Culver City Observer -

Dear Editor,

In the season of the “Op Ed”, I thought I should join in. When I moved from Venice to Culver City, in 1990, it was for good schools (we heard through people with children-no internet then), a house big enough for my family and a back yard. I truly missed hearing the waves at night and taking the short walk to see the sunset over the ocean. It was quite an adjustment for me but didn’t take long for me to fall in love with this 5 square mile city. In 1993, when President Bill Clinton spoke at Carlson Park, I realized that I wanted to live the rest of my life in this fine city. From being a young mother to a middle-aged woman to a senior citizen, I have seen many changes, some I like and some I do not like. Our little secret is out, Culver City is on the map as a great place to live. We have a practically perfect climate, great police & firefighters, awesome schools and lots of trees. I have enjoyed over the years watching the local children walk to school as they grow up and I grow older-the simple pleasures of life in Culver City.

Since our secret is out, many have flocked to our fair city and now I watch the slow parade of cars on the “Braddock freeway” Many green yards are filling up with multiple family dwellings. Everything in life is guaranteed to change including me and I still want to live the rest of my life in Culver City.

Living on Braddock, east of Overland, I am spoiled by the best trash collector “Derrick “He goes above & beyond what you might expect and he does it with a smile on his face. This is one of those things that makes living here a dream come true.

I remember voting for the sale of lottery tickets in LA county to help the public schools. I continue to hear that the schools are struggling and I think that when the lottery is advertised on TV, they should include photos of schools that were changed by the lottery as well as a quarterly report of the schools that were helped. I would love to see the central air & upgrades in the state schools!

I did vote for an increase in sales tax for Culver City in 2017 and now another -MEASURE C is on the ballot. This will increase our sales tax by .25% to “maintain our level of safety” We already have the highest sales tax around and as a business owner I am affected by these higher taxes. I feel like we should be learning to “live within our means”. We also pay a lot of property tax as well and now we have Measure K on the ballot for our schools. This will increase our parcel tax. I am really trying to live within my means here and I don’t want to be gentrified out of the city I love.

We need to wake up and stop the runaway taxes. Let’s take a look at how our money is being spent and learn to live within our means! It is not always comfortable but it is the right thing to do.

Roseanne Lurie

Culver City