Venice Dual Force Main project Coastal Development Permit (CDP) public hearing will be Wednesday, 21 January 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Westchester Senior Center, 8740 Lincoln Blvd, LA 90045.
The City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works will construct a new force main sewer to supplement the existing 50-year-old force main sewer. The project is in its final permitting processes. The Venice Dual Force Main will cross Grand Canal from the Venice Pump Plant and continue east along Marquesas Way to Via Marina, then travel south crossing the Marina del Rey and Ballona Creek Channels to Vista del Mar. The alignment crosses both City and County jurisdictions.
Written comments will be accepted at the meeting and may also be sent by email to jan.green.rebstock@lacity.org or mailed to:
City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works
Bureau of Engineering, Environmental Management Group
Attention: Dr. Jan Green Rebstock
1149 S. Broadway, Suite 600, Mail Stop 939
Los Angeles, CA 90015-2213
All comments will be considered prior to a decision on the case and must be received by 4 pm, 22 January.
“Four cars parked on North Venice Blvd between Grand Blvd and Abbot Kinney Blvd were vandalized by someone taking a large object and smashing all windowshields on driver’s side,” reported Pamela Bower.
“None were broken into and burglarized. They just made a 15-inch round crack/indention in each. Broad daylight.”
Will Sims, owner of the Mercedes pictured, said they had been waiting for police for two hours. Two of the four cars had been towed. Only the two pictured remained. “We just got thru to the police and they said they could not make it and that I should bring it to police station to make a complaint.”
“Whoever did it targeted new, nice expensive cars so it was obviously a hate crime/act of anger” wrote Mark Ryavec. “They skipped other older cars parked along the same street.”
Literally, every meeting and conversation I have had today (15 January) focused on homelessness. It is a growing problem across the Westside, and most especially in Venice. It is a complex subject poorly served and never solved by quick slogans or soundbites. It is an issues that demands nuance.
Certain neighborhoods in Venice have a large and rapidly growing homeless population. We must do everything we can to end homelessness throughout Los Angeles by providing those who need it and want it with housing and appropriate services. That is going to take collaborative effort, innovative approaches, A LOT more affordable housing, and implementation of our countywide “Housing First” strategy. And I’m not going to rest until we get it done. It is a daily focus for me and my team.
At the same time, certain neighborhoods in Venice have a big and growing crime problem, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get my neighborhoods the resources they deserve to combat it. Accordingly, the other day I reiterated my call on Chief Charlie Beck to give us the same type of resources that were given to Hollywood when they faced similar problems. (http://www.11thdistrict.com/we_need_more_cops_in_venice). We need more cops and more proactive enforcement to prevent crime. Our residential neighborhoods and our parks and playgrounds also cannot become blighted encampments, filled with trash and abandoned furniture.
But let me be clear: in Venice we have a crime problem — not a homeless crime problem. There are homeless victims of crime — just as there are housed victims of crime. There are homeless perpetrators of crime, just as there are housed perpetrators of crime.
It is naive to think that there is not an intersection between crime and the growing number of encampments in Venice. (And wrong to think most crime in Venice takes place at that intersection.). The growing number of encampments are allowing criminal elements to camouflage themselves and threaten or do harm to homeless people and to nearby neighborhood residents. We need every social service resource available to move people off the streets and into housing. And we need every law enforcement resource available to keep our neighborhoods safe and to make sure that people — housed and unhoused — live free of fear.
There are those who think the only solution is law-enforcement, and they may be angry that I’m insisting on more and better services and affordable housing. And there are those who will be angry with me because they think law enforcement is the problem and all we need is more services or housing. I’ll take the slings and arrows. Local government is about problem-solving, not ideology.
Working together, we can end homelessness and keep our neighborhoods safe.
It was brought to Update’s attention by an anonymous commentator that the encampment on Venice Blvd, west of Abbot Kinney, next to the Friday Farmers’ Market is growing and the smell of urine prevails.
An anonymous commentator said the encampment “consists of at least 14 or more people sleeping in this area every night and it’s becoming a problem. The smell of urine is pungent.
“The campers are sleeping right on the sidewalk causing pedestrians to step over them. It’s very sad.”
Michael Nelson, member of the Venice Neighborhood Council Neighborhood Committee for that area, said “I am trying to work with the local police of the Pacific Division. I really feel sorry for the homeless and do what I can to help them whenever I can, but this is really a quality of life issue for the neighborhood that needs to be addressed.”
Contact Venice Update if your neighborhood has a growing encampment area. Update is aware of the Ocean Front Walk and 3rd Avenue encampments.
We need your help to make sure that all homeless in Los Angeles get counted.
Every two years, volunteers fan out across neighborhoods throughout the City, counting the people living on our streets as part of the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count. Will you join us January 28 and take part in the count?
This is more than an exercise in mathematics. This census of our unhoused neighbors helps determine how much federal, state and county money Los Angeles gets to provide services and get people off the streets and into housing. And it determines which neighborhoods get funding. It is crucial that we get an accurate count so we can end homelessness by moving people into housing and off of our streets, sidewalks, alleys, beaches, and out of our wetlands, forests, and from under our bridges.
We need your help. Will you join us, Wednesday January 28 at 8 p.m.? We will be helping the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority conduct counts in every neighborhood of Council District 11. It is easy to sign up online and choose a location and volunteer assignment at http://www.lahsa.org/homelesscount.asp. Click the Volunteer button.
Homelessness is a stain on our humanity and on our society. This is one small thing anyone can do to help end it. I hope to see on the 28th. Thanks so much.
Mark Ryavec addressed the California Coastal Commission (CCC) about “Historic Preservation” Friday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
He also addressed the commission members about obstacles at Venice Beach to the visitor-serving mandate of the Coastal Act. See story “Ryavec Speaks at CCC Regarding Venice Beach.”
(Photo courtesy of Mark Ryavec.)
On the subject of historic preservation, I have some standing. I have restored my 1905 Islamo-Byzantine house, which was built by one of Abbot Kinney’s senior craftsman, and have remodeled the 1949 structure behind it in the same historic vernacular.
While I love the Craftsman and California Bungalow residences of Venice, there is now a pernicious move to lock in place only what exists today without acknowledging that many modernist structures have been built throughout Venice.
Over twenty years ago, I and Betsy Goldman of the Venice Historical Society and architect Michael King proposed adoption of a historic density bonus ordinance that would allow owners to expand the size of their structures, observe existing non-conforming setbacks and allow parking in sideyard setbacks if the historic vernacular of the face of the structure was maintained. In other words, we asked the City to entice owners to remodel in the Craftsman or Bungalow style by slightly relaxing then existing building codes. The result would have been larger Craftsman and Bungalow structures, while maintaining the visual look of Venice street scapes.
Councilwoman Galanter ignored our proposal and instead inserted the requirement that to receive a project permit under the Venice Local Coastal Specific Plan a project would have to meet the “mass, scale and character” of the neighborhood, without giving any definition of what those words mean. Thus, for over twenty years, owners have been bulldozing one story Bungalows and erecting three-story stucco boxes that max out the building envelop. Only in a few instances have projects been stopped by residents demanding that the Planning Department apply the mass, scale and character standard.
To now legislate that no one can replace a Craftsman or Bungalow structure would be grossly unfair, probably illegal and ignores that many of these hundred year old structures are about to fall apart – I know because I spent 25 years restoring one.
It is unclear if your commission has a role in this matter. It is the City that must commit the Planning Department staff to carefully and thoughtfully revisit the failings of the Venice Local Coastal Specific Plan to preserve these historic structures and to craft, sub-neighborhood by sub-neighborhood – with residents – amendments to the Specific Plan that invite owners to remodel these historic structures in the same vernacular and give owners incentives to do so while also limiting to some extent the building envelope to avoid mansionization. The result may be that in some sub-neighborhoods the residents choose to encourage the continued replacement of the Craftsman and Bungalow structures with modern ones, while other sub-neighborhoods may choose to ban modernist structures and mandate that remodeling and expansion of structures be carried out in the historic vernacular of that sub-neighborhood.
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.
A new legal opinion commissioned by the Venice Stakeholders Association finds that the City of Los Angeles is on strong legal grounds to seize objects left on public sidewalks for days because they pose an immediate threat to public health and safety.
The opinion, prepared by attorney John Henning, focuses on the implications of the “Lavan Decision,” a ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which limited – but did not forbid – the City from removing items that had been left by transients for short periods of time on L.A.’s Skid Row so the owners could go to eat, wash or run errands.
Henning points out that in the Lavan case even “the plaintiffs did not argue – at either the trial court or on appeal – that they had a right to store their possessions for days on end on public property.”
“The City has over-reacted to the Lavan Decision and effectively given transients permission to perpetually store their property on sidewalks across the City, which was not the court’s intent or even the plaintiffs’ request,” said Mark Ryavec, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association.
“This misinterpretation of the court’s ruling is wreaking havoc on Venice residents,” Ryavec said, “with the establishment of permanent encampments on residential streets adjacent to the Boardwalk, on Third Street and on Venice Boulevard near residences, and recently on Coeur D’Alene Avenue next to two elementary schools.”
Ryavec said, “These encampments spawn a tremendous amount of crime, from trespass, harassment and home invasions to vandalism, public inebriation, defecation and urination.”
“Nearby residents are very concerned and they have good reason considering, for example, that five home invasions have occurred in just the few blocks around my home since last April.”
Henning’s opinion states that the City is legally entitled to remove items that comprise an encampment because the encampment itself poses an immediate threat to public health and safety due to the unsanitary conditions that exist in such encampments and their lawless atmosphere.
Removing these encampments was explicitly allowed by the court in the Lavan Decision.
“When there is an ‘immediate threat to public health or safety,’ Lavan does not require the City to give any notice whatsoever before removing private property from the right-of-way,” the VSA’s attorney noted. “Although the City may choose to store such property for a period of time in order to allow it to be reclaimed by its owner, the property can be removed from the right-of-way immediately and without notice.”
Several protests have occurred during the Christmas Holidays over the Oxford Retention Basin, Oxford Basin, Duck Pond. Latest was Monday.
County is removing all the non-native trees as well as those that are diseased. Monarch butterflies have been nesting in some of the Eucalyptus trees and other birds and ducks that have flown in have been disturbed, killed or relocated. Protesters claim birds need trees.
Trees in the background, in last photo, are on the bike path and controlled by Department of Beaches and Harbors. The Oxford Retention Basin is controlled by the Department of Public Works.
Douglas Fay says Oxford Basin was mitigation for the Marina as was the Ballona Wetlands a mitigation for the Playa Vista. He has documents indicating such. Fay further has the story of it being dedicated a Bird Conservation area and the signs are still up surrounding the basin stating it is a bird sanctuary.
It is also a retention basin for water overflowing the streets.
Public Works wants to make the retention basin able to contain more water volume and is prone to make the basin a public park or viewing park rather than a bird conservation area. In so doing, the department wants to start over. Remove the trees, remove the dirt, dig it deeper, have two viewing peninsulas and have a four-foot fence surrounding the area.
Douglas Fay does not believe the basin will be sufficient for containing the water. The four-foot fence is a contention for all who live in area. Most want it eight feet.
Following is letter Fay sent to Friends of Oxford Lagoon:
Twice I’ve documented the tide gates being left open allowing salt water to enter the sewer system. Today I had a camera and took a picture.
(Photo courtesy of Doug Fay.)
At the meeting with County officials where Friends of Oxford Lagoon asked for a phased tree replacement plan, this was before the Christmas 2014 Marina Del Rey Tree Massacre, Angela George, with LACFCD and is in charge of tide gate operation, said they do not allow seawater into the sewer system. She also stated twice that the “additional 1.5 vertical feet of tidal exchange” approved by the California Coastal Commission is no longer part of the project. The County can’t change the project without amending the Coastal Development Permit (CDP).
We recently witnessed discharges coming from the LACFCD pump house near the bike path and the strong odors that followed. Seawater in the sewer system will also create odors in the Oxford Triangle neighborhood.
Is the County intentionally creating the unpleasant smells that they promise will not happen again if we allow them to convert our dedicated Bird Conservation Area into a recreational park, or will they continue consistent with the way the County manages our most precious resources?
At 8 a.m. Monday, January 5, 2015 the County and Department of Fish & Wildlife representatives will meet at Oxford Lagoon to cut down the remaining eucalyptus trees that have Monarch Butterfly and an Osprey using the trees as habitat. Patricia McPherson, Grassroots Coalition, Friends of Oxford Lagoon, and other activists will be there demanding the trees remain. This is not how you restore and enhance habitat. This is our Bird Conservation Area.
From members of Grassroots Coalition, Friends of Oxford Lagoon, Ballona Institute:
Neither LA County nor California Department of Fish & Wildlife have recordation or consideration of this type of occurrence at Oxford Lagoon a Designated Bird Sanctuary since 1963.
Finally, New Years eve, after a very loud protest by a passerby who joined Patricia McPherson of Grassroots Coalition and others in anguished screams, the chainsaws were put to rest. Horrified on-lookers stared in amazement as Monarch Butterflies along the north fence of the Bird Sanctuary tried to fly. Unfortunately, it was a cold, rainy day. Monarchs don’t move much in cold, rainy weather. The County did not do their job getting the Monarchs safely out of the way or having a Monitor during cutting.
See three YouTube videos below: The first YouTube shows the County cutting down this healthy Eucalyptus tree as part of an “Enhancement” project. This destruction is just one of about 650 other trees, already destroyed.
Osprey & Monarch at Oxford Lagoon Destruction 2a
Osprey & Monarchs at Oxford Lagoon Destruction
Monarch Butterflys at Oxford Lagoon
OSPREY. According to California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s California Interagency Wildlife Task Group, Osprey are uncommon winter visitors along the Coast of Southern California (Garrett and Dunn 1981). Osprey prey mostly on fish. They require open, clear waters for foraging. They are coastal birds.
This osprey uses the large eucalyptus trees at Oxford Lagoon everyday; it has been bringing its catch to the Eucalyptus or pine tree within the Bird Sanctuary.
Osprey numbers appear to have declined starting in the early 1900s. The Institute for Wildlife Studies (IWS), in collaboration with the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, has started an osprey reintroduction on Santa Catalina Island in order to return a key component of the ecosystem to the Channel Islands and southern California. The Osprey is currently listed as a Species of Special Concern by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Friends of Oxford Lagoon members drove to Alhambra to meet with LA County Department of Public Works. Vincent Yu, who conducted the meeting, gave them the impression they would halt the chainsaws on that day, December 17, 2014, only to return to the site to find them taking out mature Eucalyptus. Even the District Assemblywoman, Autumn Burke, spoke with Vincent Yu the morning of the 17th to no avail as she stood watching the chainsaw activity.
The County’s Streambed Agreement with Fish and Wildlife specifies a Biological Monitor should be on hand to avert harm to wildlife–no monitor has been present.
No work is supposed to occur when there is rain but the County ignored the Agreement the day of this video. It had been raining off and on all day.
WE believe numerous violations have occurred at Oxford Lagoon. The County’s defiance of our requests for a slower, phased approach for their landscaping project is unconscionable.
The dead bird in the video was documented during the take down of trees and brush on December 29, 2014 at Oxford Lagoon.
There is still time to save the remaining Eucalyptus. These photos were taken on December 31, 2014—the day after several Eucalyptus trees were destroyed. Monarch experts have said that a stand of trees has to be big enough and tall enough to support wintering staging areas for the Monarchs.
We know the Monarchs are using this area, please help us make sure the remaining trees are saved. Osprey also need high perches to feel secure from disturbance, to be away from people.
Tomorrow, Monday, January 5, 2015, the County tree cutters will be back at Oxford. Please help us end the destruction of this critical habitat.
CONCERNED CITIZENS CAN CALL THEIR SUPERVISOR EARLY THIS MONDAY OR COME TO THE LAGOON AT 8 AM.
District #4 Don Knabe 213-974-4444
District #3 Sheila Kuell 213-974-3333
District #2 Mark Ridley-Thomas 213-074-2222
District #5 Michael Antonovich 213-974-5555
District #1 Hilda Solis 213-974-4111
For more information go to Facebook for Grassroots Coalition – Los Angeles, CA; Facebook for Friends of Oxford Lagoon; Facebook for Ballona Institute—Oxford Lagoon; and, Facebook Member Pages of Vegan.com.
