By Nick Antonicello
The writer is Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee on Venice Cityhood for the Venice Neighborhood CouncilWhat possible excuse can the City of Los Angeles have for letting the weight-lifting equipment at Muscle Beach fall into such embarrassing disrepair (see attached image)?
A major tourist attraction in and of itself, why isn’t the pit in pristine condition?
No city in the United States would allow such an iconic locale that draws hundreds of thousands, if not millions of tourists annually to fall into this kind of disgusting and decrepit shape!
Why doesn’t the City of Los Angeles direct a small portion of the Sales Tax collected in Venice to subsidize the equipment and other capital improvements necessary to keep the boardwalk from its current depressing state?
It’s not just the weight-lifting pit, but the basketball courts and kid’s playground that are deteriorating right before our very eyes!
Why isn’t the Mayor Eric Garcetti or Councilman Mike Bonin doing anything to correct this embarrassing state of the Muscle Beach pit? I’m sure dozens of private companies within the body building genre would donate new equipment tomorrow if they were just asked.
How was this allowed to happen?
I’m sure Gold’s Gym or Arnold himself would be delighted to get this corrected tomorrow!
People ask me all the time why I support cityhood and detachment for the Venice community and here is just another glaring example of the outright mismanagement and incompetence by the Department of Recreation & Parks to monitor the condition of an important and vital city asset such as the Muscle Beach pit! Whoever is responsible to for this complete lack of equipment oversight should be terminated. Clearly they have no business functioning in this capacity!
Venice Beach has been and continues to be ignored for too long when you consider we provide Los Angeles with 2% of LA’s revenue while only being 0.6% of the population!
Could you imagine the Statue of Liberty’s torch falling off in the Hudson River?
Why is the birthplace and Mecca of body building and weight lifting being treated in this fashion?
The myopic and delusional leadership of Los Angeles just doesn’t seem to care. They have no vision for Venice and thus you have just another example of rank incompetence for all to stroll by and witness each and every day!
Does anyone in LA truly care about Venice?
