Neighborhood.....(name, identity, general demographics and community overview)

Culver City is full of life including monuments, statues, fountains, and other memorials. Some of the beautiful public art works include (can be found at culvercity.org):

The Hanging Garden-Built in 1995 by Ed Carpenter this art work is located at 9770 Culver Boulevard in the City Hall Courtyard.
The La Ballona- a piece of artwork by May Sun from 1995 that is a part of the Heritage Fountain located at 9770 Culver Boulevard in City Hall as well.
Truth or Fiction- These free-standing pillars are amazing to look at and are located at the Northeast corner of Culver Blvd. and Duquesne Ave. Built by Nobuho Nagasawa in 1995.
The Film Strip U.S.A- was built in 1981 by Natalie Krol. This stainless steel sculpture consists of film strips and was a dedication from the 1981 Salute to the Film Industry. It appears to float in a body of water located at the Veterans Memorial Complex on 4117 Overland Avenue.
The Crossed Currents- Built in 1999 by Don Merkt was a sculpture of a jug that drips water and serves as a tribute to the Native Americans at Ballona Creek. This piece of art is located at the Culver City Transportation Facility at 4343 Duquesne Avenue.

During our Community Immersion event, we explored Braddock and Sepulveda which exhibited Culver City’s beauty and life. Culver City is named after Harry Culver, a man that developed several businesses and eventually moved his company to Culver City and began to develop a “balanced residential/commercial community” (culvercity.org).

Culver City shows no signs of graffiti except for the decorative graffiti wall in the Culver City Teen Center that the center’s teens decorate every year based on their year’s theme. After visiting the Culver City Police Department, we learned that there is little crime in Culver City and residents do not fear crime because their police department has a record response time that reduces crime and puts fear in criminals. Exploring Culver City, we did not notice stray dogs roaming the streets and we did not notice bars on windows or doors, broken glass or any signs of crime which leaves us to assume that Culver City is a safe and secure neighborhood.

Demographics and the Outsider Perspective

Demographics: Sepulveda Braddock
If there was a fictional television show that could summarize, Culver City it would be a diverse version of Mayberry. The citizens all seemed to have an old fashion since of community. The citizens that my group ran into were all very friendly and diverse. The city at large seemed to thrive for arts, music and entertainment in the downtown area, home of the Mega Sony Picture Studio. The downtown area gives you a trendy since of livelihood with the center café’s, restaurants, and community festivities. We were encouraged to check out the upcoming music and wine tasting festival. An annual event the cities residents enjoys with live music, wine, entertainment and food. The heart of the city represents and old Mayberry feeling of community safety with the police force at its center. While having coffee at the corner of Sepulveda and Braddock, a police officer sat and shared coffee with a family sitting beside him. The family and the officer seemed to bridge the feeling of safety and neighborly love. The city streets were clean and the police officers took a firm hand in ensuring the city was free from tagging and defaming public property. The city caters largely to family with large parks and recreational activities. Located near Sepulveda and Braddock was a family ice skating ring where a couple can go to unwind after a long hot day for the cost of $9.00.

Socioeconomic Trends and the Outsider Prospective
The dominant ethnic group was Caucasian although there was a good indication that this trend was shifting. While visiting the teen Center located 4153 Overland Avenue the children represented a rainbow of nationalities. Our group at large started our tour at the Culver City Senior Center located at 4095 Overland Avenue the large majority of the Culver City Senior were Caucasian. The Culver City teens and younger youth were of all nationalities.
If I were an outsider moving to the city of Culver City for the first time after getting through the initial shock of being in a new place I think I would find the city had a lot to offer me. The many assets an incoming family could benefit from are: great recreation, community safety, and a since of camaraderie. Many of the community members overall have lived and grew up in the city of Culver City all their lives. Many of the Culver City residents have had some college education or higher many of them stay in their same town and community instead of venturing on to other cities. The median and average income is currently listed between sixty to 78,000 dollars per household according to <http://www.culvercity.org/planning/demographics.asp> (2009, August 31). Overall a family of two with some education would have a higher chance of sustaining their cost of living than a family with more limited resources.

Insider Perspective & Neighborhood boundaries

Culver City is a community where the residents display a great deal of pride and value. Specifically, there was an attitude of pride expressed by two community members. Both of them on sperate ocassions expressed a sense of joy and pride in living there. They reported feeling safe and for this reason will remain dedicated community members. Nevertheless, each of them are employed by the city in giving back by servicing the citizens of this great community.

This city provides a plethora of services to the family, elder, disabled and youth. However, services are not limited just to memebers of Culver City but also extended to non-residents; however, at an addtional cost. Although there are no boundaries or limits to servicing other community members there are set boundaries and limits to individuals who are considered to "bring down" the standards of Culver City (i.e. gang memebers). According to the Culver City Police Deparment gang members know not to come through Culver City. Per Det. G. "they go around". Because Culver City hold to high standard of value they are strict on who is allowed in and out of their city.
-SOWK CI16- G.T.

Culver City Sepulveda & Braddock

Culver City is a city where many people would love to live. Within its five square miles of mom and pop shops and corporate chain coffee shops lies a community rich in resources for the young and old. The police station is nestled inconspicuously on a tree lined corner in a very well kept neighborhood where the crime rate barely even tips the scales; and where the graffiti is non-existent. While the back bone of the community is its close knit citizens the police can highly be considered as a major factor in regards to social control. Compared to other communities the Culver City police are highly visible in the community and exhibit their presence with pride. The constant patrolling of the neighbor hoods and major streets are definitely diversions to any person thinking of causing the slightest bit of trouble. Even the Sergeant stated that, “the gang members try to avoid coming through the city for fear of being pulled over”.
Culver City has an array of assets that are sure to engage any age group. For children there is the YMCA where a variety of classes are taught from basket ball to swimming; for middle school and high school students the city hosts a teen center which assists with counseling to summer camps. For the 20 to 40 something year olds there are galleries, an abundance of parks, outdoor cafes, unique shops, theaters and shopping. And lastly for the older population the senior center is host to seniors offering recreational classes from dancing to pool tournaments. One of the newer establishments in particular serves organic cuisine named “Green Peas” located at 4437 Sepulveda Blvd. This establishment seems cozy and casual for the healthy and food conscious diner. The clientele here were either coupled or single. It is unknown how long the establishment has been in business but from the looks of it business is doing well. The risks of this community are very well disguised or non- existent. I would venture to say that Culver City is by far one of California’s best kept secrets.

Culver City Mutual Aid

Culver City and Mutual Aid!!!!!

Culver City is family orientated and appears to be the “everybody helps everybody” type of place. After exploring the community, it was obvious that the businesses such as the Culver City teen center, police department, and senior center were willing to help one another. The Teen Center coordinator informed us that she makes an effort to go out into the community and meet with every new business owner. This shows that the availability of neighbors to each other is visible. When people in the community are in need of financial support, emotional support, information and resources, there are places they can go such as the library and the local counseling centers. There are plenty of service clubs that Culver City offers and they can be found by looking on culvercity.org. Culver City residents work together to keep their city operating properly and there are places such as the senior center, skating rinks, YMCA, and other locations where the community has the opportunity to come together and discuss their current concerns and positive aspects that are working in the community. Church is prominent in Culver City as demonstrated by the local churches and the YMCA’s Christian based practice.

Spirituality

We met with Rev. Richard Bolin, also known as, Pastor Rich from Culver-Palms United Methodist Church (UMC). Although Pastor Rich may perform pre-marriage counseling, he informed us that he would refer couples to another organization for on-going therapy. The Culver-Palms UMC works at welcoming all. "We gather as people from many nations, races and cultures to feast at God's welcome table" is part of the mission of Culver-Palms UMC.

There was plenty of evidence of diversity in Culver City. The people we met had a lot of "home town pride."

Although homelessness may be a factor in Culver City, there was no evidence of risk of homelessness during our trek around town.

August 29, 2009 - Group 2 - Washington and Corinth

Culver City Teen Center is a recreation and community service institution, which is in 4153 Overland Avenue. It provides a free drop-in program for residents and students attending Culver City Middle School and High School, who are from 11 years old to 18 years old.
During school year, the Teen Center is open on Monday till Friday, from 2:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. It closes on days when school is not open during summer, winter and spring breaks and most holidays. However, there would be many programs for teenagers to take part in, including UCLA Bruin Corps Tutorial Program, Homework Assistance, Youth Making Changes Program, Crafts and Games, State of the Art Computer Lab, Game Room, Youth Employment Services & Career Guidance, Community Service, Service Learning Opportunities, Sports, Special Events & Field Trips and T.V. & Lounge. In this summer, there was a special program called Summer Youth Employment Program. It provided the chance for young people, who are between the ages of 14-20 years old, to earn money with on-the-job training working in various City of Culver City departments.
In the Teen Center, there are many rooms for the members to do activities, such as the beautiful playground, the billiards room, the dinning room, the TV room and the kitchen which provides the opportunity to practice the housekeeping ability of the teenagers. The kitchen also has the space for children to do crafts.
Helping children to understand the mixture of culture is a core of the activities in Teen Center. On the wall of the TV room, there is a large world map, which can help children to know the locations of happening news on the television. It also can let children understand the different world of their own.
They have different kinds of classes offered to children. They charge for all the classes but if a children come from a low income family, the fees will be cut down.
All the children come from different background, different from each other in family income, religious, color, etc.
"To work with a child, a social worker must to be a smart one and know how to make fun with little things"



Culver City, CA is relatively peaceful and quiet city. On our visit to the neighborhood on the corner of Washington Blvd and Corinth (DMV), we were able to notice similarities and contrasts to what we saw on our first day at Culver City. There weren’t any statues, monuments, or fountains in the part of town. The neighborhood was made up with mostly small businesses. The type of business that was most prevalent was Dentistry; there seemed to be two dental offices on every corner! We saw auto body shops and auto insurance vendors. Not surprising, since the DMW office seemed to be the main attraction. The neighborhood was mainly residential with quite a few apartments (there were a lot for rent). When we were walking around trying to find preschools, we noticed a Christian (perhaps Catholic) school. The neighborhood seems to be relatively calm and quiet. Although there were any apparent signs of gang activity ( i.e. graffiti), this area seemed to be less wealthy than what I saw in downtown Culver City on Thursday.
There are two bus lines that run through Culver City, The Culver City bus and the Santa Monica Blue bus. People of lower income and young people seem to be the main people who ride the bus. Everyone was really nice and willing to help with outside questions. An important part of this area was the library. We saw people of all ages using the facilities very respectfully. There was actually a group of people waiting to get in before it even opened. We were able to get very useful information about the neighborhood and what specific public services Culver City has to offer. We found flyers for preschools, WIC program, and Venice Family Clinic. They pretty much had information on anything you needed. The fact that they have computers with internet access is a plus as well. Many people cannot afford computers so the library offers free internet access, where residents/guests can research about more of Culver City’s services.
Walking around there wasn’t a lot of hustle and bustle. It wasn’t as touristy as downtown Culver City. Everyone pretty much kept to themselves and ran their Saturday morning errands. Adjacent to where we were, bigger retail stores were available. Interestingly, I didn’t see one cop car driving by. However, the traffic control was felt through the presence of cameras at certain intersections. Once again, not as much as downtown. Culver City is very well-maintained. It seems that the residents do pride themselves in what Culver City stands for and what their community has to offer.