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Venice News Updates

News of Venice, CA and Marina del Rey CA

Fruit Vendor Joins Hawkers

Posted by :reta On : June 27, 2014
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Category: Ocean Front Walk

h. Fruit Vendor

In this small area by the paddle courts, there are marijuana and cd hawkers as well as fruit vendors. Fruit vendors are the most recent additions and are on the west side across from establishments selling fruit and juices. Only one was there Friday when picture was taken. Usually, according to one shop owner, there are four vendors competing with restaurants selling fruit and juice. Shop owner said they keep their fruit in hot vans behind the paddle courts. These are all illegal according to the rules of Section 42.15 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code. Vendors are waiting for the marijuana hawkers, the cd hawkers, and the fruit vendors to be cited.

White Suits Do Monthly Cleanup on OFW

Posted by :reta On : June 27, 2014
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Category: Ocean Front Walk

h. White Suits

h. Kids Waiting

Once a month, Sanitation department cleans the beach area. People are notified at least 72 hours before and told not to leave belongings unattended. Belongs left unattended will be checked. Garbage, candy wrappers, etc. will be put in trash; belongings will be tagged and stored. Yet, it still happens. People will leave items unattended. These two homeless people are guarding theirs’ and others’ belongings as the area is cleaned and sanitized.

Beach Curfew Support Letters–Hoffman, Ryavec

Posted by :reta On : June 27, 2014
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Category: California Coastal Commission (CCC), City, Ocean Front Walk

These are letters from two community leaders in support of the 12- to 5-am Venice Beach Residential Area (VBRA) curfew written to City officials and to Captain Brian Johnson, Los Angeles Pacific Division.

Following are the letter from Mark Ryavec, president of Venice Stakeholders Association and Jack Hoffman, former president of Venice Action Committee and who lives in vicinity of curfew area.

From Mark Ryavec
The Venice Stakeholders Association strongly supports maintaining the City’s 12- to 5-am curfew for the Venice Beach Recreation Area (VBRA).

Enforcement of the curfew has brought the first serious relief to long suffering residents who live on the Ocean Front Walk and on the nearby walk streets. Until it was enforced residents lost many nights of sleep to loud music, screaming campers and drugged-out meth addicts yelling just to yell.

The curfew has also noticeably reduced crime during the curfew hours in the
area by removing those who would engage in theft, destruction of public
property, and vandalism.

We have consulted with legal counsel and do not believe that a Coastal
Development Permit (CDP) is necessary for the curfew to be in effect. The
curfew is an exercise of the City’s inherent police powers, which are expressly exempt from Coastal Act requirement for a CDP.

While the curfew does limit access to water, so does a line of police tape that is placed across entry points to the Boardwalk in emergency situations or around sites in the VRBA when a crime has been committed. The curfew is simply a proactive version of police tape designed to prevent crime, vandalism and the violation of quality of life ordinances that protect residents. No CDP is required for any of these exercises of police power to protect citizens and property.

Jack Hoffman
I strongly support the curfew on Venice Beach.

Preserving the public interest for beach access cannot be greater than the life
threatening risk the public faces on our beaches at night. This is not an exaggeration
to make a point. It is a point that needs to be made clear.

Venice provides more visitor-serving access to the beach than any other community of its size, and most-larger communities, on the west coast. We are doing more than our fair share. Hosting legions of visitors comes at a high cost to our residents but we are generous hosts to the city, county, state and the world and bear the daily consequences of their invasion with grace. Even so we don’t need more problems while we try to arrest the current ones.

We have gangs roaming the area day and night, real gangs. We had a homeless man beaten to death and buried in the sand by a roaming band of teenagers one night. People are robbed, stabbed and shot at a higher rate in Venice than in most or any other beach community in the State. The beach is the largest unlit area in Venice and it is impossible to patrol without reducing badly needed services to protect our community’s well-lit streets.

If the State Coastal Commission votes to ban the curfew, then the State should
provide nighttime patrols to make them safe for the public to visit – otherwise the
public whose rights have been “protected” will be at great risk.

If the State Coastal Commission bans the curfew, it will only be a matter of time
before questions will be asked as to why no consideration of the obvious was given.

Those questions will come too late. A proven answer is already at work.

VSA Supports Beach Curfew

Posted by :reta On : June 27, 2014
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Category: California Coastal Commission (CCC), City, County, Ocean Front Walk

Venice Stakeholders Association (VSA) today released a letter to the Los Angeles Police Department and City officials supporting the City’s 12- to 5-am Venice Beach Recreation Area (VBRA) curfew.

VSA claims that the curfew is an inherent municipal police power and expressly exempt from purview of the Coastal Act and the Coastal Commission. (See Beach Curfew Support Letters from Ryavec, Hoffman.)

The Venice Stakeholders Association and other Venice groups are organizing support for the beach curfew, which is critical to preserving the quality of life of residents living along the Venice’s Ocean Front Walk and the walk streets.

“The framers of the Coastal Act carved out the police powers of coastal cities from the requirement to obtain a coastal development permit (CDP),” said Mark Ryavec, the VSA president.

“The State Legislature did not want the Coastal Act to prevent the police from protecting residents and visitors.” Ryavec, a former legislative analyst for the City of Los Angeles, said the exemption for cities is straightforward.

In his letter to police and City officials, the Venice leader noted that “while the curfew does limit “access to water,” so does a line of police tape that is placed across entry points to the Boardwalk in emergency situations or around sites in the Venice Beach Recreation Area (VBRA) when a crime has been committed.

The curfew is simply a proactive version of police tape designed to prevent crime, vandalism and the violation of quality of life ordinances that protect residents.”

“No CDP is required for any of these exercises of police power to protect citizens and property.”

Also released was a letter supporting the curfew from long-time Venice resident Jack Hoffman, who is the past president of the Venice Action Committee and lives in vicinity.

City to Exclude These from Beach Areas

Posted by :reta On : June 16, 2014
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Category: Ocean Front Walk

c. segway c. scooter

Segway is the EPAMD; the three-wheeler is the hybrid multiple-wheeled electric person assistive mobility-type device. Not shown is the hybrid, multiple-wheeled motorized scooter-type device, which is assumed to be similar to a “Razor” two-wheeled scooter with an engine.

Council office will be proposing an ordinance amending subsection O of Section 63.44 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code to exclude 1) electric personal assistive mobility devices (EPAMD), 2) hybrid, multiple-wheeled motorized scooter-type devices and 3) hybrid multiple-wheeled electric personal assistive mobility-type devices. These vehicles it is claimed can operate 12.5 to 30 miles an hour and are dangerous in certain areas.

They are to be banned from the boardwalk, sidewalks, bike paths or other public ways within the limit of any park consisting of beach lands or beach properties adjoining the waterfront between Washington Blvd and the City of Santa Monica.

“They should ban the skateboards,” Colin said as a skateboarder went whizzing by. “Skateboarders are much more dangerous and have more accidents than these electric vehicles but …” Colin who owns the rental shop shown will have to move his business.

First violation will be $100. Second and subsequent violations will be subject to prosecution as an infraction punishable by a fine in the amount of $250 or prosecution as a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $1000 or by imprisonment in the County Jail for a period of not more than six months, or by both a fine and imprisonment.

These definitions do not include electric bicycles. And law enforcement personnel will be exempt from the law and able to use similar type devices. People with a disability will also be excluded from this ordinance under American Disabilities Act.

Police Settle Argument

Posted by :reta On : June 8, 2014
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Category: Ocean Front Walk, Police

a

Police on Ocean Front Walk helping settle a dispute over whose space is it?

Moses Removes the Trash

Posted by :reta On : June 8, 2014
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Category: Homeless, Ocean Front Walk

a, Moses

Moses at the beach told Update he was cleaning up Market Street all the time now. The production companies on Market he says give him money. Normally, Moses does not get paid for what he does, nor supposedly does he ask for money. He just does it because he hates trash. He now uses rakes and says they work better than brooms. On one street, guy pays Moses’ helpers in food. If people would just donate the bags, the supplies we need, we would keep their area clean. We don’t want it dirty down here.

a. market l

a. Market st

Lonely cup sits pointing to graffiti. Pictures show both sides of Market. Only a cup on the sidewalk. Far cry from yesterday. It just goes to show that people just need to take the initiative, and if the answer is Moses, so be it.

Grass is Dying at OFW

Posted by :reta On : June 8, 2014
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Category: Ocean Front Walk

Grass is dying at the Ocean Front Walk grassy area between boardwalk and the beach. Department of Recreation and Parks, maintenance division, said it was a combination of several things.

One unofficial person stated that “the homeless remove, break, or cover up sprinkler heads and we just don’t have enough employees to keep them repaired. We are also only allowed to water three times a day and for only 15 minutes.”

Exit Segways from OFW

Posted by :reta On : May 29, 2014
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Category: Ocean Front Walk

An ordinance banning “personal assistive mobility devices and other power-driven mobility devices from operating on boardwalk, sidewalk, bike path or other public way,etc.” from Washington Blvd to Santa Monica border was sent to the City Council’s Transportation Committee. Ordinance

This ordinance was requested by Councilmember Bonin to address the problem of Segways on OFW and includes an exemption for individuals with disabilities.

LaMarche does blubber

Posted by :reta On : April 26, 2014
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Category: Ocean Front Walk

LaMarche

LaMarche deals in blubber. Blubber is his creation, which is an offshoot from the masters of paint making. He is a vendor on Venice Beach at the Boardwalk. He makes his own paint, boils it, throws in a few things and he has blubber. All his work is from cast offs including his umbrella. He paints everything. Even his clothes are a piece of work. He was once offered $500 for his shoes and did not take it.

LaMarche's Slippers