Culver City : New ‘Sister’ in Canada

Lethbridge, Canada, is Culver City’s brand-new sister--or, from the Canadian point of view, its new twin.

Mayor Jozelle Smith led a delegation of 35 people to the city in Alberta for a four-day visit last week that marked the official birth of the relationship. The Culver City visitors brought letters from Culver City Middle School students eager for pen pals, Smith said.

In a signed declaration, the mayors of the two cities, the Lethbridge Twinning Society and the Culver City Sister City Committee pledged mutual assistance and exchanges in the arts, education, sports, commerce, tourism and industry. Smith said exchange family visits are planned for this summer, and ice hockey teams from the two cities want to face off.

The idea started with some former Lethbridge residents who live in Culver City. Lethbridge has an ethnically mixed population and also went through much discussion over what to do when its city administration outgrew the city hall--elements that make it similar to Culver City, Smith said. MGM/UA Communications Co. has a distribution office in Calgary, near Lethbridge, so the two have a key business tie, she added.

Culver City has other sisters in Mexico, Japan and Korea.