One Square Mile: Waterloo & City

Through Tuesday, teams of USC reporters will present their competing proposals for which single square mile of Culver City should become the focus of a series of videos and stories in the coming months.

On Wednesday, Patch readers can vote for their favorite square mile. 

Check back later Tuesday for the final square mile proposal, and be sure to vote for your favorite Wednesday. 

We'll post the results late that same day. All voters will receive an invitation to the One Square Mile launch reception in Culver City this fall.

Here's the fourth of five proposed square miles, from Massiel Bobadilla and Shotgun Spratling.

Along a nearly two-mile stretch of Washington Boulevard, an extremely narrow pocket of Culver City runs west from the 405. A darling of the Culver City Redevelopment Agency, this branch of the city plays host predominantly to countless small storefronts, with the exception of a booming Costco—one of the top-grossing in the nation—at its western border and a centrally located 99¢ Only store where Washington Boulevard and Washington Place meet.

Do It Now! Fitness shares the street with Designer's Bloopers. Four beauty salons operate within two blocks of one another. A modestly decorated Mexican video store and discotheque lie just a few blocks east of a home/shop whose wares—life-size sheet metal sculptures of dinosaurs and giraffes—are prominently displayed on the lawn.

Banners proclaiming the city's intentions to Renew, Recreate and Refresh blow from every street lamp along Washington Boulevard on this end of Culver City. Statistics show that this patch of West Washington "carries over 30,000 vehicle trips per day," yet if you walk up and down Washington Boulevard in the middle of the day, you see very little that might seem out of the ordinary.

Characterized by a number of foreign auto repair shops, there is a stark difference between the far western border of the city where Costco, In-N-Out, Albertsons and Starbucks seem to have a steady stream of customers and the small shops east of the 99¢ Only store. On this eastern side of West Washington, street parking is readily available. And while cars whiz by, few seem to stop and peruse the small businesses lining both sides of the street, despite the much-hyped gastropub Waterloo & City being right in the center of this area.

The 2000 Census showed that Culver City was 59.24 percent white, 23.7 percent Latino, 11.96 percent black, and 12 percent Asian. Specific demographics for West Washington have not yet been found. Some Culver City officials point to such statistics as examples of diversity and downplay race as an issue. However, with city officials pushing to see more places like Waterloo & City move into this western end of Culver City, tensions over gentrification—which touch on issues of race and class—are bound to come up.

 What does the "redevelopment" of the city actually mean? What does it entail? What problems is it seeking to address? Do the needs and wants of the area's residents and the area's workers coincide? Is the glitz and glamour of Culver City's downtown trying to stretch west? 

Perhaps one of the best ways to cover this area would be with a series of profiles, highlighting the lives of an "average" resident—the store owner, the progressive stay-at-home dad, the busboy, the lady in the nail salon.

Aside from shared space, a look into these people's interactions, not only with one another, but also with their city, may prove to be one of the best ways to gain insight into the West Washington area. In her review of Waterloo & City, Los Angeles Times food critic S. Irene Virbila dubbed this stretch of Culver City "the wilds of Washington Boulevard."