Hello all,
This video was released a few days ago and encapsulates the issues many in Venice have with our city council person, Mike Bonin. Link is here for the YouTube and the Vimeo link is here.
Fox 11 Los Angeles did a story last week about the homeless in Venice, spurred seemingly by the Echo Park park clearing (video link here). The Echo Park clearing was not without controversy with LAPD temporarily arresting members of the press as well as a caught-on-tape conversation between members of the LAPD joking about burning citizens and/or protesters (that sound clip can be found here).
The terrible tragedy that happened in Beverly Grove a few weeks ago (LA Times article link here) highlights the very real mental health crisis that is nakedly in front of us. As you know, although Venice suffers from an incredibly dense population of the unhoused, this is a city wide problem and it touches all of us.
Overall the big unanswered question is where do all the homeless go? The reality is that we in Venice know first hand that no neighborhood can endure what we are living through and no resident is going to quietly accept the destruction of the city for much longer. Big and bold ideas are going to be needed which may include massive movements of the unhoused to available land in neighboring counties where large camps with localized services can be erected akin to refugee camps. When looked at by the sheer numbers of the unhoused in L.A. County, this is indeed an economic refugee crisis as well as a crisis of addiction and mental health. Whatever the answer to the big question may be, we will need better, bolder leadership to solve it.
LoveVenice.org 