105 years ago, 1/2 of the city of Los Angeles boarded, more like bombarded in my opinion, the Red Line trolleycars to the beach, to come check-out Abbot Kinney’s new adventure. 40,000 people arrived on the grand opening day, July 4^th, 1905, to be amazed, amused and beguiled by the unique offerings presented with his new project Venice-of-America.

Everyone came expecting something new, and that’s what they got.

Previously, the word had gotten out about this coastal town being “Kinney’s Folly,” but somehow, with a workforce of 600, ultimately increasing to 1000 men, the  opening day deadline was  successfully  met, and a new force in Southern California arose.

To those that attended, Kinney offered both high-brow and low-brow attractions, seemingly to appease all that ventured into his new City-by-the-Sea.

The official opening ceremonies, that Tuesday, July 4^th, 1905, included swimming races in the lagoon, tennis matches at the Country Club on Westminster, sailing competitions on the bay, and formal balls held in the new auditorium. But most impressive was the electrical lights display, featuring 17,000 lamps that lined the streets, pier and canals. The effect was inspirational and magical back then, foreshadowing the burgeoning commerce of the emerging century. Band accompaniment along with fireworks displays over the lagoon, and a successful weekend opening celebration changed Los Angeles’ vision of this new Venice-of-America.

Venice was showing its primordial spunk back then, and even today, 105 years later, it retains that unique spirit. The spirit of a community devoted to itself. Now, more than ever, Venice has remained a vital community, struggling with its place in the pantheon of both being a part of Los Angeles, and as a trend-setting leader for all of America. Like it was recently put on Yo! Venice.com, Venice has tattooed American culture. Like it or not.

This month I’ve asked Venice locals to comment on the present state of Venice, this being her birthday month. They’re folks who have a lasting stake in Venice, and I wanted to get their “take” on where our seaside burg is presently, and where it’s headed.

This how I asked for their opinions -

Sent: Wed, Jun 9, 2010

Subject: venice’s 105th anniversary

my friends -

i’m writing to you to ask for your opinion on the “state of the city of venice” – seeing that next month will be the 105th anniversary of our great town.

my monthly article – venice, etc… – will feature your responses as to how you see our city, what you think should be done, any great recollections, and mostly, your attitudes as to how we should celebrate this milestone in our mutual history. i know you all care deeply about venice, and i want to help bring more awareness to others about our mutual deep affection for this bit of paradise we all call home.

the article will appear in betsy goldman’s venice vanguard email newsletter in july, 2010.

i hope you take this topic to heart, and please let me know your thoughts.

thanks for helping me out with your important views.

best regards -

paul tanck

–

Hey Paul,

I’ll be making another effort to have the Windward business owners dress up the colonnade in Red White and Blue bunting again for at least the week of the 4th.

Todd von Hoffmann

–

Paul,

Venice is finally growing up or actually is being forced to by the lack of responsibility of people who drift here with an expanded sense of what freedom can be. Liberal people, who once looked the other way when faced with adversity and blew it off as “well, it IS Venice” and the large portion of the community who paid no attention to local politics or social issues have changed their views of people who drift here to live the free life by the sea.

Log onto www.yovenice.com and see what the people of Venice are talking about

now. There have been nationally distributed videos that “promote” and publicize

this “pirate” lifestyle. Venetians are on the verge of taking back the schools.

As they grow older and start families, they are deciding to stay and fight for

their streets back rather than move to the suburbs.

KCET just put up this blog forum but nobody has posted yet – you might post

there.

Rick Feibusch

–

Venice wins again!

Coastal Commission Votes NO on OPD’s for Venice

June 10th, 2010

The California Coastal Commission just voted 6 – 3 against Overnight Parking Districts for Venice Beach. Coastal permit denied.

No OPDs

No Permit Parking

No restrictions on access

Venetians turned out in force and made a difference!

Jim Smith

Free Venice Beachhead

–

Hi Paul;

You asked us to focus on the following so here goes.

State of the City.

Venice is getting along ok.  We have more self administration than we

have had since 1925 when Venice threw in the towel on municipal independence

and voted to consolidate with Los Angeles.   We are participating in the

election processes established by Los Angeles and lots of people are voting

and attending meetings.  We are now world famous as a tourist attraction and

that would have made Abbot Kinney smile. Similarly we have become an

important focus of life for artists and intellectuals of all kinds and that

would have made Kinney smile as well.

What should be Done.

What Venice needs most I think is cleaner public places and streets.

The public restrooms on the beach need to be cleaned at least twice a day

and lavatory service personal should be on hand to clean the toilets and

restrooms every time they are used.  Otherwise visitors who need to use

these facilities come away with ‘an uncouth feeling’.  Surely people who

receive welfare and live in Venice should be employed  on weekends and

holidays to clean the restrooms and thereby supplement their incomes.  They

can just walk or bicycle to work.  The area around the Venice Post Office is

a dirty and disgusting disgrace and it would be a nice thing for the

Windward Ave business district to organize and conduct daily wash downs and

clean ups.  It sure would give Venice a better image.

The Venice Neighborhood Council should provide a matching grant with

Bank of America (it has announced a program to upgrade neighborhoods) which

could get the Windward Ave and Kinney Circle clean up program going.

Arnold  Springer

–

An Outgoing Letter From The President of the Venice Neighborhood Council

It is with mixed emotions that I finish my term as President of the Venice Neighborhood Council. After three as an elected member of the VNC, and two and a half years as its President, I feel tremendously proud of what we have done and grateful for the opportunity to have served with my neighbors. But, I also feel that we have only scratched the surface of what needs to be done.

Over the past two and a half years, all twenty-one of your VNC Board members have served with distinction, and made great strides towards making Venice a better place. The Council has made it a priority to engage and involve every specific neighborhood in Venice in our work; whether it be through our Neighborhoods Committee organizing for disaster preparedness, or the Land Use and Planning Committee specifically working with neighborhoods in which a project is proposed for siting. Community Outreach has risen to a new high, with the VNC’s work being more effectively communicated to us all through our newsletter, Your Venice, increased press coverage, e-mail alerts, and community tabling at the Venice Farmer’s Market and First Fridays. We have also taken the concept of Town Hall meetings to a new level, creating interactive forums where hundreds of Venetians come together to discuss an issue, make concrete recommendations as a community, and forward that input directly to the City Council and the Mayor.

More specifically, the VNC has worked with the merchants of Abbot Kinney and the Venice Chamber of Commerce to create First Fridays. We have helped to make recycling on the Boardwalk a reality, added trash cans and recycling bins throughout our commercial districts, and created the Bin Your Butts program, which seeks to provide receptacles throughout Venice for cigarette butt disposal, keeping that waste out of our ocean.

The VNC has also taken an active role in the Neighborhood Council system and in the City. We’ve been a big part of creating the Westside Regional Alliance of Councils, which brings all 13 Westside Councils together to cooperate on issues of regional importance. And, through our participation in the Board of Neighborhood Council Commissioners (BONC), Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition (LANCC) and other groups, we’ve taken the lead on many city-wide issues and contributed to the best practices of the Neighborhood Council System.

When it comes to funding good works in our community, the VNC has re-invented the model of neighborhood council funding. We reserve almost 50% of our annual budget for projects proposed by stakeholders and community groups that directly benefit Venice. Our innovative method of basing most of this funding on a competitive application process has been widely praised and is being emulated all over the city. As for our serious issues regarding homelessness, the VNC has spent the better part of the last two years working with Councilman Rosendahl’s office to develop a system for overnight parking permits – for neighborhoods that want them – coupled with a Safe RV Parking program to provide refuge and opportunity for members of our community living in their vehicles.

In short, I believe that the VNC has become much more reflective of who we are and what we think as a community. The fact that 43 people ran for office, and almost 1300 voted, in April’s VNC election (more by far than we have ever had – and more than all but 1 of the other 89 Neighborhood Council in Los Angeles) suggests that if nothing else, more Venetians than ever know about the VNC and feel it has an effect on their lives. However, this is just a start, and so much more needs to be done. While statistically small, over the last year Venice has experienced a disturbing rise in property and violent crimes which must be addressed. Our parking and vehicular congestion problems are growing, and in the midst of a city-wide budget crisis not only is it likely that the VNC’s budget for coming years will be heavily cut, but the city’s ability to provide basic services to our community is also in jeopardy.

Because of all the work that still must be done, I challenge every one of you to get more involved in Venice. Whether that means working directly with the VNC and its committees, starting a neighborhood watch on your street, or simply attending a meeting (which will continue to be held on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 7pm at Westminster Elementary School) doesn’t particularly matter. What matters is your participation in making our Community a better place. Remember, It’s Your Venice, Get Involved!

Mike Newhouse

–

The Kush Club House has been closed. This is great news…now that people can’t smoke weed indoors at a really nice hash bar I bet that:

- bums will stop harassing everyone

- gangs will stop fighting

- people will stop jumping out of windows to their death on the boardwalk

- cars will stop being lit on fire

- homes will stop being lit on fire

 

I can’t wait to come back to the new paradise!!!

–

I have lived in Venice since 1970 or a bit earlier. I think. But then again I am olden yet still a bit golden. When I think of Venice I think of a feeling. And that is freedom. Venice was the wild West in a way. Attracting diversity, creativity, quirkiness and a general sense of unbridled non-conformity. People and their ability to be who and how they are is what made Venice.

Much of that seems to be disappearing. Along with what Venice once stood for which – and I repeat – is a genuine tolerance of “the other!”  Most of the lots in Venice are small. Perfectly suited to the one-story bungalows of varied sensibilities – and even those without. What everyone had was space around it. Gardens and the like. That is being systematically ripped asunder and replaced with huge houses that not only consume the lots but the air and light around them as well. Leaving many people without sunlight and facing huge stucco walls that look like Folsom Prison.

Newcomers don’t seem to realize how fortunate we are. Many months in the year we can live indoor/outdoor. Yet these new behemoths are mostly internalized, look-alike boxes without character, soul, personality or difference. (And then there’s the attitude. The overblown sense of entitlement, arrogance and chutzpah without portfolio.)   If this type of house is desired I do not personally think Venice is the place for it.  I personally have been living in construction HELL for over two years now to satisfy selfish peoples’ desires without considering existing neighbors. They have the right, right? You ask what could be done to help Venice remain charming and not wind up like other over-developed look-alike ghettos? (Even the Federal Republic of Santa Monica came to its senses. Unfortunately too late to preserve some of the beautiful houses that were sacrificed to the contractor’s tasteless ball!) We need building ethics. A plan, Stan! If not we go the way of other cultural wastelands where geography and environment and joy of living were sacrificed for the almighty dollar. So there

I leave it to you to edit it so I am not picketed and hated. One has to be so careful nowadays. After all I am a known commodity. My house is open to charities and events. And why is my house popular? Because I preserved a lifestyle. Like European countries, Americans spend millions to visit to see what was and what hasn’t been torn down. Like New York and Philadelphia  and the like where architecture is revered and left standing.   All the property I own is like my house. You know. You and Marcia lived in a wonderful one before Harry Potter built the turret. Even though I am old I do not want to be killed or shunned until I am ready to say screw  it. Build your pieces of crap. I am out of here.

Scott Mayers

–

The City of Venice is in remarkably good health considering her advanced age of 105. She suffers only from an inability to control her own affairs. She lost control of her democratic functions decades ago after a dubious process that ended with a shotgun marriage to a car crazy, expansionist brute named Los Angeles. There are numerous grounds for divorce which the lady should pursue if she is to regain control of her faculties and facilities. If we start now, perhaps we will be able to celebrate her freedom on her 110th birthday.

Jim Smith

–

Venice is growing up despite the active political response by “old timers” who dig in and demand to return to a mythical, romanticized past. While the reality is that Venice has gentrified, compared to its seamy past, it has not been taken over by wealthy Brentwood types, but instead now is populated by people who are similar to the residents of the past, but would like to stay here after their children are born as they get older. Some ot the “grit ” that old timers view as essential to the essense of Venice, has exploded into an unhealthy criminality that is unsettling to seniors and young families who still love the life that Venice affords residents.

While any seaside community can absorb a bit of the “pirate” life on the streets or at the beach, once it reaches epic proportions, as it has recently, residents respond. In the past, they mostly responded by moving. today, after paying a king’s ransom for their little piece of land, and after looking for alternative places to live, they have decided to stay and fight, rather than run away.

While old timers, and recent arrivals, who are considered old timers because they espouse the same sort of politik, are well organized and quite vocal, the writing is on the wall and changes are in the air. the health and safety of Venice residents is more important than a reputation for free this and free that.

Recently, the proliferation of medical marijuana shops has been moderated to a reasonable level (and the carnival barker approach to boardwalk sales eliminated) and the Councilman has started researching a better way to deal with the vast influx of people living on the streets in vehicles, amongst the cries of protest from the people who would like to drag Venice back into a time that never really existed.

Change is coming. Despite a flagging economy and a well-organized effort to marginalize rational thinking residents, the changes will come. – we will see . . .

Rick Feibusch

–

Paul…
In the world I’ve been privileged to see, I always look forward to coming home — to Venice.  For countless reasons, it’s the best place to live.  Fresh air from the Pacific, a southern California town that’s actually pedestrian friendly, a lively main street named after our inspired founder, a year-round active art and sports scene, and perhaps most importantly, neighbors who genuinely care about one another.

I moved here in the early eighties, and restored a Victorian home to National Historic Landmark status.  Officially titled “The Venice of America House” it celebrates 105 years along with our city by the sea.  Recently, a lady who lives in central California contacted me.  Her grandparents lived in the house in the forties, when she was a child–and fond memories of Venice remain.  No matter the time or era, once you’ve experienced this bewitching stretch of shoreline, it seems to stay with you.

Travel west on Sunset Boulevard from downtown to the shores of Malibu–and you realize how privileged we are to live on the cusp of the Pacific rim.  On a clear day the endless horizon seems to be the best answer to the promise of Venice.  Although I see the scales tipping toward gentrification, there’s a feeling of genuine soul that still breathes here.  We may have to peek over higher fences, but the sense of living in a socially conscious, one-of-a-kind community happily persists.

Stephen Pouliot

–

Would like the ‘walkable village’ of Venice to become more walkable with regular shuttle bus service to a ring of parking lots at the periphery, and integrating the east-of-Lincoln inhabitants of Venice with the beach-side community, finally bridging the physical barrier that Lincoln presents, both as a pedestrian hazard and requiring a parking space for the car that is needed to get from Walgrove to the Beach

An architectural preservation effort, not unlike some of the effort that was put into Pasadena. The beach bungalow style, the scale people used to live with as a standard home, these are concepts worth preserving , for appreciation and study.

As Venice has become less industrial and more residential (not saying whether for better or worse), it becomes possible for Venice to be energy-self-sufficient through a solar-on-every-roof effort.  Power during earthquake outages, better ‘security’ and set a good example for the rest of the LA basin, if not California.

Kelley Willis

–

I hate the changes, miss the old days of waitressing at the sidewalk cafe on roller skates!

Lynn Hanson

–

On the positive side …I love the new skatepark and all that it brings. Rialto Ave. has turned into a conduit and I love the sound of the boards wisping by on their way to the park. I love that Venice still holds strong ties to the concept of individuality and originality and a sense of choosing your own life style within a community. I use the word concept as I feel that although Venice is still identified with a bohemian lifestyle, it is far from that now. The rich box people with their “use up every amount of land space architects” have moved in and changed the landscape dramatically. Where neighbors used to know each other and greet one another as they left and returned home, now people emerge from back alleys from their garages, get into their cars and never see their neighbors. Or hardly rarely. Green landscaping is rare surrounding the boxes and a sense of coldness prevails.

And don’t even get me started on the lovely and past delights of First Fridays, which originally began as a street party for mostly locals who could stroll the boulevard…see friends and neighbors…visit local shops…listen to planned (the wonderful “Leftover Cuties”) or impromptu music and…dance (oh how I miss the “Men of Leisure”). The merchants seemed happy with the crowds that were tenable, and the local restaurants weren’t in competition with the now ever-present food trucks, which troll our neighborhood streets before finding their spots (and this if they haven’t already had people with cars park on Abbot Kinney hours before the beginning of nights’ events holding spots for the food trucks to take). These trucks block access to shops, cause people to walk into the street as the sidewalks are clogged and endanger pedestrians. I’m grateful for the Brig in keeping them corralled in their parking lot but nevertheless, they have changed the entire feeling of First Fridays. I no longer like going because of the prodigious crowds of mostly tourists who like to think of themselves as a part of the Venice community, but who instead leave copious trash and create a soundtrack of drunken noise awakening sleeping residents as they return to their cars.

One can almost look at the devolution of First Fridays as an example of what has happened in Venice recently. I sorely miss the days of old… the quiet… the pleasures of seeing neighbors in the streets… the specialty shops that have been forced to close their doors because of landlord greed.

And yet… Venice seems to prevail no matter what. I remember when I first moved here in 1974 and saw the changes occurring in the canals and the split between those who had lived in Venice for years and loved the communal style of life it offered, and those who wanted to change the canals into a Marina like space. Change is unavoidable ultimately and one realizes the only thing you can really count on is “change” …however I do miss the old days and I also cherish the current days… sitting in my backyard with my flowers, listening to music or reading or chatting… surrounded by low morning glory laden fences and a low redwood fence that one can actually see through if so inclined… feeling safe and happy and so very lucky to be living in Venice all these years.

Marcia Tanck

–

So I say, happy birthday Venice, may you stay as radical and cool as ever!