Culver City Observer -

Dear Editor,

My wife and I moved to Palms in June 2020. We were interested in the area's walkability and proximity to Culver City, and I was a big fan of the Expo Line access, since I was about to start the Master of Public Policy program at USC.

Today, I'm close to graduating, and we are preparing to eventually buy our first home. After getting to know the area, we would love to put down more permanent roots in Culver City specifically. As I'm sure Culver City residents know, it's a great place to live! We spend many evenings walking to downtown Culver City to shop and eat. We appreciate Mayor Fisch's leadership on housing and transportation policy, and we would love to potentially send our kids to Culver City's excellent schools someday.

Any casual browsing of real estate listings in Culver City, however, is a stark reminder of how financially unwelcome new residents are. It is shocking and disappointing that the city has added a single unit of housing for every 49 new jobs in the last 15 years. Reforms to zoning, parking minimums, and minimum setback requirements would go a long way toward increasing efficient use of an extremely limited resource: land. More than that, those reforms would help make Culver City a place for everyone, not just those who were lucky enough to buy their single-family homes many decades ago. I hope that current Culver City residents will support efforts to increase housing supply, increase housing affordability, and increase the number of neighbors (of all income levels) who can call this community home.

Elliott Lee

Culver City