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Dan O'Brien Newsletter — July 6, 2026
📬 Councilmember Dan O'Brien | Culver City | July 6, 2026
Hello, friends,
Two hundred fifty years of the republic. One hundred years of moviemaking in the Heart of Screenland. Three hundred fifty drones lighting up the sky over Culver Studios. Some weeks the numbers tell the story better than I can, and this Fourth of July weekend was one of them. America marked its 250th birthday on Saturday, and on Sunday evening Town Plaza filled with neighbors to celebrate it the Culver City way. Here is what happened, and what is still ahead.
🇺🇸 Community: America Turned 250, and Culver City Showed Up
🔹 The Third Annual Downtown Independence Celebration lit up Town Plaza on Sunday night. Presented by the Culver City Downtown Business Association with the City's support, the evening ran from 6 to 9:30 PM with live music from The Rusties, a flag salute by local Scouts, and Culver City High School singers led by Cadence Washington performing The Star-Spangled Banner and Lift Every Voice and Sing. The finale was a 350-drone light show by Sky Elements above Culver Studios, honoring our century of moviemaking as part of the nationwide America250 celebration.
→ 💡 What this means: Three years in, the drone show has grown from an experiment into a genuine Culver City tradition. It gives us a spectacular finale without the fire risk, the smoke, or the stress on pets and veterans that fireworks bring, and it does it in the walkable heart of our Downtown.
→ 🎯 My take: I have spent my working life in edit bays, telling stories frame by frame, so a light show honoring 100 years of moviemaking above the studio where so much of that history was made hits me right in the heart. My deep thanks to the Downtown Business Association, the Scouts and students who gave the night its soul, and every neighbor who came out. A country turning 250 is a big, abstract thing. A plaza full of your own community singing together is how it becomes real.
👉 Learn about the Independence Celebration
⚽ Economic Development: The World Cup's Biggest LA Moment Is This Friday
🔹 A World Cup quarterfinal lands at SoFi Stadium on Friday, July 10 at noon. Belgium will face Spain in the only quarterfinal being played in Los Angeles, just a few miles from Culver City. The American side's remarkable run, the winningest World Cup for a US men's team, ended Monday night in Seattle against that same Belgian squad. It stings, but the tournament's final act still runs right through our region, and having seen the joy in those SoFi stands firsthand earlier in the tournament, I can tell you the world's game has been very good to this corner of LA County.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Every knockout match at SoFi fills hotel rooms, restaurants, and shops across the Westside. The visitors the quarterfinal brings on Friday are a preview of the wave the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games will bring, and Culver City is close enough to feel every bit of the lift.
🔹 Culver City gives you two more free ways to watch together. The Culver Steps continues hosting public watch parties through the tournament's final rounds, and on Sunday, July 19 at 6 PM, the World Cup Final screens at Town Plaza in our Downtown Entertainment Zone, the community screening the Council approved this spring in partnership with Afro Village and Bahati House Sports Lab.
→ 🎯 My take: We planned these gatherings for exactly this stretch of the tournament, when the stakes are highest and the crowds are biggest. Bring a chair, bring the kids, and pick a team to adopt for the afternoon. The final is a once-in-a-generation event, and you can watch it steps from City Hall for free.
👉 See the Kick It With Culver City schedule
💰 Budget & Finance: Thirty Neighbors Will Shape How You Shape the Budget
🔹 The Civic Assembly returns July 16 to 18, and the applicant pool is open now. Thirty Culver City residents, randomly selected by lottery and demographically balanced to reflect our whole community, will spend three days answering one question: how might the City increase public participation in the budget process? The session runs Thursday, July 16 through Saturday, July 18, from 9 AM to 4:30 PM each day. Selected participants receive a $675 honorarium, a transportation stipend, and caregiving support where needed. Postcards went out to 10,000 randomly selected households; if you did not get one, you can still apply by entering NONE in the code field.
→ 💡 What this means: No budgeting or government experience is required. The whole point is to hear from residents who do not usually find their way to a Council meeting, and the first session in May showed how much insight is sitting in living rooms all over this city.
→ 🎯 My take: I spent the spring making the case that our budget is only as good as the voices behind it. The Civic Assembly is the city building a better front door for exactly those voices. If you have ever felt the budget process was not built for people like you, this is your invitation to help rebuild it. Three days of your summer could shape how thousands of neighbors are heard for years.
👉 Join the Civic Assembly applicant pool
🚒 Public Safety: Roll Up a Sleeve This Saturday
🔹 A community blood drive comes to Fire Station 1 on Saturday, July 11, from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM. The Culver City Rotary Club is partnering with CCFD to host a Cedars-Sinai blood drive at the firehouse. Summer is historically when blood supplies run lowest, and a single donation can help save more than one life.
→ 🎯 Why I hope you sign up: Our firefighters answer the call for us every single day. Spending twenty minutes in a chair at their station is a small, concrete way to answer one for somebody else. Appointments are quick to book, and you will be done in time for lunch on Main Street.
👉 Sign up for the July 11 Blood Drive
📅 Dates & What's Ahead
🔹 Friday, July 10 at 12 PM. World Cup Quarterfinal, Belgium vs. Spain, at SoFi Stadium. The only quarterfinal in Los Angeles.
🔹 Saturday, July 11, 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM. Cedars-Sinai Blood Drive at Fire Station 1. See above.
🔹 Monday, July 13 at 7 PM. Regular Council Meeting in the Mike Balkman Council Chambers, including a public hearing on the Sewer User's Service Charge for the new fiscal year. The agenda posts Wednesday before the meeting.
🔹 Thursday to Saturday, July 16 to 18. Second Civic Assembly session. See above.
🔹 Sunday, July 19 at 6 PM. World Cup Final screening at Town Plaza, Downtown Culver City.
🔹 Calling creative neighbors. Artist Laureate Victoria Marks is seeking community members for a movement-based collaboration culminating in a live performance on August 6.
👉 Join the Artist Laureate collaboration
🔹 Looking further out. The 75th Annual Fiesta La Ballona returns August 28 to 30.
🔹 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.
🙏 Closing Thought
A 250th birthday invites big speeches, but I keep coming back to the small stuff that actually filled this week: students singing two anthems on one stage, Scouts presenting the colors, a blood drive at a firehouse, thirty neighbors about to spend three summer days making their city easier to be heard in. Self-government was never mostly the fireworks. It was always the showing up.
There is plenty of showing up available in the days ahead, from a donation chair on Saturday to the Council Chambers on the 13th to a blanket at Town Plaza on the 19th. Pick whichever one fits your week. Two hundred fifty years in, this is still how the whole thing works: neighbors, one small choice at a time. And as always, my door and my inbox are open.
