Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) will hold its first Hootenanny 16 February, 11 am to 4 pm, Oakwood Park at 7th and California Ave.
What is going on in Venice? Is this not the “poster child of the free reign of homelessness in Venice?” No Carol Sobel laws are broken here.
This photo was sent to Update by Howard Weisenfeld, former president of Venice Canals Association and property owner.
The police have been notified and are working on this as well as the area in the Venice Median involved with the Grand Canal.
Last week Hampton, 7th and Penmar Park were cleaned and all three total trash disasters were cleaned just before the rains. Now that the rain is over, where do the encampments stand? Photos were taken Friday morning (18 January)
The one that took the prize was 7th Ave. There were only three tent areas. One guy took the prize for all encampments. The side view of his place was shown because it was next to a drain.
A guy with the garbage was yelling at this writer for taking a photo, being on the street, being alive. He claimed to be a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. So maybe police can let him do a little KP in the jail. The homeless are normally not belligerent.
The law made it a federal misdemeanor to falsely represent oneself as having received any U.S. military decoration or medal. If convicted, defendant might face imprisonment for up to six months, unless the decoration lied about is the Medal of Honor, in which case imprisonment could be up to one year.
The other two tents on 7th were both not ADA compliant.
Penmar Park west looked like it had thinned out. Tenters moved from where the water is shown.It is possible they all stowed their “stuff” under the blue tarp.
Hampton was a joy to see. The sidewalk was still clean. Looked like one fellow was packing up and about to leave.
Hampton, south of Rose, has a new encampment.
Grand Canal that is in the middle of North and South Venice Blvd, next to the historical bridge in the Venice median parking lot is growing. Allan Parson reported it last week but it has gown and it is in an area that could cause a lot of pollution. These photos are not as descriptive as Parson’s.
Harrison Ave has struggled with a large encampment. Landscaping was done and now planters but they continue to have a couple of tenters next to Enterprise.
Carter Ave continues to have one or two campers at night and the next day they are gone. One would think that Walgreens’s Drug would do some landscaping.
This gentleman with Tennessee plates has been occupying this handicapped parking space in the public parking lot at Electric Avenue and Santa Clara Avenue 24/7 round the clock for the last week. He has been there full-time despite signs prohibiting parking from 2 am to 7 am. He now has a lot of personal items stored around the vehicle as well, which he was moving in and out of the vehicle earlier this morning.
This individual has been living in this vehicle on Electric for about a month across from residences despite our calls to parking enforcement and LAPD Dispatch. Can you look into it?
Both Stanley Nowak and Bruce Campbell have tried to have action taken on these two vehicles. What does one do in a case such as this?
Senior Lead Officer Kristan Delatori, who is on the teacher union walkout, wrote:
Thank you for the information regarding the vehicle on Electric and the vehicle in the handicap space! I am assigned to the UTLA Strike until further. Please continue to utilize Department of Transportation as this type of issue is their primary responsibility. I would suggest using the MYLA311 website it is a great tool to document the issue and it is helpful for follow up. I will also put in a request with 311 and I will ask the Officers that work in this area to help work on the issue.
And what is this? A designated campground for motorhomes and vans. Across the street, in front of Google are cars and vans that people are living in.
There are seven motorhomes and three vans, one of which is a handicap access vehicle that people are living in. Motorhome steps are on the sidewalk. One motorhome has his rear tire on the curb to keep his refrigerator leveled. Campground one block from the beach.
This guy looks comfortable with his chair out under the tree in front of Google entrance.
One Uber driver asked this reporter what was going on. “Don’t people try to change this, fix it” he asked.
Note: The Venice Community Housing Corporation claims this is the last time this will be heard. This is a housing project on fast track. Few people know what that means. This is an appeal to try to make corrections. If these corrections are not obtained, the property will be built as is, setting many precedents for Venice.
City Planning Commission will hear appeal of 718 – 720 Rose 24 January at 8:30 am at the Van Nuys Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, 14410 Sylvan Street, Van Nuys, 91401.
Appellants are John Reed, Jim Murez, and Marie Hammond.
1. The appeal is to appeal the Advisory Agency’s approval of a Tentative Tract Map for a merger and re-subdivision of Block A, Lots 5 and 6 of Tract 4372 including land previously quitclaim/deeded to the City for future street purposes, and of the Categorical Exemption pursuant to CEQA Guidelines, Section 15332 (Class 32):
2. A Conditional Use for a Housing Development Project with a density bonus in excess of that permitted.
3. A 35 percent density bonus (with 10 percent affordable rental special needs projects with unobstructed access and/or paratransit service) with parking provided pursuant to AB744, and pursuant to three Off-Menu Waivers as follows:
a. Height increase of 18 feet, 8 inches for a total of 43 feet, eight inches in lieu of permitted 25 feet.
b. Waiver of the stepback provisions of the Venice Coastal Specific Plan and associated with the increased height and
c. waiver of loading space requirements.
4. Project permit compliance for a project within the Venice Coastal Specific Plan
5. A coastal development permit for a project within the single permit jurisdiction of the California Coastal Zone and
6. A Mello Act Compliance Review for a project in the California Coastal Zone.
Address all comments and questions to Oliver Netburn, City Planner, 200 North Spring Street, Room 763, Los Angeles, CA 90012 or Oliver.Netburn@lacity.org; 213-978-1382.
Masters in the Chapel will have the HEX Ensemble, 26 January, 7 to 8 pm, First Lutheran Church, 815 Venice Blvd.
Venice Business Improvement District shows the stats for December 2018.
(Venice, CA/1-14-19) Today the Venice Stakeholders Association (VSA) filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles and the California Coastal Commission (CCC), challenging their approval of a 154-bed homeless shelter in the Venice neighborhood, in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the California Coastal Act and other laws.
“The City and the Coastal Commission jammed this project through the system and bypassed the environmental laws and the Coastal Act,” said Mark Ryavec, president of the VSA, a non-profit corporation dedicated to protecting Venice residents and their neighborhoods. “No government or project is immune from these laws.”
The City’s so-called “Bridge Housing” facility would be located in the middle of a residential neighborhood just one block from Venice Beach. It includes a large semi-permanent “tent” building containing a 100-bed dormitory, an outdoor dining area, a large outdoor kennel for residents’ pets, and several other buildings. Despite having 154 beds and dozens of staff, the project would have as little as 20 parking spaces.
According to the lawsuit, the City approved the project “at lightning speed,” in just 11 days, while the Coastal Commission approved it in just nine days. The Venice Neighborhood Council, which is elected by Venice residents, was not even consulted. “The neighbors and the public were ambushed,” said Ryavec.
Ryavec acknowledged the need for shelters and other facilities to address Venice’s persistent homeless problem. However, he added, “a residential neighborhood like this one is not the right place for such a project, especially since much of the facility is essentially outdoors, and just across a narrow street from homes.”
The VSA lawsuit says that the City refused to do any environmental review for the project under CEQA, and the Coastal Commission granted the City a waiver from the usual requirement of a Coastal Development Permit, thereby avoiding any analysis of the impacts of the project on coastal resources such as parking and water quality.
“Just because the City and the Coastal Commission think this project will benefit the public doesn’t mean they can avoid considering its impacts under the environmental laws and the Coastal Act,” said Ryavec. He noted that other beneficial projects, such as hospitals and schools, must comply with these same laws.
“If a developer proposed a 154-bed convalescent hospital with dozens of staff people, an outdoor kennel and dining facility, just feet from residents’ living rooms, with only 20 parking spaces, the City would require an environmental impact report and mitigation before approving it,” he said. “A homeless shelter is no different.”
At the edge of South Venice Blvd where the Grand Canal enters the parking lot between North and South Venice Blvd, there is an encampment hidden from view.
Up Close it shows a lot of “stuff” jammed in, next to the Grand Canal. This has been missed in the weekly encampment updates because the side visible is the north side of Venice Blvd and that was cleared. Note the canoe in water.
Both photos were taken by Allan Parson, 11 January.
