Was it Clabe Hartley’s lost finger that launched the cleanup on Venice Beach? Hartley won’t say for sure but he does say he talked to a lot of important people in the City after the attack.

Hartley claims that about 80 percent of the bums frequenting Washington Square, which is first block of beach, were suddenly gone too.

Whether it will last or not is not known but there was a cleanup that started about two weeks after the news got out about Clabe Hartley having his finger bitten off by a homeless man at Cow’s End, which is owned by Hartley.

An encounter ensued and Hartley lost a digit on his ring finger. Was it the publicity that occurred after the incident that launched a cleanup?

Gerry Groh, who recently moved to Venice, says the cleanup happened soon after Clabe lost his finger… about two weeks ago.

“It is so nice to have the beach back,” said Gerry, who was the sole sitter in one of the pergolas formerly occupied by the homeless. “A gal was recently meditating on the green next to pergola. A homeless man started to harass her. I just asked the guy to move on and he did. Yah, we don’t know if it will last but it sure is nice.”