Heritage
Founded in 1989, City Club on Bunker Hill is the first private club in downtown Los Angeles with an emphasis on inclusiveness with its membership. Founding Chairman Walter Beran, along with many of the top leaders of Los Angeles, felt the need to have a Club that represented Los Angeles today. The membership roster encompasses a variety of industries including attorneys, finance, professional, and entrepreneurial fields, and the diversity of the membership is endless. It is the common bond of membership that allows camaraderie between members and, as our former Board of Governors Chairman Harry Hufford once said, the club's reputation as "the friendliest club in town".
Founding Board
The Founding Board of Governors represented a great cross section of the Los Angeles community. It was important to the founders of the Club to have representation from every spectrum of the current Los Angeles population. The blending of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural business and social citizens of the Los Angeles community was a foundational issue that to this day is represented in the membership and the Board of Governors.
Charity
The charitable organization selected for the City Club on Bunker Hill is the Stuart M. Ketchum Downtown YMCA. The Ketchum Downtown YMCA forged a unique connection with the downtown business community and the children and families living in the surrounding neighborhoods, a model adopted by other urban YMCAs across the nation. This YMCA provides programs and services for over 20,000 people per year. The Ketchum Downtown YMCA also supports the 28th Street YMCA which has been in the community since 1906 and includes within its distinguished Alumni Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley, Councilwoman Rita Walters, and County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. The 28th Street YMCA has reestablished needed healthy lifestyle programs to more than 400 deserving families. As a partner of the City Club on Bunker Hill, the Ketchum Downtown YMCA offers our members a preferred membership rate with the convenience of being located across the street from the club.
Community
The cornerstone of the City Club mission as it represents the Los Angeles community is to be involved in the Los Angeles community. The Club has supported the Stuart M. Ketchum Downtown YMCA and many other charities throughout Los Angeles; the American Red Cross, Windows of Hope, City of Hope, and American Heart Association are just a few of the club's efforts of outreach to the community. The City Club has many ongoing speaker forums to expose members and guests to current and meaningful issues effecting the Los Angeles community and achieves this through various events. Overheard at Table Two, an intimate semi-monthly lunch gathering spearheaded by Board Member Marilyn Solomon, allows club members to interact with prominent civic and political leaders and debate a variety of relevant and timely issues. The Breakfast Club, a "Club within the Club", offers networking with a weekly speaker series every Wednesday morning in order to broaden the knowledge of members and their guests. With a club that was founded and is maintained with a doctrine of diversity, it is the goal of the members to ensure that a sense of community is developed for the club and the city of Los Angeles.
