Culver City Observer -

Dear friends, My name is Ed Ryba and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your "Culver City Centennial Special Edition” from cover to cover! Although it contains quite a few typos every one of them is completely forgivable. Taking on a project like that had to be a daunting and ambitious piece of work and you did it beautifully! However, you did miss one important event in your “Culver City Timeline”. In the year 1955, I WAS BORN HERE! Unfortunately, I didn’t grow up in Culver City. My parents moved to California from Chicago in 1951. When they were house-shopping, they looked at this very home which my lovely wife, Jennifer, and I now own, when it was brand new in 1952. But at the time it was a bit too expensive for them. If you can believe this, the price was a whopping $12, 500! So they ended up buying a smaller home in Venice for $7,000! It was only two years later, shortly before my younger brother was born, that they realized they would need a bigger house. The existing homes here in Culver City were a bit pricey, so they shopped all over the area for a new home and found one ten miles south of here in Redondo Beach. That’s where I grew up, and was educated in their school system. After that, I’d lived in a number of other places including Gardena, Hermosa Beach, then finally managed to secure employment in my chosen field - Broadcasting. I became the top-rated Afternoon Drive Air personality on California’s Central Coast, with a signal that reached all the way from San Luis Obispo to Vandenberg Air Force Base and the City of Lompoc, broadcasting from Santa Maria, California. After ten years of doing that, I REALLY wanted to come back here. My wife and I rented an apartment on Washington Place and I went to work at a satellite-distributed cable TV network (the Late, Great Financial News Network - first in Santa Monica, then in Howard Hughes Center). I became a TV Director there until General Electric, which had tried EVERYTHING they could think of and STILL couldn’t beat FNN, finally BOUGHT the place so they could SHUT IT OFF! (That’s the American Way!)

So I built a recording studio here in Culver City and I now record songs for download. My only boss is my wife! Regarding your Special Edition, I was a bit disappointed not to see anything about my dear friend Albert Vera, who founded the Sorrento Market on SepulvedaBoulevard - except when he had died. You could easily have done FIVE PAGES just about Albert. He started in business in Culver City in the 1950’s selling fresh produce to residents FROM THE BACK OF A PICKUP TRUCK! He was such a hardworking man, he was able to make enough money doing that to start the Sorrento Market, as well as buy HUGE acreage in central and Northern California. He grew (and his family still does) olives (which you can buy at Sorrento Market), grapes for wine, and much more. Albert was a City Councilman and Mayor of Culver City. While Albert was Mayor, during the Clinton Administration, the Plunge was closed because there was a leak in the bottom. It could not hold water. And there were other expensive problems this city had, but had NO money to fix. Albert took it upon himself to fly to Washington D.C, and meet with Bill Clinton. Afterwards, he flew c\back home, with several MILLION DOLLARS for Culver City’s needed repairs. So now, any time you use that pool, please bear in mind that it was the great Albert Vera who had the nerve to meet with the then President of the United States in order to get the money to repair that pool, as well as MANY OTHER THINGS you never knew about! Thank you, Albert. Even though you died in 2010 your friends who still live here love you, and are VERY thankful to you for everything you did for Culver City. The Sorrento Market is on Sepulveda Boulevard, across from the end of Berryman Avenue. If you haven’t been there, you owe it to yourself to visit the place. It’s now run by his son, Albert Jr. and Albert Jr.s daughter Lexy, and you WILL be amazed at the foods, wines, cheeses and other yummies you’ll find there. I know this is getting long but I must say one more thing. We should ALL be very proud of our Police Department. I’ve lived a number of places, as I’ve said before, but of all of them, Culver City has THE BEST police department I’ve ever met. If you’re at a supermarket or just walking down the street and you happen to come in contact with one of our fine Police Officers shake his or her hand and tell them you appreciate what they do!

Sincerely, Ed Ryba Proud to be a resident of the city of my birth iTunes Recording Artist