📬 Councilmember Dan O'Brien | Culver City | April 20, 2026

Hi Culver City,

Representing Culver City locally, regionally, and globally. That phrase came out of my own caption over the weekend, and it just about sums up the last seven days. The Entertainment Zone cleared its final hurdle at Council last Monday and is officially a go. The campaign kickoff potluck on Sunday brought neighbors together in a way that reminded me why I am running for a second term. In between, I got to stand up for Culver City at firehouses, board rooms, and consul general receptions. A busy week, yes, and a good one. Here is what it meant.

🚨 Public Safety: A Morning with Our Firefighters

🔹 CCFD career advancement celebration. I had the privilege this week of joining Culver City Fire Department members for a ceremony recognizing career advancements across the department. Promotions, badge moments, quiet recognitions of the hours that go into the uniform. These ceremonies are not about speeches. They are about showing up for the people who show up for us at 3 AM when the call comes in.

→ 🎯 My take: I have always believed that how a city treats its first responders on the good days tells you how the job will feel on the bad ones. CCFD is an ISO Class 1 department, one of only a handful in LA County, and that rating does not happen without a culture that promotes from within, trains relentlessly, and actually celebrates career milestones. The work they do is visible on Fire Service Day. The work behind a promotion is mostly invisible. Both matter.

👉 Learn about the Culver City Fire Department

🏪 Economic Development: The Entertainment Zone Is Official

🔹 Council voted unanimously last Monday to establish Culver City's Downtown Entertainment Zone as a two-year pilot. The management plan the Downtown Business Association and city staff built over the last several months got the green light, with the first activation expected at the Downtown Business Association's Third Wednesday summer series kicking off June 17.

→ 💡 What this actually means: At designated city-sponsored events inside the Downtown BID boundaries (Town Plaza, The Culver Steps, Main Street, plus side streets like Cardiff and Watseka), patrons at participating bars and restaurants with ABC licenses will be able to purchase a branded cup and walk with it inside the zone. Glass and non-compostable containers are not allowed. Wristbands confirm ID checks. Two CCPD officers and six private security guards, paid by the DBA, staff each event, with those numbers doubling for street closures.

→ 🎯 My take: I said I was a yes if the management plan built in real public safety and real small business equity, and that is what showed up at the dais. The Downtown Business Association is carrying the extra security and branding costs, which matters. I argued at the meeting that moving people between bars and public spaces actually reduces the kind of stationary over-ordering that causes problems inside any single venue. The Third Wednesdays, Summer Concert Series, Tree Lighting, World Cup watch parties, and LA28 activations are all coming. We are ready.

👉 Read the Culver Crescent's meeting recap

👉 View Council meetings and agendas

🔹 Three stops this week representing Culver City to business and diplomatic leaders. I hosted a visit with the New Zealand Minister of Tourism, spent time at a European Business Association event, and met with industry leaders in commercial real estate. Each conversation came back to the same question: why Culver City, and why now.

→ 🎯 My take: As someone who also leads the Chamber, I do not separate economic development from diplomacy. They are the same muscle. Every time a foreign minister, a visiting consul, a real estate principal, or a European trade delegation sits down at a table with us, our small businesses, our studios, our restaurants, and our housing pipeline get put on a list that matters when decisions get made about where to invest next. The LA28 New Zealand Hospitality House partnership is not happening by accident. These conversations are how it happens.

👉 City business resources

🚦 Transportation: Sepulveda Connects, Round Five

🔹 Sepulveda Connects Design Workshop at the Senior Center, Thursday, April 16. Another round of residents and business owners came out to review the three alternatives that staff has now fully modeled: a Southbound Transit Priority plan (Alt 1), a Balanced Transit Priority plan (Alt 2), and a High Transit Priority plan (Alt 3). The tradeoffs are real and they are measurable. Alt 1 loses 199 parking spaces. Alt 2 loses 267. Alt 3 loses 258. Bus travel time savings range from marginal in some directions to over five minutes saved in others.

→ 🎯 My take: I have been consistent on this since day one. I will not support a design that strips parking or lane capacity in ways that cut off the 100-plus small businesses that depend on Sepulveda. Alt 1 is the option that comes closest to balancing real transit gains with the parking and traffic realities of a working commercial corridor, and that is the direction I am watching closely. I want to thank every resident and business owner who keeps showing up to these workshops. Your presence in the room is the reason this process has teeth.

👉 Sepulveda Connects project page

🏘️ Community Development: Your Shot at a Seat at the Table

🔹 Applications are open for 34 positions across 13 Commissions, Boards, and Committees. The City Clerk's Office announced the opening on Tuesday. Openings include the Advisory Committee on Housing and Homelessness, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, the Finance Advisory Committee, the Cultural Affairs Commission, the Planning Commission, the Landlord-Tenant Mediation Board, and more. Deadline is Monday, May 11, 2026 at 5 PM.

→ 💡 Why this matters: Most of the decisions that shape daily life in this city get shaped at the commission level long before they reach the Council dais. Zoning. Rent stabilization. Parks. Transportation. Arts funding. If you have ever read an agenda and thought "I could add something here," this is the pathway.

→ 🎯 A personal note: My own road to Council started with serving on Culver City's first Ad Hoc Committee on Homelessness years ago, and later on the Parks Master Plan process. Commissions and committees are how you learn the machine, meet the people doing the work, and decide whether you want to go deeper. If you are on the fence, apply. You can always withdraw. What you cannot do is get the time back if you skip a cycle.

👉 Apply to a Commission, Board, or Committee

🌍 Community & Culture: 66 Years of Senegalese Independence

🔹 Senegal National Day reception with the Consul General. I was honored to join the Senegalese community in Los Angeles this week to mark 66 years of independence. Senegal declared its independence on April 4, 1960, and the diaspora here in LA carries that history with real pride. The room was warm, the food was incredible, and the conversations were the kind that remind you Culver City sits inside one of the most internationally connected counties in the country.

→ 🎯 My take: Showing up for these cultural moments is part of the job I did not fully appreciate when I first ran. Our city is home to residents with roots across the globe, and when civic leaders show up at a Senegal National Day, a Pride month celebration, a Lunar New Year gathering, or a Diwali event, it sends a quiet signal that everyone belongs in the civic conversation here. Thank you to the Consul General and to the Senegalese community for the invitation.

🏃 Campaign Corner: Thank You, Sunday

🔹 Successful Potluck with Dan, Sunday, April 19. Thank you to every neighbor who came out on Sunday afternoon for the campaign kickoff. It was exactly what I hoped it would be: friends sharing food, real conversations about what is next for Culver City, and a few friends generous enough to speak on my behalf. No stage. No rally. Just the kind of gathering that reminds you why you do this.

→ 🎯 The ask going forward: The next several months are going to be a marathon, and I want your voice in it. What is working. What is not. What you want this city to look like in 2028, 2030, and beyond. If you could not make Sunday, reach out. I will find time.

👉 Learn more and stay connected

📅 Dates and What's Ahead

🔹 Earth Day Elenda Street Activation, Wednesday, April 22. The second annual open-streets event along Elenda between Culver Boulevard and Farragut Drive. Students biking and rolling to school on a car-free street, with community groups and Earth Day education activities along the route.

🔹 Compost Hub at Syd Kronenthal Park, Wednesday, April 22, 10 AM to noon. Fourth Wednesday of the month, in partnership with LA Compost. Bring your food scraps. Ten minutes, real impact.

🔹 Next City Council Meeting, Monday, April 27 at 7 PM. Agendas post the Wednesday or Thursday before.

🔹 Fire Service Day & Pancake Breakfast, Saturday, May 9. One of the best Culver City traditions of the year. Save the date.

🔹 CBC Applications Due, Monday, May 11 at 5 PM. See above.

👉 City events calendar

👉 Environmental programs

🔹 Every Tuesday, 2-7 PM. Downtown Farmers Market. Main Street. Grab produce, support local growers, and say hello to neighbors.

👉 Visit the Farmers Market page

🔹 How to watch and participate in meetings. Agendas post Wednesdays before Monday meetings. You can attend in person or virtually.

👉 How to watch meetings

👉 View Meetings Agendas

🙏 Closing Thought

Culver City is five and a half square miles, and this past week I watched it act like a city that understands its own reach. A firefighter getting recognized inside the house. A Downtown plan years in the making getting finalized at the dais. A transportation workshop still drawing real engagement five rounds in. A Consul General receiving us at a national holiday. A campaign kickoff potluck in somebody's backyard.

That is the range, and that is what "representing Culver City locally, regionally, and globally" actually looks like when you slow it down.

The next two weeks have an Earth Day street activation, a Compost Hub session, a Council meeting, a Farmers Market every Tuesday, and a commission application deadline that could genuinely change someone's path. If one of those is for you, grab it. If something is on your mind that is not on the calendar, hit reply. I read every note. They are part of how I stay honest to what is actually happening on the ground.

Let's keep Culver City on a winning path, together.

Together, we can build a stronger, more connected Culver City. Thank you for being part of our community.

Dan O'Brien
Councilmember, Culver City
dan.obrien@culvercity.org