Let’s all clean up Venice, one block at a time. Most residential areas are clean of litter but those areas near commercial or near homeless encampments suffer so much debris and litter.

Members of Harrison, one block north of Washington, recently decided to clamp down on two commercial ventures backing up to their street. A group headed by Mike Newhouse and with the help of Len Nguyen of the council office, let the commercial establishments know they wanted some action. They wanted the establishments to clean up their Harrison side. Mike Newhouse, Ruth Seroussi, and CC Carter worked this out.

This is similar to what a group of residents on Carter, headed by Denise Fast, started in the Triangle and will continue starting next year. Carter parallels Lincoln Blvd. Right now one anonymous resident of Carter walks the street once a week picking up litter. And it shows.

The Environmental Group, headed by Erin Sullivan-Ward, of the Venice Neighborhood Council has a cleanup program going in Venice. One day a week, or every other week, they choose an area to clean up. First they did Windward Circle and last Update showed their bags of debris from 3rd. Those two would have been Update’s picks too and next pick would be Windward between Pacific and Speedway.

Someone should talk to these business owners. They profit from the litterers. This is a daily task. Get these commercial owners organized to clean the area before tourist season so they’ll be in practice.

John is shown in red jacket. He had a broken broom cleaning up 3rd. Another person was down the street sweeping. They are both residents of 3rd. John said that both this street and 2nd were bad. It has been less than two weeks since the Environmental Group cleaned it up. Photo was taken Thursday morning and Street cleaning was Monday. At least some of those who live there are taking an interest.

We need more action like this. How about the Venice Chamber of Commerce asking all their members to clean litter in front of their business. We need people to stop this and neighborhoods to stop allowing this littering that is consistent throughout Venice. Neighborhoods should use the Venice ingenuity. How many clubs are there looking for a project.

The “to do” list for Councilman Mike Bonin mentioned perhaps there should be signs showing people how to put litter into the round hole. Sounds silly, but people are obviously having trouble with the task. And yes, Venice does have tourists and does have homeless.