MY TURN-I’m sure we all chuckled about the Venice Neighborhood Council’s (VNC) petition to have a topless beach. For most of Los Angeles residents and tourists, Venice is this “Kooky” beach town where you can find just about every type of extreme dress, lots of muscles on display, skateboards, jewelry, roller skates, stands selling everything and lots of people ogling each other.
It was like having your crazy Uncle Harry on display, in this beautiful setting of ocean and sunshine. I remember as a little kid going to what was called “Muscle Beach” and watching all the men and a couple of women lift weights. In those days, before it became trendy, Venice catered to seniors, who could walk to everything; hippies and flower children who sported Tie dye beads etc.; homeless (in those days they were called Bums) and a few restaurants.
For many years, my family was part of the International Visitors Program. Venice was at the top of the list to entertain our foreign dignitaries on a Sunday. The Mayor of Rabat (capital of Morocco ) was particularly enthralled, as he was in standing up in my convertible as I was driving up PCH. I remember telling him I didn’t have diplomatic immunity!
That was then!
In researching this article it was like peeling an onion … layers and layers. I have learned a lot about Venice in the last five years. It still has all the “kookiness” but it has a great big heart and a wonderful community spirit.
Part of the credit for both those attributes goes to the Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC), now chaired by Mike Newhouse.
He said, “I think the VNC has spent several years working very hard to be a model council with respect to effective stakeholder outreach, and being as accessible to our community as possible. As we move forward, we need to continue to listen to our Stakeholders, and to continue to create opportunities for all Venetians to become involved in local government.”
I started out by trying to see why VNC had so much support. Each of the VNC people I interviewed had slightly different reasons for the success but the common thread was PASSION. They truly believed that their NC could do great things for the community and were willing to put in the personal time and resources to make it happen.
The Venice Neighborhood Council was certified by the LA Department of Neighborhood Empowerment in March, 2002 and the original bylaws of the organization were approved and the area of representation defined. They were one of the early NC’s and today remain one of the most active.
Things you probably didn’t know:
According to Wikipedia, Venice, originally called "Venice of America," was founded by tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a beach resort town, 14 miles (23 km) west of Los Angeles. He and his partner Francis Ryan had bought two miles (3.24 km) of oceanfront property south of Santa Monica in 1891.
They built a resort town on the north end of the property, called Ocean Park, which was soon annexed to Santa Monica. After Ryan died, Kinney and his new partners continued building south of Navy Street. After the partnership dissolved in 1904, Kinney, who had won the marshy land on the south end of the property in a coin flip with his former partners, began to build a seaside resort like its namesake in Italy.
When Venice of America opened on July 4, 1905, Kinney had dug several miles of canals to drain the marshes for his residential area, built a 1,200-foot (370 m)-long pleasure pier with an auditorium, ship restaurant, and dance hall, constructed a hot salt-water plunge, and built a block-long arcaded business street with Venetian architecture.
By 1925, Venice's politics had become unmanageable. Its roads, water and sewage systems badly needed repair and expansion, in order to keep up with its growing population. When it was proposed that Venice be annexed to Los Angeles, the board of trustees voted to hold an election. Annexation was approved in the election in November 1925, and Venice was formally annexed to Los Angeles in 1926.
Unfortunately, the City did nothing to help the areas infrastructure and by the 1950’s it was a run down source of gang activity and poverty.
For a historical perspective I went to Ivan Spiegel, VNC Parliamentarian and active part of the NC C4C mentoring program. Ivan is part curmudgeon part raconteur. He is known for his vast knowledge of all the rules and regulations governing the NC system and as one of his Board members put it, “He keeps us out of trouble!”.
He said that Venice started to change in the 70’s when someone opened a roller-skate store and people started to come to Venice to go roller skating. The interest in this sport sparked a re-emergence of the rather closed community. Even with the gentrification that has occurred Venice still has as its core … diversity.
One of the advantages for stakeholders is that most everything is within walking distance. Monthly Board meetings have at least 50 people in addition to the Board and when there is something controversial, like the short term hotel rental business or the homeless situation, there is standing room only.
I had always admired their “outreach” efforts. Even though the Board turns over about 50% each election cycle the events continue. Their bylaws state they must have a minimum of four Town Hall type of events annually. They are famous for their Summer Bar B Que, feeding about 1500 stakeholders and friends. They recently held a “Green Expo” and think it will become an annual event; and have real Town Halls to discuss controversial issues. I get a Next Door email about one of their activities practically every day. They also publish a weekly newsletter.
Marc Saltzberg, Vice President, remarked that the Board meetings are mostly Board members talking, with minimal input from the public. At a Town Hall, the Board does the listening and the Stake holders do the talking.
He explained that one of the reasons that Venice maintains its diversity is it is a transient population with lots of “first timers.” It attracts young people starting out and has a higher proportion of younger people than most parts of the City. This keeps the community infused with new ideas and fresh outlooks. Because it receives almost 16 million tourists annually infrastructure is a huge problem. Saturday and Sunday one has to go at dawn to find a parking space.
He also said that because Venice has three jurisdictions: Coastal Commission; LA City and LA County; the parking and other problems are shunted from one jurisdiction to the other. VNC is very active in giving advice to their Councilman, Mike Bonin and helping the City make decisions affecting positive change. They also work with the various social and charitable organizations in the community, as well as actively supporting the other NC’s in their District.
Saltzberg added that “Challenges like the Homeless and how to deal with it, is a very polarizing topic. New comers who have paid sky high prices want to have their real estate keep its value, while many of the long time residents have compassion and know that alternative housing is one of the answers. Making everyone happy isn’t possible.
“The Board will vote against their personal interests, if it is for the good of the community. They are honest representatives of the stakeholders There are many committees, which is a great way to get new people involved and develop future leaders.”
The motion for topless beaches garnered a lot of interesting publicity for VNC… but not all of its stakeholders were happy. One of LA’s civic leaders, Linda Lucks, president emeritus of the Venice Neighborhood Council, and past member of the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners( BONC) was quoted in the Newspaper as expressing dismay that the Board would spend time on a proposal that she said had no chance of being approved. "There are so many more important things to be concerned about in Venice," she said. "I want us to be taken seriously, and this makes us look foolish.”
We know one thing for sure…VNC has accomplished great things for their community but they will never be described as either foolish or boring!
As always comments welcome
(Denyse Selesnick is a featured CityWatch columnist. She is a former Publisher/journalist/international event organizer. Denyse can be reached at: [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 36
Pub: May 1, 2015
