Culver City, California is stepping out of its Old Hollywood Legacy and into a New Hollywood renaissance.
As the legendary entertainment community works to keep up with the changes in how people enjoy film, Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells told Cheddar, "We've gone from 'The Heart of Screenland' to 'The Heart of Streamland.'"
There was filming happening in the city before it was a city at all, and the renowned MGM studios brought fame to the area when it planted its roots there and began churning out classics nearly a century ago.
"Even though the kind of golden age of the MGM Studios with classic films we all know and love has kind of waned, almost 20 years ago Sony Pictures with Columbia Pictures kind of picked that up," Culver City Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells said.
Beyond the big screen, Culver City studios have also taped some of TV's most beloved shows. And now the city is moving forward with the rest of the world, as it sees an influx of streaming companies. New streaming platforms are heading to where it all began, going back to the roots of the filmmaking industry. Mayor Sahli-Wells says over the next five years, more than 6,000 jobs will be moving to the city, too.
"Culver City is this great city," Mayor Sahli-Well said. "People want to live there. What we have now is a jobs and housing imbalance. We need to do more so that people aren't priced out."
The Mayor's focus is to figure out how to create affordable infrastructure that would allow people to actually work in the same city they live in.
"We have to find ways we can thrive together — at all ages — so that's what I'm really focused on," Mayor Sahli-Wells said.
