2023 News
12-15 LPNA End of Year Summary
10-08 Community Meeting
The Lindberg Park Neighborhood Association (LPNA) would like to extend a big THANK YOU to our special guests who spoke and answered questions at our Community Meeting this past Sunday – CC City Councilmembers Göran Eriksson and Dan O’Brien and CCUSD School Board Members Dr. Kelly Kent and Stephanie Laredo. We also want to express our appreciation to Lt. Michael VanHook, Sgt. John Tropeano and Officer Kieran Rock of the Culver City Police Department for presenting their comprehensive crime report and answering questions. And lastly, we want to thank Arames White-Shearin, Assistant to the City Manager on Homelessness, for providing a lot of valuable information and updates on how the city is currently approaching the homelessness crisis. As always, we really appreciate everyone sharing their valuable time, energy, and knowledge to allow our community to better stay connected to city government and the policies that shape our everyday lives.
And a big thank you to those who donated to LPNA. Your generosity will help to make Lindberg Park an even better place to live.
As promised, attached is an electronic copy of CCPD’s presentation with the latest crime statistics and other valuable information. We’ve also attached the informational sheet that Arames provided on the city’s current homelessness initiatives.
Also, as discussed at the meeting, here's the link where you can subscribe to Culver City Committee and Department notifications: City of Culver City
In other news…
Public Works let us know that the sidewalk and lighting repair work that we mentioned was scheduled to begin this week, will now be starting in two weeks.
In answer to the concerns raised about knowing who Block Captains are throughout the neighborhood, we are in the process of revamping how information about our network of BCs is shared with the community and hope to have updates on this soon.
Have a spooky Halloween, a great rest of the year and, remember, in terms of safety in our neighborhood, IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING and don’t be afraid to call CCPD.
Links:
CCPD Lindberg Park Community Mtg.pdfOne Page Homeless Services Services.pdf
07-04 Lindberg Park 4th of July Parade and Block Party
Our neighborhood 4th of July celebration with food, music, and good fun! And T-Shirts!
06-08 CCPD at our Community Meeting
For those of you who were not able to attend Thursday evening’s Lindberg Park Neighborhood Association’s Community Meeting with CCPD Chief Jason Sims, attached is a digital copy of the presentation that he and members of his team reviewed with us.
Thank you to all our community members who came out to participate in this important meeting. Thanks again to Chief Sims, as well as Lt. Andrew Bellante and Lt. Brent Arney, for being proactive about setting up the meeting in the wake of recent crimes in/around our neighborhood. And thank you to the large number of officers who were in attendance. CCPD’s interest in meeting with LP residents and answering our questions is very much appreciated and speaks to the solid partnership that has developed between the CCPD, LPNA and our whole community.
Lindberg Park-CCPD community meeting 6-8-23.pdfWe’ll see you all at our amazing 4th of July event and remember…IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.
04-23 Safe Routes to School Project Status
After several years of LPNA engagement with the Culver City Traffic Department to improve traffic and pedestrian safety issues caused by the Culver schools-generated traffic, we are happy to announce that the proposed, citywide Safe-Routes-to-School Project is moving forward. Our neighborhood's improvements will include well-defined crosswalks at most intersections, curb extensions at Westwood and Ocean, and also at Ocean and Rhoda, bright-yellow crosswalks at the intersection of Westwood and Ocean, and marked bike lanes. The Project overview and detailed plans for each school location can be found at the Safe-Routes-to-School Project website listed below.
https://www.culvercity.org/City-Hall/Departments/Public-Works/PW-Mobility-Traffic-Engineering-Division/PW-Project-MTE-Safe-Routes-to-School-Signing-Striping-Project
The Traffic Department will finalize this design and send it out for bids in May, submit the winning bid for City Council approval by mid-to-late summer, and commence work soon after. If you have any questions, concerns, or proposed changes, then please contact Andrew Maximous, Mobility & Traffic Engineering Manager at 310-253-5628 or via email at andrew.maximous@culvercity.org.
03-05 Community Meeting
Guests:
Culver City Mayor Albert Vera
Board of Education President Paula Amezola
CCPD Partner Andrew Ballente
Ross Piro, LPNA President
Safe-Routes-to-School
By this time next year the Culver City Traffic Department hopes to complete a Safe-Routes-to-school project in the neighborhood, as part of a proposed, citywide initiative. The project would include well-defined crosswalks at most intersections, addition of the word "STOP" and the foot-wide stop-line delineator in front of all existing Stop signs, curb extensions at Westwood and Ocean, and also at Ocean and Rhoda, and bright-yellow crosswalks at the intersection of Westwood and Ocean. Once the plan is finalized and if the funding is approved by the City Council for fiscal year 2023-24, work would likely commence in August/September.
Park Upgrades
Based upon our neighborhood survey results, two upgrades selected by the community are in process for Lindberg Park. The latest on them from CC Parks & Rec Director Armando Abrego is:
Two bids have been received for the new HVAC system at the Stone House; contract to be presented to City Council for approval; install date is TBD.
Parks & Rec is securing the prefabricated picnic shelter and finalizing the RFP to select a General Contractor to install; the contract will then go to City Council for approval; install date is TBD.
LPNA Donations
While the financial needs of the Lindberg Park Neighborhood Association are not substantial, we do need funding to cover event space rentals and other miscellaneous costs to support our efforts to advocate for the community. Cash donations were solicited at the meeting (many thanks to those who gave!!!) and the board is working on a way to donate online, and we will let you know when this is live. We hope that as many people who are able to will help support us to make Lindberg Park an even better place to live.
Culver City Police Department
The following items are from Lt. Andrew Bellante, our Neighborhood CCPD Partner:
“See something, say something”. We are a “no call to small” agency and we will respond to any call for service. 911 for emergencies and 310-837-1221 for non emergencies.
CCPD has one of the fastest response times in LA county: 3 ½ minutes for emergencies and 10 min for non-emergencies.
We have implemented a Special Enforcement Team which was deployed in early February. It is a 5-officer team on bike patrol specifically designed for creek, business, and residential safety. They have made a significant impact in the creek at Overland, which has positively impacted quality of life, by making about 10 arrests since last month for drug possession, warrants, stolen property and 1 stolen vehicle.
Lindberg Park is probably the safest neighborhood in Culver City. There have only been 3 reported crimes: 1 burglary and 2 catalytic convertor thefts, in the first 2 months of 2023.
There were catalytic convertor thefts on 03/27/23, which led to a vehicle pursuit. Due to unsafe speeds the pursuit was cancelled and the suspects got away. It was a white Dodge Charger. The CCPD is working on acquiring automatic license plate readers (ALPR) which would have more than likely provided us with an investigative lead in this case and other cases around the city. I am the lead on the ALPR project and we are having a community meeting at council chambers on 3/30/2023 at 6:30 PM to answer questions and discuss the benefits of ALPRS.
Lastly, follow the CCPD on social media and check out our website www.culvercitypd.org. There is a lot of information in our monthly report.
Mayor Albert Vera
Mayor Albert Vera engaged in a Q & A where he responded to questions about 1. the City's engagement with the homeless, including discussions on the recent no-camping ordinance, the development of Bridge Housing (hotel conversions) and the Safe-camping site that's being developed at the City-owned parking lot on Virginia Avenue (view Culver City’s Safe-Camping Site for details). Note that both Mayor Vera and Lt. Bellante emphasized that the Safe-camping site will have its own, on-site, private security and that the CCPD will maintain high-visibility patrols in the area to ensure a safe environment for all; 2. neighbor's concerns about the large pine trees on Dobson Way and 3. the current status and impact of the downtown traffic MOVE program.
CCUSD School Board
CCUSD School Board President Paula Amezola discussed (and took questions on) removal of English Honors classes at CCMS and CCHS, school safety, school infrastructure and the potential for increased Science and Engineering (STEM) classes.