The Culver City Council will hold a special meeting to discuss potential changes to the number of homes it allows within city limits Wednesday.
Currently, it's illegal to build anything other than a single-family home on more than half of the residential land in Culver City. It's zoning that many residents are calling exclusionary, and now, the next generation of homeowners are getting involved.
Passing out lawn signs to raise awareness about a housing crisis isn't something you typically see an 18-year-old doing. Still, Triston Ezidore has fallen in love with Culver City after only a few years of living here with his father.
He wants to be able to move here permanently after college, but he knows at this rate, he won't be able to afford it.
"It's not allowing for people of color, the low-income households to live here. When you have tear-down properties that sell for like $1.3 [million], that doesn't work for us," Ezidore said.
Ezidore said he doesn't see people who look like him in Culver City because typically, only affluent white families can afford the homes here. The average home in Culver City costs $1.3 million.
He tells this straight to the mayor of Culver City during a new Cooking with Triston segment he just launched on YouTube to facilitate these types of conversations.
While cooking salmon, Mayor Alex Fisch acknowledges that Culver City's racist history and exclusionary zoning make it very difficult for the average person to afford a home here to this day.
"If we share this land with a few more people, we can deal with the problems that have built up over a hundred years in this city, really effectively while expanding opportunities, preserving diversity, undoing the legacy of redlining," Fisch told Ezidore.
As Ezidore and his student-led organization, POC4Change, demand a change from city officials for more affordable housing, he met Elias Platte-Bermeo, a member of a group called Culver City For More Homes, fighting for the same thing. It's no accident, Platte-Bermeo said. In the past, Culver City officials made it illegal to build anything besides expensive, single-family homes on more than half of the residential land in Culver City.
"Culver City has a pretty sordid history of housing policy that was explicitly exclusionary and worked as intended to make Culver City what it is today, which is whiter and wealthier than the surrounding areas and whiter and wealthier than LA County as a whole," Platte-Bermeo explained.
As a renter, Platte-Bermeo said there's a need for more housing options for all types of people, so it won't be so expensive to live here.
Much of the recent college grad's entry-level salary goes straight to rent.
Even with three roommates in a four-bedroom house, Elias said he still can't afford a car.
"Right now, I make $45-$50,000 when all is said and done and my rent, again for context, I'm in the smallest little bedroom of a four-bedroom house, my rent is $1,000 which I think, by Culver City standards, is insanely affordable which says a lot, but still is a big percentage of my income," he said.
So he and Ezidore are rallying support from the community with lawn signs, hoping more people will join the conversation and urge the City Council to rezone Culver City to build more housing. The signs say, "In our neighborhood, density means diversity, more neighbors equals more fun, ADUs are awesome, characters make up the neighborhood character, renters are welcome, triplexes and fourplexes are pretty, Culver City is for everyone."
"I think that it's gonna take density and housing that's affordable to renters and triplexes and duplexes and just diversity that's gonna make Culver City for everyone," Ezidore said.
The Culver City Council has agreed to discuss a change to the current single-family zoning at 7 p.m. Wednesday. To watch, visit the city's website.
For more information about Culver City For More Homes, visit the group's website.