Cultural plans generally are shaped by responding to the arts from an aesthetic rather than a cultural thrust; thus the spokespersons for community needs are primarily arts audiences, artists and arts organizations together with community leaders interested in education, tourism, and economic development.

In reversing this perspective, we gave exclusive voice to the grass roots rather than the leafy branches. We selected a discrete community - a condominium complex - and invited the people who lived there to share their view of culture and its relationship to their lives. The condominium complex itself is a cultural destination and the development focused is human rather than economic. The result is a study and a plan that confounds stereotypic ways of perceiving the definition and the role of culture in contemporary life.

Robert Bellah, a sociologist from the University of California, Berkeley, author of Habits of the Heart, cited above, discovered through interviews the tension between our need for community and desire for individualism and privacy. Similar yearnings were echoed by the 803 E. Victoria St. Home Owners Association in a focus group interview and through mail and telephone surveys.

While the initial thrust of the planning process was to examine cultural needs, issues surrounding community could not be ignored. The Plan emerged in response to the views of the HOA members who provided their perceptions of culture, the arts, creativity, fun, leisure, privacy, time and community.

CONTENTS
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Mission.
Definition of culture.
Methodology.
The City of Carson Environment.
Findings.
Benefits of community and culture.
Goals and strategies.
Glossary.
Appendix.

Cultural plans generally are shaped by responding to the arts from an aesthetic rather than a cultural thrust; thus the spokespersons for community needs are primarily arts audiences, artists and arts organizations together with community leaders interested in education, tourism, and economic development.