The comments here are in reference to article below on Patch website...

More articles are also available in the Free Venice Beachhead and The Argonaut newspapers of last week.


" The article [below] was pointed out verbally to a big Venice residential group who met at the Venice Neighborhood Council on 8/16/2011. Comment about the Boardwalk was made to elicit more interested responses, questions and discussion.

Activism is urgently needed, especially before more "catastrophes' occur – while it’s coming with the lack of accountability, transparency, or enforcement of a LA City ordinance –meant to regulate or eliminate the obviously-commercial-vendors with the ‘flea’ effect.

And enforcement is also needed to control the threatening bullies who daily pretend to 'save spaces' on Venice Boardwalk sidewalk and who act like extortion racquets who reign and misuse City Property on the Boardwalk. – which could still now a free-from-rent set-up for actual ARTISTS- to display their art publicly and to access some walking-by customers…instead the area being just an easy cheap access to sell cheap purchased-resold [mostly ‘made in China’] mdse.

Please come to the next month's VNC meeting to voice your views there,. Or go elsewhere, to include your part in any PUBLIC DISCUSSION in any decision-making that will be done by LA City Council or their affiliated lobbying groups.

Neglect will insure that Venice - as an image of what was in past days a decent paradise or was a tourist 'attraction' that will continue to fall away, or to deteriorate more , or be quickly & totally destroyed. That will open the way for some un-transparent elite gentrification that may be already planned.

And guess what ? Venice will be just another repeat of for rich only folks - taking of what was PUBLIC spaces for their own “ONLY” exclusive use.

Why ? Because deterioration & neglect allow for usurpation and privatization. And that comes with loss of public access to what was once " beautiful Venice Beach....." or however it was remembered before …. but now only in past memories.

(C) wowveniceisactive 2011

article here :
http://venice.patch.com/articles/draft-ordinance-for-boardwalk-vending-would-prohibit-sale-of-jewelry-other-handmade-crafts#comments

They need to set up some kind of limit on non-artist booths. Like, maybe let the current hawkers sell there for anther 5 years, but all new tenants need to be legit local handcrafters or something.

sorry but this suggestion in comment above "let the current hawkers sell there for anther 5 years" is letting the thieves, thugs, bullies and riff-raff to illegally remain- which the will also insure that Venice Beach becomes so ugly and decrepit that there are solid excuses to demolish and gentrify the entire beach area.

Why let anyone continue to do what dis-benefits the whole Venice community? Why help what spoils the image & intention- idea of what “Venice the Tourist Attraction” is claimed to be ?

Why let the hustlers take over and ruin what can be public value of public spaces ?

Why let hawkers and aggressive usurpers take over what was not intended for them to door have ? Since these greedy mean grabbers do nothing more than to diminish, destroy and disrespect the prior image of the Venice Art Community… that has been tarnished and can hardly be found in Venice any more ?
Let us all, as Venice is part of the City of LA still, let’s not just let the place go into the trash heap it that has become over the last 6+ yrs. Ever since the city ordinance was looped and holed and the Lottery system inadvertently allowed this excess re-vending of cheap flea market junk that is being sold where there is No Rent, No Regulations, No taxes paid, No honest dealings, No ART allowed because Art has been squeezed Out !

Please be more constructively helpful with your clever comments and suggestions....

Has anyone gone to actually feel, see the and experience the place, not just a 20 min walk thru and drive away but actually inspect, inquire and then report back what this is or is not ???

Then comment and tell us your honest perceptions...

See www.LACity.org for upcoming meeting by Parks and Rec regarding a NEW DRAFT OF THE ORDINANCE that will regulate hopefully the vending on west side of Venice Boardwalk.

Meeting is scheduled for Sept 21 but has not been set up yet.But soon.. so check website again or call your local LA city council-person to ask them directly.

sometimes it seems they DONT WANT PUBLIC COMMENT NOR INPUT so red tape makes it difficult to find out when and where one can come, listen, speak, and ask questions or at least Observe the process - that then ends up regulating everyone involved or even those passing thru the area.

Venice is a popular walk-thru on beach-front for angelinos from all over, including tourists from afar. The vending of junk and commercial 'made in china" or "thailand" etc JUNK has been the predominant ruination of what was before an ARTIST'S DISPLAY and sometimes an occasional sale.
It has turned into a thuggish and ugly place, sometimes even dangerous and mean.

The ordinance will set up rules for how the beach-front walk will allow or disallow sales of flea market resale cheap stuff.

Come to have your say. Let the City Council know you too want a beautiful place to take family & children, not a flea market with fleas and greedy vendors. Help make Venice
a place where you too are proud to visit and learn, about ART, not about hawkers, hustlers, conniving sellers or
intoxicated beggars.

Return Venice to the place similar to what it once was -
a plain community oriented beach front walk area for the whole city and all dwellers to enjoy. Not a sight to avoid.

Help Venice become beautiful once again.

The way the LA City Parks Dept hides and denies access to public citizen to come to their meetings - by NOT providing timely information nor easily accessible locations for meetings has made them accomplish having it only THEIR WAY only yet again.

A meeting that was set to discuss the Venice Boardwalk commercial sales of junk ordinance was scheduled for 9/21 - but it was not to be found on the front page of "meetings" at LA City oficial webpage.
Why ?

Because unless you are an invested businessperson with a profit motive to motivate hours of time and effort , it takes time and work and frustration to just FIND OUT where a meeting may or not be held...

and the information of the important meeting was only presented to the Venice Neighborhood Council - a board most interested in it's area's regulations - at 7:15pm of 9/20 = the night before = a 9:30 meeting in Harbor City [near San Pedro] on 9/21 the next morning.

Why this delay in relaying information relevant and needed to the VNC members and all the venice citizens that attend those meetings ? Only 1 day's notice was even given out as a flyer given only at certain other official city meetings, not to 'the rest of the public'. .

Intentionally AVOIDNG any PUBLIC PARTICIPATION in what are to be open and comment-able meetings ?

How could it be ? that the Dist 5 of LA City Council did not know or not bother to send out information... so people could at least car pool or find a ride ...or get public transport information... or whatever is needed to take a long distance trip ...for the possibility maybe of making a public comment = that SHOULD BE HEARD by those making laws, rules and ordinances that then affect the everyone for years to come?

Maybe We The American Public should not be heard nor comment on issues that affect us, nor question our 'elected' representatives at all ?

Or maybe the meetings are secretly set up with only a few who will agree and conform and not ask embarrassing questions or confront any decisions by officials - so only those can thus attend these hidden meetings that yet do affect US all ?

And the results ? Where will they be made public? Or be posted, revealed, reported ? Or will only a cleansed version be given out to those affected by those very same decision-makers ? So that the taxpaying public who wants NO MORE COMMERCIAL JUNK VENDING ON VENICE BEACH have no say in what is said or decided about the upcoming ordinance changes ?

who knows?

it is so hard to dis-cover the ways our officials set up these routine meetings = that makes it actually an un-democratic process under the fake guise of being a participatory democracy we live under.

Under, as "under" - not inside of, a democracy but beneath.