Tag Archive for "Ocean Front Walk"

Ryavec Speaks at CCC Regarding Venice Beach

Posted by :reta On : January 9, 2015

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Category: California Coastal Commission (CCC), City, Councilman, Crime, Homeless, LAPD, Los Angeles, Ocean Front Walk, Ocean Front Walk (OFW), Police, politics

Tags:cleanup, Councilman, Crime, homeless, Ocean Front Walk, Venice, Venice Beach

Mark Ryavec, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association, spoke before the California Coastal Commission (CCC) Friday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium about obstacles at Venice Beach to the visitor-serving mandate of the Coastal Act.

He also addressed historic preservation. See “Ryavec Addresses CCC About ‘Historic Preservation.’

Over the last year and a half the City of Los Angeles has allowed the Venice Beach Recreation Area to become Skid Row West.

I would advise you that you should walk the entire length of the Boardwalk from Rose to Windward to fully understand the truth of my statement. Permanent encampments of transients have literally occupied many areas of the park along the Boardwalk and deny them to visitors and residents alike.

These encampments act as incubators for crime inland; for example, there have been five home invasions in my immediate neighborhood since last April committed by transients living along Venice breach.

Due to the unwillingness of the City officials – the mayor, the councilman, the Department of Recreation and Parks and the LAPD – to enforce existing laws against camping in parks in the City of Los Angeles, our organization has filed a lawsuit, funded by residents, against the City for maintaining a dangerous public nuisance along Venice beach.

We strongly support the City’s midnight to 5 AM beach curfew, which is the only measure that gives some respite to residents from the very loud and dangerous conditions that would otherwise exist in the park along the Boardwalk at night. Our attorneys – and now the Los Angeles City Attorney – believe the curfew is a legal exercise of the City’s inherent police powers and thus exempt from the Coastal Act. Before you consider filing a lawsuit against the City to require that it apply for a CDP you should spend a night on Venice Beach with the LAPD and some adjacent residents to understand our need for the curfew to remain in place as it currently operates to offer a modicum of protection and relief to residents.

Your commission might also give some thought to whether by illegally allowing encampments in a coastal park that the City is denying use of these areas to visitors and thus the City is in violation of the Coastal Act.

Councilman Asks Parkway, Sidewalk Code 56.11 Be Improved

Posted by :reta On : December 14, 2014

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Category: City, Councilman, Crime, Police

Tags:Councilman, Crime, homeless, Marina del Rey, Ocean Front Walk, Police, Venice, Venice Beach

The motion that passed 3 December states:

Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) Section 56.11 states: “No person shall leave or permitto remain any merchandise, baggage or any article of personal property upon any parkway orsidewalk. Provided, that boxes, barrels and other receptacles for merchandise may be unpackedand their contents removed upon parkways or sidewalks.”

Recently, there has been a decided increase in individuals and businesses storing personalproperty on City sidewalks, often in large amounts and for extended periods of time. This hascaused pronounced visual blight and impeded access for pedestrians, especially for the disabled. The presence of this property has reached the point of causing public health and safety issues and interferes with the purpose of our sidewalks – safe and convenient passage for pedestrians. Recent court actions have significantly hampered the City’s ability to remove items from itssidewalks and parkways, exacerbating this problem considerably.

Sidewalks should remain unobstructed so that the City’s residents and visitors have a safe andpassable route of travel. The City has a strong interest in guarding against visual blight andpublic health and safety hazards which may occur when sidewalks are excessively anduncontrollably used to store personal property. It is imperative that the City of Los Angelesseek to amend this LAMC Section, mindful of recent court actions and requirements of public notice and interim storage, in order to enhance its efforts to keep its sidewalks clean, passableand appropriate for pedestrian travel.

I THEREFORE MOVE that the City Attorney be requested to draft an amendment to LAMC Section 56.11 to enhance the City’s ability to ensure sidewalks are available for their intendedpurpose and set forth a clearer, faster, and simpler process for removing unattended propertyfrom our sidewalks, including the provision of notice and interim storage.

See: http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=14-1656

Arnold Springer Says “Buck Stops” with Councilman

Posted by :reta On : November 1, 2014

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Category: City, City Property, Councilman, County, Crime, Homeless, Ocean Front Walk (OFW)

Tags:cleanup, Councilman, Crime, homeless, Ocean Front Walk, Police, Venice, Venice Beach

Thank you for the really informative reporting on the VSA lawsuit against
the City of L.A. And also for the response of OUR Councilman Michael Bonin.

He is not evil!

Sorry Mr. Councilman, don’t tell us to blame the courts. You’re to blame.
The buck stops with YOU.

The courts are just enforcing the LAW; WHOSE LAW?

However, I am tired of seeing ‘pass the buck’ excuses from our political
representatives on this question of homeless people and how they contribute
to an atmosphere of crime, pollution, disease, intimidation and mayhem.
I am so tired of hearing the excuses. Tired, Tired, ……..and FED UP.

Are there no younger Venice property owners and residents who will commit to
a saturating, real full-blanket petition, one for all Venice resident
property owners, one for real renters, well put, describing Venice’s plight
here, and submit it to the Councilman one last time!

If he still claims he can’t do more by himself, and nothing has changed in
three months, can we do a second round of petitions for…… to RECALL HIM?

That’s what REFERENDUM AND RECALL ARE ALL ABOUT.

Polls of All Stripes!! Are You Listening? Do You Have Your Ears to the
Ground?

Ryavec Answers Councilman

Posted by :reta On : October 31, 2014

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Category: City, City Property, Councilman, County, Crime, Homeless, Ocean Front Walk (OFW), Police

Tags:Crime, Ocean Front Walk, Police, Venice, Venice Beach

Mark Ryavec, president of Venice Stakeholders Association (VSA), answers Councilman Mike Bonin regarding his statement about the lawsuit filed this week by VSA and five residents.

Venice Stakeholders Association, headed by Mark Ryavec, and five residents of Ocean Front Walk sued the City and the County this week for allowing dangerous conditions and public nuisance to exist along the Venice Beach area. (See post VSA, Residents Sue City, County–Dangerous Conditions and Public Nuisance at Venice Beach.)

Councilmember Mike Bonin answered yesterday by stating that he too was frustrated but that courts have repeatedly handcuffed the City. (See post Bonin reacts to Lawsuit Regarding Venice Beach Safety.)

This is what Ryavec had to say:

While the VSA and those individuals who have joined the lawsuit against the City appreciate that one court decision and one ill-advised settlement agreement have limited what the City of Los Angeles can do about people sleeping on sidewalks and with the possessions of homeless individuals, it is also clear that the decision and settlement do not apply to parks. Nor do they entirely tie the hands of cities in addressing the problems of homeless encampments; if they did the problems we see at Venice Beach would also be seen in Malibu, Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, Hermosa Beach, Manhatten Beach, etc.

The City still has legal tools to cope with the noxious impacts of transient encampments and the VSA has proposed several changes to City ordinances that would give the City new tools in this area. The first would ban unattended luggage in or within 500 feet of the Venice Beach Recreation Area; this should have been done last year in response to the Boston Marathon backpack bombing. The second would ban lying, sitting or sleeping within 125 feet of a residence or a hotel, creating a buffer zone around the structures were residents and visitors sleep.

These proposals were forwarded to Mayor Garcetti, Councilman Bonin and City Attorney Feuer. We received no reply. Nothing.

Our attorney John Henning then wrote to Mr. Bonin on two occasions asking to discuss these proposals and offering to put them into the form of Motions for Mr. Bonin to introduce in City Council, which is the first step towards enacting them into law. Mr. Bonin did not reply to either missive.

So, I think Mr. Bonin is hiding behind the earlier court decision and settlement agreement instead of working seriously with the City Attorney and LAPD to apply at Venice Beach the existing rules that keep people from camping at all the other parks in Los Angeles. He continues to focus on what the City can’t do instead of inviting our attorney to meet with his office, the City Attorney and the LAPD to craft new ordinances to dismantle the half-mile-long Meth park that exists along Venice Beach and to ban sleeping within 125 of residences.

We all would love to see housing provided for all these people. That being said, Mr. Bonin knows that most of them do not want housing if they cannot also have their drugs and, in some instances, their dogs. Some of them don’t want to live inside under any circumstances. Mr. Bonin also knows that it is unrealistic to think that this affordable or free housing or shelters can be built in Venice due to the underlying high land costs. The protections of residents along the Boardwalk and adjoining streets cannot wait until the City and other agencies can cobble together the funds to build it.

Hey Dude! That’s a Killer!

Posted by :reta On : October 30, 2014

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Category: Uncategorized

Tags:Crime, Ocean Front Walk, Venice, Venice Beach

Car entered Ocean front Walk (OFW) at Venice Blvd, south. Venice Blvd is one-way south. So driver took OFW to Venice Blvd north, which is one-way north. Sounded reasonable to him. Did not think to go in parking lot and turn around.

VSA, Residents Sue City, County–Dangerous Conditions and Public Nuisance at Venice Beach

Posted by :reta On : October 30, 2014

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Category: City, City Property, County, Crime, Venice Stakeholders Association (VSA)

Tags:City, cleanup, Councilman, County, Crime, Ocean Front Walk, Police, Venice, Venice Beach, Venice Boardwalk

(Venice, CA/10-30-14) After years of having public safety and health concerns ignored, the Venice Stakeholders Association and individual residents today filed a lawsuit against the City and County of Los Angeles for their maintenance of a public nuisance and dangerous conditions along the Venice Boardwalk and beach that deprive residents of the quiet and safe enjoyment of their homes and the Venice community of the safe use of the Venice Beach Recreation Area.

“It has long been evident that the City and County enforce “no camping” laws in all of their parks except the Venice Beach Recreation Area,” said Mark Ryavec, president of the
neighborhood association. “One look at the pristine condition of the park next to City Hall or Grand Park next to the Hall of Administration shows the unequal treatment Venice has received.”

“It is only at the Venice Beach Recreation Area and on adjoining streets that a lawless Skid Row encampment, open drug sales and use, loud late-night noise, and public inebriation, urination and defecation is routinely permitted,” Ryavec said. “This is not tolerated elsewhere in Los Angeles or in other beach cities along Santa Monica Bay.”

“Since City and County officials and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority have not replied to our many requests to clean up the park and beach, we had no choice but to bring this lawsuit.”

“The stakes are very high,” Ryavec said. “This lawless environment spawns deadly behavior–for example, the killing of a young Italian visitor who was run down on the Boardwalk by a meth-addicted transient in his car in the summer of 2013. Or the recent home invasion that forced a young woman out onto the rooftop of her house to escape a transient who had broken in.

“The lack of enforcement of existing laws makes the hundreds of campers living along Venice Beach feel they can do anything they want with impunity. The result is that harassment,intimidation, trespass, vandalism, home invasions, and burglaries are common.”

Rob Glushon, the attorney for the VSA and individual plaintiffs Gary Harris, Jack Hoffmann, Arthur Kraus, David Krintzman and Brad Neal, said, “California law requires all property owners to maintain their property in a manner that does not cause harm and danger to others. Both the City and County need to take action to abate the intolerable conditions at Venice Beach, which are a serious threat to public health and safety.”

It’s a Bike for a Bike!

Posted by :reta On : October 25, 2014

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Category: Uncategorized

Tags:Bikers, Councilman, Ocean Front Walk, Venice, Venice Beach, Venice Neighborhood Council

Metal bikes and arches will replace the bollards now on Ocean Front Walk. Poster shows the streets and what will be installed. Some streets will have four bikes; others, two. A three-foot opening for American Disabilities Accessibility (ADA) will be provided on many of the streets.

GameTime manufacturer representative Nate Younker figures four bikes can be locked to each bike, two on each side. The bikes will be welded to an 18-inch spike that will be embedded in cement. The arches will have a similar mounting system. Installation should start first of next year.

“I like it,” said Gary Harris, activist and resident of Ocean Front Walk.

This is all part of the program the Council office has worked out in conjunction with the police department, all the various park departments involved with the beach, and the local Ocean Front Walk Task Force.

After the accident that killed a tourist more than a year ago, Councilman Mike Bonin has made safety of Ocean Front Walk a priority. He walked Ocean Front Walk with police department officials and heads of all applicable park departments. He asked for inputs.

Answers came quickly—lights, cameras, street blockage, public address system, walking policemen.

Lights have been installed. Cameras have been installed but a more comprehensive system is yet to follow. The bikes and arches are part of the street blockage system and beautification of OFW.

Board shows placement for bikes and arches. One will be able to hitch his bike to a bike or an arch.