News of Venice, CA and Marina del Rey CA
Clean and Safe teams are coordinating with LA Sanitation to clean up the bulky items. The Venice BID has been hampered by their ability to pick up bulky items because of their capacity to dispose of them. LA Sanitation provided them with a 40-yard dumpster. Now the bulky items will start to disappear.
Clean team is on duty 7 days a week from 7 am to 6 pm; Safe team works from 6:30 to 10:30 pm.
This is the only information available regarding an increase in fees for dumping. Dumping is serious business in Venice. There is dumping of furniture and food,
both of which have created problems in Venice.
(7 September 2019) What a difference a day makes! The encampment update was written and pictured Thursday. Friday morning Ocean Front Walk and 3rd Ave were cleaned as they always are. But this Friday, a coordinated effort by Bureau of Sanitation, LAPD, and the Venice BID had Hampton Drive from Rose to Sunset vacated, disinfected, and pressure washed. Ocean Ave, North and South Venice Blvd were also cleared and cleaned of debris.
Bureau of Sanitation can enforce LAMC 56.11 that says you can only have items that fit into a 60-gallon can so the “stuff” remaining after everyone had cleared the streets was removed. The picture below is an example of what Sanitation workers deal with each day — garbage and large items. This was 3rd Ave, west side, last Friday.
(Photo courtesy of Rick Swinger.)
Sanitation disinfects the streets using the small truck. The big truck is for biohazard materials.
(Photo courtesy of Rick Swinger.)
Paul, supervisor of one of the BID Clean Teams, is shown pressure washing the sidewalk on Hampton, which is done after the sidewalk is disinfected.
Below is Hampton, west side, after it was cleared and cleaned. Connie Brooks was walking down the sidewalk and said “What a pleasure it is to use the sidewalk.”
Whether Ocean Ave, North and South Venice Blvd, and Hampton Dr will be on the roster for weekly cleanups is not known at this time.
Hampton was repopulated almost immediately. Ocean and North and South Venice Blvd did have some “stuff” that hadn’t been picked up but it had not completely repopulated yet. There were people gathering near the canal on North Venice. There was an encampment at the library and one at the pocket park across from Tesuque Market.
Ocean Ave
North Venice Blvd
Brown tarp is back on Ocean Ave between North and South Venice Blvd. Most of those on Ocean have now moved to South Venice Blvd. The vans are gone from North Venice Blvd. Last week the electricity was cut off.
Geraldo, whom there is no photo of, was on North Venice Blvd with his bottles waiting for the van to pick up the bottles. He said the vans just left the area. He didn’t know where they went. He said he picks up bottles which gives him enough money to eat each day. One fellow, he said, bothers him because he comes at night and makes a big mess. Geraldo was busy cleaning up the mess.
South Venice Blvd
North Venice Blvd
Main St on west side of Westminster Elementary School looks like it has a little van, sidewalk encampment starting. Westminster Senior Center Park is clear except for the two wooden tents.
Main St
Hampton, south of Rose, was a delightful experience. Dorthea moved all sidewalk sitters off the sidewalk. Put the trash in a black plastic on the street and put soap and water on the sidewalk. How clean it was. When asked what she did with all the guys, she said she had them put their stuff on Main. “Look all the grease is gone,” she said happily. She was really pleased with the way the sidewalk looked. She was born and raised in California and use to live just off Abbot Kinney when it was Washington Blvd.
Hampton, south of Rose
Hampton, north of Rose, is still the poster child.
3rd Ave, both the east and the west sides, were filmed this week
West side
East side
4th south of Sunset on the west side of the Skills Center seems to grow and then decrease.
4th, south of Sunset
Lincoln Blvd near Rose has fewer tents or they are smaller. Beast was not up yet and didn’t see Josh or Jay.
Lincoln, south of Rose
Lincoln Blvd on the east side near Washington Blvd has the start of a new encampment.
Lincoln Blvd, near Washington Blvd
(6 August 2019) Department of Sanitation, Street Services, cited the installation of planters on 4th Ave, Monday, at 1:40 pm for being in violation of LAMC 56.08(e)1.
Approximately 30 planters were installed on west side of 4th Ave Monday from Rose to the Venice Community Housing project, several hundred feet from Sunset. Actually, planters paralleled Public Storage property.
Ordinance 56.08(e)1 states
(e) (Amended by Ord. No. 128,577, Eff. 11/14/64.)
1. No person having charge or control of any lot or premises, either as owner, lessee, tenant, builder, contractor, housemover, or otherwise, shall construct, deposit or maintain any structure, building, rock, brick, broken concrete, stepping stones, sprinkler heads or any obstacle of any nature whatsoever in or upon any street, sidewalk or parkway abutting on or adjacent to such lot or premises or which will interfere with the free passage of pedestrians or vehicles along such street, sidewalk or parkway.
We will recommend that all vegetation / obstructions be removed 1 to 3 ft. back from the curb face.
As measured by two LAPD police officers, the sidewalk to fence maintained more than 36 inches which is necessary for the Federal ADA clearance. The other side of the planters had approximately two feet. Perhaps, inspector did not have proper measuring tools.
One lady who lived on street made the comment after installation of the planters that finally a wheelchair could get by. She said she thought there were a couple of people in the VCH complex that required wheelchairs and they could not use 4th Ave on west side when homeless were residing there.
(13 July 2019) Motorhome (RV) dump stations are coming to Venice! LA Bureau of Sanitation comes to the rescue, according to Matt Fisher of the Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) board.
Many articles have been written about the sewage problem of motorhomes in Venice dumping in the city sewer inlets and on the streets. The two closest dump stations are Dockweiler RV Park at 12001 Vista del Mar, Playa del Rey and Hyperion Plant at 9660 W. Imperial Hwy, Playa del Rey, Gate B. Dockweiler charges $10 per dump. Hyperion in free and is open M,W,F from 9 to 2 and T,T from 12 to 4.
The following is the letter received from Matt Fisher.
The city of Los Angeles has 10 trucks on order that will be emptying RV sewage/shower tanks. The expected delivery date is October but might happen sooner.
LA sanitation will hopefully be at the August VNC meeting with full details about that and our newest clean up processes.
I have also started a personal outreach effort to educate various vehicle dwellers on proper waste disposal and how to be a good neighbor. I am trying to put together a guide that would help explain the “rules of the road” from my years of experience, directed at newer vehicle dwellers. Outreach is a slow process alone, hopefully we will get a homeless committee soon and maybe we can get some help.
In this world, every little bit counts. Lots of other great things in the works, it’s been a very busy month!
(2 July 2019) Peter Griswold, a Venice resident, has been asking all to address the RV dumping on the streets, in the sewer drains, lack of dumping stations. He has gotten a reply from Councilperson Nury Martinez of the 6th District.
This is what Griswold wrote:
Many RVs park overnight on Public Streets streets….
What do you know about where they discharge their waste + sewage??
What do the RVRs even know about where to dispose of their sewage??
What has the City or Sanitation or even the Media done to publicize this??
RVs use curbside storm drains after dark and this abuse is not publicized!!
RVs should have a list where sanitation and pump-out facilities are located.
RVs should show evidence of working waste systems and Sanitation Permits.
Griswold received two responses from Martinez’s office. They are reprinted here because there is useful information in each note, perhaps, only for those in SunValley, but the gesture was appreciated.
Thank you for your email. I am forwarding your concerns regarding RVs illegally dumping in storm drains to my field staff. My staff and I will review your comments and will work to address your concerns in a timely manner.
Due to the high volume of e-mails my office receives, it is difficult to respond immediately, but we will respond to every constituent contact in due time. If you wish to speak to a member of my staff regarding an urgent concern, please don’t hesitate to contact my office by phone. My City Hall office can be reached at (213) 473 7006. My Sun Valley District Office can be reached at (818) 771 0236 and my Van Nuys District Office at (818) 778 4999.
Please check my website (nury-martinez.com) for resources and information you may find useful. Stay up-to-date with news from our office by following us on Facebook facebook.com/JoinNury and Twitter twitter.com/CD6Nury.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Apparently, others have asked the same question so the last response was written to four other people as well as Griswold.
Good Afternoon, I hope this message finds you well. My name is Marcos Sanchez and I am Councilwoman Nury Martinez’s District Director.
What is the best phone number to contact you by? The City does have tools to address these issues on our streets. Do you have an address where this dumping is occurring. I am out of the Sun Valley office this week. My number is 818-771-0236
Thank you again and looking forward to hearing from you.
The Venice Update did have an article about dumping and area dumping stations available. See Venice Update article.
City Council members have agreed to overhaul the now existent system for cleaning up the encampment sites. The details are not clear at present but the system will change as follows:
1) The Bureau of Sanitation will assign crews to certain sites and keep them assigned to that site so all encampment members can become accustomed to the Sanitation crew members.
2) Sites will be more “scheduled” than occasioned by complaints.
3) Police will be present to protect the Bureau of Sanitation crew members. (This is under further review as prompted by groups such as Services Not Sweeps and LA Community Action Group.
4) More trash bins or cans will be available.
5) Mobile restrooms.
6) Sanitation must stop illegal dumping. Illegal dumping, it is claimed, amounts to 80 percent of the trash picked up. The City initiated a single provider garbage system that is considerably more costly than the previous system and it has been said that businesses are dumping their garbage at homeless sites.
Rick Swinger has reported and photographed many (crates) of food (old, throwaway) items dumped on 3rd Ave site and Ocean Front Walk. Many feel this is a humanitarian endeavor but it is not. Also 3rd Ave is next to Public Storage so many people put unwanted items on the street for pickup. Once this writer was talking with a couple on 3rd, left to talk with others, came back to original couple and found a roll of carpet next to them. Asked the couple how carpet got there and the couple replied that a guy in a truck stoped and dumped it.
Rick Swinger has mentioned that the abandonment of furniture of 3rd could be eliminated by Public Storage if they would put a bin for unwanted items on their property. But storage would not want to do that because what was precious and stored, becomes junk in six months. So Public Storage would have to pay for having to have the stuff picked up, Same price others who are dumping refuse to pay.
Note: A new program for cleaning the encampments was agreed to by City Council members Friday and reported by the LA Times.
“Services not Sweeps” lost their battle to eliminate LAPD during Bureau of Sanitation cleanups this week.
Services not Sweeps felt the presence of the LAPD was unnecessary but Bureau of Sanitation felt it was necessary to protect their workers during cleanups throughout the City.
L.A. Sanitation Bureau chief Enrique C. Zaldivar at a city council meeting revealed that the police would still be a part of the LA homeless camp cleanups. The LA Times reported that “Under the city’s new system the LAPD’s role would be to protect city sanitation workers and outreach workers from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority — the latter of whom are the first point of contact with homeless people for cleanups.”
(13 June 2019) Hats off to the Bureau of Sanitation and all their workers. The Los Angeles portion (north side) of the 405 underpass at Venice Blvd was cleaned this morning by Sanitation.
The other side (south side) is Culver City and they had a statement taped to the wall stating that property and debris would be removed 18 June. Property they said would be stored for 90 days and debris would be disposed.
For the first time a tent was spotted on the Culver City side. Councilman Mike Bonin has proposed that other cities share in the homelessness that is engulfing Los Angeles. This underpass is an example of the contrast.
Dan, the Sanitation supervisor, said that the Venice Blvd was not a scheduled stop as is Ocean and 3rd in Venice. Dan allowed this writer to walk thru the encampment but he cautioned “look down for needles.” The cleanup consists normally of removing all the debris, sanitizing (bleach spray) the soiled areas, storing items left on the sidewalks. He said that maybe in a few weeks they will do a power wash.
One man from Clean Sweeps was there helping people move stuff to the middle divider in the road. Young man was the only one of 30 members helping out today. Apologies for forgetting his name. Dan said tenters just normally start to move stuff to that area when they see us arrive.
What was noticeable was that there were fewer tenters.
South side of the underpass, Culver City side. One tenter and a sign.
Sanitation team waits for police to rope off area before starting to clean.
The road divider was fast filling up with belongings of the tenters in preparation of the cleanup. Dan said 72 hours had been given but notices had been removed except for the outside areas. (Notices should have posted date.)
The road divider was fast filling up with belongings of the tenters in preparation of the cleanup.
The tent was dragged to the alley on the north side of Venice Blvd.
Noticed the debris at the drains. Sanitation said another team comes along and cleans the gutters. They have a truck that just sucks up the debris he said.
Don’t know how or if the fenced areas near the freeway gets cleaned.