Venice Stakeholders Association (VSA) sent a letter to Councilman Mike Bonin and Chair and members of the Transportation Committee giving reasons for not building a homeless project on the Venice Blvd median between North and South Venice Blvd and between Pacific and Dell.
Councilman Mike Bonin has proposed this project as part of his program to end homelessness in Venice.
Re: CF 15-1138-S9/Opposition to Release of Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide Housing for 90 Chronic Homeless Individuals on Beach Parking Lot in Advance of Public Hearings
Dear Councilmember Bonin and Members of the Committee,
Venice Stakeholders Association is a non-profit public benefit organization dedicated to civic improvement and public safety.
We are opposed to the release of a Request for Proposal to provide housing for 90 chronic homeless individuals on beach parking lot #731 in Venice for several reasons:
1. There have been no hearings in the community on this concept; it has not been submitted to either the Venice Neighborhood Council or the Venice Canals Association.
2. Additional resident and visitor parking is sorely needed at this location. The highest and best use for this site is as an automated parking facility which would triple parking capacity at this location and advance the California Coastal Commission’s objective of greater public access to the beach and ocean.
3. Other homeless serving facilities in Venice have a long history of being an extreme burden to nearby residents. For example, this past Sunday a client of the St. Joseph Service Center on Lincoln Boulevard started a fire which damaged part of a nearby residence and forced the pregnant owner to evacuate her home due to lingering fumes. Residents living adjacent to the subject parking lot on Venice Boulevard are already burdened by break-ins, assaults, sidewalk blockage, harassment, and late night noise caused by transients living in the area. There is no requirement in State or City law for the operator of the proposed housing to provide 24/7 security in perpetuity to protect nearby residents from similar noxious activities by the occupants of the proposed facility, so we conclude that this project will place an unacceptable burden on residents and thus should be sited elsewhere.
4. There are many other less utilized and more isolated city parking lots in other areas of Council District 11 and, indeed, elsewhere in the City that would be better suited for the proposed project.
5. The release of an RFP puts “the cart before the house.” The California Environmental Quality Act requires that the concept of housing on this site – a significant change of use – receive an environmental review in advance of the City starting down the path to construction of a structure by releasing an RFP.
I have attached for your consideration a recent article from The Argonaut that speaks to these concerns in more detail. I would ask that the City Clerk make this letter and attachment a part of the council file. Thank you.
Sincerely yours,
Mark Ryavec
Mark Ryavec, president
Just in! Venice Election says Yes to Gentrifiers and No to People of Color. Click link and read: http://www.savevenice.me/venice-election-says-yes-to-gentrifiers-no-to-people-of-color/
This just in! We are Saving Venice! Please see article and video: http://www.kcet.org/shows/socal-connected/silicon-beach-and-gentrification
For concerned Venice Citizens: (Proof Mark Ryavec hates the homeless and discriminates) Please read and see article for yourself. Don’t believe the lies Mark Ryavec tells you. From article: Here is the post that Ryavec put up on his site. It’s also possibly the post that Ryavec wishes he never posted. It’s on the record now. Let’s hope Ryavec doesn’t run for the VNC again.
Dear
Homeless Advocate: The Venice Stakeholders Association is preparing to publish a
camping guide for distribution to homeless individuals in Venice, including
those living on the sidewalks and parkways along 3rd Avenue between Rose and
Sunset Avenues in Venice. The guide will provide Venice homeless with locations
of sidewalk/parkway locations where they will be more welcome to camp out than
the 3rd Avenue location. The residents and property owners in this area find
this encampment, with its related crime, assaults on police officers and
residents (one as recent as this past Saturday evening), public drug sales and
use, public inebriation, public urination and defecation, and threat to public
health, to be intolerable. We will continue to press the City of Los Angeles for
the removal of this encampment, including bringing a lawsuit against the City of
Los Angeles for maintaining a public nuisance if necessary. Our camping guide
will provide these Venice homeless individuals with locations of
sidewalk/parkway locations where they will be more welcome to camp out than the
3rd Avenue location. In light of your vigorous support for the rights of the
homeless to sleep on public pedestrian easements over private property, which is
what sidewalks and parkways legally are, we are contacting you to ask if you
have any objection to our including a photograph and address of your residence
in camping guide. On the following page are the addresses we would like to
publish in our guide. We intend to incentivize these individuals to take
advantage of your welcoming spirit by offering them $20 per day to relocate.
Please advise me at your earliest convenience of whether you object to being
included in the guide and if the address listed is correct. Yours truly, Mark
Ryavec President
(plug that in to your search engine, or click link) http://www.sites.google.com/site/thevenicebeachpress/home/mark-ryavec–pos-or-what