Jen Bilik of Altair just off Abbot Kinney

I wanted to share with you some things that are going on our block, Altair Place between Cabrillo and Andalusia, and in our alley, Cordova Court.

• There has been an uptick in human feces in the alley. Unfortunately, I know this because my dog has eaten them. Yuck.
• There was someone sleeping in the alley on Sunday; a visitor had to carefully maneuver around him to get to my back parking space.
• On Sunday morning at 11 am, there was someone sleeping on the parkway of our house (see picture). My dog barked at him and he didn’t wake or move (but he was breathing).
• On Monday at 6:45 am, there was someone sleeping on the parkway of the house two doors down. I didn’t get a picture.
• For the last four days, there has been a blue van (see pictures) parked in front of our house with someone living in it. I called police dispatch last night and they said they’d send someone out. They didn’t, and he was there this morning. After idling the old van loudly and with great stink for at least 20 minutes (as he was doing every morning), he drove away today (which he had not done for the last four days, despite the daily noisy van idling).
• When I talked to police dispatch last night, I asked for extra patrol because of these issues. They said I should call Pacific Division directly. I did, and let the phone ring some 50 times. No answer.
• My friend and veterinarian, Annie Harvilicz of Animal Wellness Center on Lincoln, finds people sleeping in her office driveway frequently. It scares her because, like any medical facility, she stocks drugs. One evening she called the police. She stayed in her car until they came to shoo the guy away. He was there the next morning when her employees arrived.

I have lived in Venice for 15 years, and I’m deeply distressed at these goings-on. They’re getting worse and worse, and our local politicians seem to have no concern whatsoever for residents, only for homeless people who need services or a wakeup call that Venice is not a refuge, not sidewalks to sleep on. Bill Rosendahl and Mike Bonin seem to have no regard for residents. I’ve written many times, and I get a stock answer each time to the effect of “Got your letter, thanks for writing, please reach out to us anytime.”

I love Venice and want to feel safe here, and I don’t want our streets and sidewalks to be beds and sewers. I do not think allowing homeless people to use our neigborhood in this way is a service to them. This is not occurring in most other Los Angeles neighborhoods. Why is nobody protecting or caring for Venice?

I want to add the following:

Additionally, there is also a problem of sleeping and pooping vagrants in the alley through which I walk every day to work, between Abbot Kinney and Electric, between Palms and Venice, including one who set up a makeshift home for months. When I called the police and they came (they came one time out of many that I called), because the guy wasn’t in there at the time, they couldn’t do anything. I asked about carting the piles of garbage of his “shed” away. They said they couldn’t do that and no city agency could do so. My landlord wouldn’t do it because he was worried about retribution and also being sued by these guys because of their “belongings.” This person pooped and peed with great frequency on the dirt hill between his “shed” and our office’s gate.

On another front, the parking in that alley has increased 20-fold, with cars parking on both sides (one side being illegal), and one business operating a car wash for employees twice a week, blocking the alley. That means when trucks come for restaurant deliveries, they block the whole alley. In the evenings, the speeding valet drivers are a true danger.

As far as I can tell, nobody in city government cares about Venice or its changing needs. It’s truly dismaying.

Barbara Gibson of Del Rey area
I spoke in favor of the project at 1414 Main Street.

Back in 2004, 204 Hampton set a precedent when 5 Venice RD1.5 lots, meaning residential not commercially zoned lots, were combined to build a 30,000 sq ft office building. 24 parking spaces were removed and now we have that building without any parking on that site (the 5 combined lots). The height is 40 plus feet.

I also noticed at least 3 people, the other night at the meeting, who were opposed to 1414 Main Street but were vehemently in support of the 204 Hampton project. Just an interesting observation.

In my opinion Mr. Teague is a visionary. He wants to provide badly needed parking and housing for a lot of people and on a commercially zoned lot on one of the wide streets with public transportation.

Also the people who would purchase these units for their homes would invest themselves in the neighborhood, probably work close by, and get involved in Venice and maybe even the neighborhood council. Now we have people who come to the beach and enjoy the beach, contribute to the congestion but leave and go back to their homes somewhere else where they pay taxes and are part of organizations in their neighborhood.

I wonder if Abbot Kinney would have been allowed to bring his vision to reality today with the not in my backyard mentality?