities for public-private partnerships to create such a place for our active community.

I also believe there are opportunities to enhance the Ballona Creek bike path to make it a more inviting place to ride your bike or walk. And if we can rezone large commercial properties into mixed-use communities, there are great opportunities to increase the city’s recreational and open green space.

Known for its growing media content production and technology sector, Culver City also has an incredibly diverse small business community. The spotlight is often shown brightest on the downtown and arts districts, but we need to put an equal focus on other areas: Culver West, Fox Hills, and the Sepulveda Corridor to just name a few.

A significant portion of the city’s budget revenue comes from business and sales taxes. A thriving business sector in Culver City is not just good for business, but it is also a necessity if we expect to maintain our city services at the levels we depend on.

With the state mandate to add 3,341 new housing units by 2029, we have a great opportunity to reinvigorate commercial corridors with mixed-use zoning. This can bring customers and employees closer to where they work and shop. We must also incentivize our businesses to hire locally and participate in the community as vital stakeholders, improving transportation, the environment, and our schools.

Finally, we must also allow our businesses to thrive, by listening to their concerns and working collaboratively, while minimizing egregious red tape from city hall so it’s easier to do business within Culver City.

Each day, we experience the traffic caused mostly by cut-through commuters.

Soon, approximately 10,000 new employees will be working at Amazon, Apple, and HBO in the downtown & Arts District areas. Since well before the pandemic, getting the kids to school, joining friends for a night out in the town, or just coming home from work became frustrating experiences during peak traffic hours. During rush hour, cars would be backed up on Culver, Duquesne, National, Washington, and even Braddock. And impatient drivers ignore neighborhood stop signs, making it a dangerous place to walk or ride a bike.

Recently, city leaders began to address the issue of mobility with the downtown MOVE project, but it is incomplete and does not currently work for our small businesses and resident commuters. We need to make every effort to improve mobility for our residents and our businesses, big and small. We need solutions today. I have innovative, multi-pronged ideas to address this issue, and am excited to work with our city engineers to make small trips to the grocery store or soccer practice as seamless as they once were.