A Need to Shift Focus from Downtown?

Ari L. NoonanNewsLeave a Comment

ITT Building, Culver City

Second of two parts. 

Re: “Rose on Carlyle’s ‘Logical’ Decision” 

With the potentially biggest step to date in a campaign to bring attention to the southerly end of Culver City due at next Monday’s City Council meeting, Steve Rose has advice for those on the dais where he once sat:

“The city needs to broaden its view of economic development” beyond the borders of Downtown, which has received the overwhelming amount of City Hall’s attention for a decade, said the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.

It seems likely that new faces, rather than familiar ones, will be influential in the outcome of this still nascent campaign.

New Mayor Mehaul O’Leary and Vice Mayor Andy Weissman both are entering their final 12 months on the Council before being term-limited.

Will binding decisions be made before they step down, regarding the “Hospitality and Entertainment District” that  encompasses Hotel Circle and beyond?

Will the so-called visioning process be completed by next April?

“The visioning process needs to go forward,” said Mr. Rose. “In the greater Fox Hills area, a lot of 50-, 60- and 70-year-old neighborhoods are looking their age.

“The city might decide, in the long run, to do nothing. But the city needs to be open for discussion. A number of blocks are World War II era, small manufacturing buildings. Maybe their lifetime has passed or maybe it has not.”

Adjusting his focus, Mr. Rose turned to another heavily traveled intersection. “Take the shopping area at Sepulveda and South Jefferson, where Big Lots is,” he said. “That was built as a replacement for a 1920s-1930s Culver City airport, post-World War II. Is that still a relevant business area?”

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