Culver City Downtown Business Association Releases 2024 Report

The Culver City Downtown Business Association (CCDBA) released its 2024 Annual Report last Thursday to showcase the organization's many accomplishments in the community. An unanticipated level of event organizing contributed to an unexpected budget deficit in 2024, but the CCDBA still has far more cash on hand than what was lost.

2024 was the first full year for CCDBA Executive Director Darrel Menthe, who started in his role in February 2023. Other board members in 2024 include Lundeen's Gifts owner Kathryn Lundeen, Piccalilli co-founder and Executive Chef Mack Collins, and Amazon's California Head of External Affairs and Community Engagement Marie Lloyd.

One of the CCDBA's newest endeavors, which Menthe expressed great pride in, was the start of the First Annual Downtown Culver City Independence Day Celebration and Aerial Drone Show that the CCDBA hosted in Downtown Culver City. With the traditional carrier of the city's annual 4th of July Fireworks show — the Culver City Exchange Club — abruptly stopping their fireworks performances last year, the DBA stepped in to fill that void.

Menthe and the CCDBA organized an aerial drone show to replace the fireworks show, accompanied by a short program that included a flag-raising by the Scouts of America. Menthe was notified of the cancellation in the first week of March and had to "frantically" prepare the event given the short notice.

"It was much better than I even dared myself to imagine," Menthe told Culver Crescent.

This unanticipated new programming was also one of several factors that resulted in higher expenditures in 2024 than was projected in the CCDBA's Budget.

There was an almost $39,000 deficit in the 2024 budget despite the organization initially projecting a $195 surplus. Despite this loss, the DBA still had more than $250,000 in cash on hand as of December 31, and the cost of assessments, which are fees required as part of registration with the Downtown's Business Improvement District and make up more than 66% of the CCDBA's revenues, was raised by 3% for 2025.

"The difference between the budget and actual stems from unanticipated new programming plus the timing of prior year receivables," the report reads. "No such deficit is projected for 2025."

One of the events that the CCDBA had planned for a significant period was the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Culver Hotel and MGM Studios. Work organizing the festival began in December 2023 with support from stakeholders like the Culver City Historical Society and the Culver City Arts District.

The Emerald City Block Party, held in September 2024, was the result of this effort, which permeated throughout the Downtown Area. The celebration featured a 25-foot-tall inflatable Ruby Slipper paying tribute to the Wizard of Oz and signs reminiscing on the history of the Culver Hotel and MGM Studios placed throughout Downtown.

In addition, the Culver Theater hosted special screenings of MGM Classic movies every Monday for the final three months of the year. These included The Wizard of Oz, Singing in the Rain, and A Night at the Opera.

When the CCDBA is not throwing major events for Downtown, it is contributing to the area's health in more unheralded ways. Clean teams from the non-profit Chrysalis sweep the streets of Downtown Culver City six days a week, and the CDBA recently increased the frequency of pressure washing to weekly.

Despite new programming driving up event costs overall, maintenance is still the largest expenditure in the CCDBA's budget.

"With over 40 food service establishments," the report reads, "there is a constant need for keeping our streets clean."

To improve the area's lighting, twinkle lights were also installed on trees along the medians and south side of Culver Boulevard. These additions increased the number of trees covered in twinkle lights to more than 100 and added to the festival lights that the CCDBA maintains across Main Street.

"They are normally a soft white color to match the twinkle lights in the downtown trees," the report says about festival lights, "but they can be turned colors for special occasions and during the holidays."

Originally envisioned in November 2023, it took several months to get approval from the city before adding these lights. The CCDBA wants to add lights to unadorned palm trees on Washington next, but Menthe admits this could take "many months."

"I always want to make Downtown look more beautiful," Menthe said.

The CCDBA has also collaborated with the businesses it services throughout 2024. It continued its Third Wednesday programming, an area-wide event held every third Wednesday of the Summer months.

These events bring over 1,500 people to businesses in Culver City's Downtown, where they could offer visitors a Spiked Lemonade, Summer Martini, or "Tropical Staycation" drink based on the theme of the event.

Halloween is another event that the DBA has traditionally thrown, with this year's "Hip & Historic Halloween" event with 35 of Culver City's Downtown Businesses participating in the event featuring live music and trick-or-treaters parading down the streets of Culver City.

But the year's highlight was the Annual Holiday Tree Lighting Sled-tacular, held in December. Described by the report as the most important event of the year, the Sled-tacular drew widespread attention from outside Culver City, having been promoted by the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets.

According to CCDBA estimates, anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000 people attended the event, and at least 2,000 children enjoyed the more than 50 tons of snow brought onto Main Street for sled runs.

The event was a collaboration from the whole Culver City community. The Kiwanis Club hosted carnival games, the Culver Hotel provided hot chocolate, and Culver City Unified School District students performed on a large main stage.

The full 2024 Culver City Downtown Business Association Annual Report can be found here.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this article stated that the West Los Angeles College traditionally threw the 4th of July Fireworks Show. This error has been corrected.