Culver City may be as close to Oz as you can get. Over there at Sony Pictures Studios is where “The Wizard of Oz” was filmed in 1938. Over here is the century-old Culver Hotel, where the Munchkins stayed.
Sometimes you don’t know where the movie lot ends and the real city begins. To stroll through downtown is to navigate strollers and leashes in this land of babies and dogs. A cup of Philz coffee will set you back $7. A strawberry probiotic smoothie at Erewhon requires a more serious financial commitment of $22.
Amazon, Apple, Pinterest and other tech companies have offices here, but at the start of the workday late Thursday morning in the outdoor plaza known as the Culver Steps, it was hard to find anyone working very hard in the sunshine. Soft jazz played from a speaker on the exterior of the Culver Hotel as more people read books than stared at laptops.