Venice Village

Venice was a real village this past weekend. A real small town vibe permeated all the proceedings, beginning with First Fridays. The Abbot Kinney merchants finally banded together to get a No Parking permit for the evening, so no cars - or Food Trucks - were allowed to park on the Boulevard from 4-11 pm. It was SO much better, I can't begin to praise the businesses enough. I could actually MOVE down the sidewalks! I could see friends ACROSS the street and wave to them, unblocked by massive food peddlers and their lines. The stores were PACKED - with actual shoppers doing shopping! - proving wrong anyone who thought the dang trucks brought more business with them.


The sole defiant business, touting "We Support Food Trucks" right on their windows was Trim, who must have their reasons, but everyone else I spoke to were SO much happier with the night, and the business they did (and I suspect Trim might change their tune as well if it were a mobile hair salon parked out front of their space).


There were still food trucks if you needed to eat off a grill that has no health regulations whatsoever, but they were all parked at The Brig - per usual. The mist made it feel like you were inside a snow shaker the whole night, as we toasted marshmallows for S'mores at a decked out for the holidays Zingara. We got delicious chocolate at Elvino, who were toasting the season with a fun wine tasting. We stood around the fire pit at Robin's Sculpture Garden where we heard live music again at First Fridays (also at Trim! Also Carolers!). We saw MOSTLY people we knew for a change - some of whom said they hadn't been to a First Friday in months (if not longer), so turned off were they by the trucks. It felt great, and neighborly, and VENICE vs. Carny Fair. I even returned to my bike at the end of the night to find not ONE piece of trash in my basket. For that alone, I hope the Merchants chip in every month for the First Friday parking ban ... because it once again ruled.


Also ruling this weekend was the Holiday Stroll fun that was centered at The Brig. With REAL SNOW! Perhaps feeling some heat from the locals for all those food trucks normally parked there, Brig Dave lent out his normally packed with trucks parking lot to become a Winter Wonderland - complete with snow!


They took a pile of hay bales and covered them up with man-made snow to make a little sledding hill, that the kids super dug (especially since they could be in short sleeved shirts while riding!). One young whippersnapper, who appeared to be about two, kept following me around throwing little icy snowballs at me. I let it slide, as it was pretty exciting.


Carolers caroled, there were holiday arts & crafts projects, and even face painting. The very spare room left over in the lot did allow for a couple food trucks to get in and vend some hot pink chocolate snowball things, and hot dogs. Overall it seemed that everyone pretty much had their socks charmed off. "This is so great" ... "Adorable" ... "This was so nice of them" ... "My kids have never seen snow!" "It feels so small town!" ... were snippets of many conversations I overheard, and that is exactly what I love and try to promote about the special place we live.


The good FAR outweighs the bad. Whatever beefs you have in your corner of the town, about whatever small picture thing, when you see kids of the community beaming with red cheeks from hustling up the slippery hay slope, and people still arriving despite the rain that began to fall (and melt the snow) - in easy strolls, like "who cares about a little rain, check out how fun this is!", and coming out in droves just to enjoy each other and some frivolity, well, you just get it.


It indeed takes a village, and last weekend proved that we have that, in abundance.

Ho Ho Ho!!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Venice Skatepark! And Other Stuff I Missed While In Vegas ...

My, how time flies! The Venice Skatepark turned one this past weekend, with a contest for a birthday party ... and I missed it because I was in Las Vegas to celebrate my dear friend Christine's birthday (real one today - SHOUT OUT TO CHRISTINE KRSNIK!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! ). I'm sure it was the greatest, in a day of celebrating the sweet success of the skatepark, and a year of hooting and hollering at giant airs and slick tricks. A whole year since the park opened ... and that story is here, if you want to remember it fondly.


I also missed First Fridays. That one didn't bother me as much.


I also missed the removal of the sidewalk tables outside of Abbot's Habit, Abbot's Pizza, Casa Linda, and Nice Cream. I heard about first thing this Monday morning, however, even before I got my coffee. People are not at all happy about it, nor should they be. Those tables, especially the Abbot's Habit ones, are indeed that - a HABIT. There is a whole sidewalk culture there, and there has been for years and years. People have died, babies have been born. People have moved away, and returned to their same wooden seat, happy to be constantly moving their legs for dogs and strollers to pass by, as long as they get to greet their friends and watch the day move along for a bit, in the place that they most consider home. For people new to town, or just visiting, it's the perfect place to meet people, or people-watch the entire day and evening, and come to get a feel for this place. It's not a small deal. It feels naked and empty there without them.

My friend Billy wrote me this about it:

carol,talk to me about why they removed the tables,i can,t find out,"they remove the music,they fold up the sidewalk tradition,why don,t they just close the fucking world and be done with it---power currupts,"they sit up there in their ivory towers smoking cheap mexican boo and in their senseless way hullucinate yet more laws to pass,Lawmakers,hey ask us if we want the fucking law before you make it.

To which I say HELLYES. Rumor has it, and I just got back so I gotta investigate further, but I'm told that Food Truck folks had made a complaint about the tables taking up too much room on the sidewalk or something. PARDON ME?! The tables that have quite literally been second homes for longtime locals to congregate are taking up too much room for mobile food vendors to have their long lines form? Too damn bad, pardon me again. Again, that's just conjecture at this point, but if that's valid, all Abbot Kinney merchants and customers have not only a right, but a DUTY to be outraged. And do something about it.

Billy suggests naked poetry reading in protest. Where the tables once stood, at the corner of Abbot Kinney and California. Who's up for it? I'm not afraid.

And Vegas already seems like a distant memory ...

Let's go get those tables back.

First Fridays, For Who?

"On my last First Friday I realized this: There are way too many food trucks, they are so marginally talented and they need to drive to Bakersfield and stay there. And also, people of Brentwood, Santa Monica and the Palisades, PLEASE NOTE: you are not cool for just coming to Venice one Friday of the month. Love & Hugs, as always ..."

So read the Facebook status of one of my Venice pals the day after last month's First Friday. Yep, I think it's time for we citizens of Venice to have another little Pow Wow about it all. What started out as a thing to help out Abbot Kinney merchants at a slow-ish time, and have a cool hang for the locals to mingle and enjoy each other as they strolled along the Boulevard, has now become a bit of a monster that no locals seem to want to participate in.


August's First Friday was a madhouse. I helped out at my friend's store (Firefly) that night, so I was really immersed in it this time, rather than looking down upon it all from another friend's balcony, which has been the norm recently. The entire part of the evening that we stayed open after normal non-First Friday hours, I recognized not one single soul from Venice - and I know a lot of people. Not ONE.

When you ask Venice people these days if you'll see them on First Friday, the general response is "No way, I can't stand that mess", and it has actually propelled many of us AWAY from Venice (Helpful Hint: that would be a good day to try and lure us East of Lincoln, East side pals!).

And it really is a mess, literally and figuratively. A real mess, as people leave their food truck garbage everywhere (my bike basket is especially attractive to them for that purpose). A mess of people blocking the sidewalks, as it took me 20 minutes to get from locking Firefly's back door to get to my bike parked in front. A mess of traffic, as 40 (!) Food Trucks (the most ever, I believe) lined the streets, and a long queue more of them waited their turn on Milwood to turn on to AKB. It's gotten to be where it's really just kind of gross, and not many locals want to participate in that.


People that live in Venice chose their home for a reason, generally, and that is that it is VENICE ... not Santa Monica, not the Marina, but Venice, and all that goes along with that. We don't want Abbot Kinney to be another cheesy Promenade. We like to support local businesses. We like to park somewhere near our homes. We like to ride our bikes or walk without a hassle. We like to recognize SOMEONE as we go about
our fun.

More and more shops and businesses on the block are talking about not staying open for First Fridays, as it doesn't seem to be that profitable. The permanent restaurants on the Boulevard are all great, and busy on Fridays anyway. With such a glut of Food Trucks that night, and locals completely avoiding it all, who really benefits from the thing - other than the night trippers that want to feel all cool and Venice for an evening, I mean?

Again, I don't have the answers, but we need to discuss it all, before the whole thing turns ugly. There's already anger with the food trucks, the crowds, the garbage, the parking, etc ... and that's not cool. I just want my friends and neighbors to be happy, and there hasn't been too much happiness (that I've heard of) with the whole First Friday deal. On the other hand, it's merely one night a month, and I guess we can all stomach that ... I guess. Most seem to think it's a passing phase/phenomenon, and we can just ride it out. People will find some other place to go litter and Twitter and get drunk at soon enough. Time will tell ...

It's a good time to talk about Venice Cityhood too. With autonomy from Los Angeles proper, we'd be more free to sort out what's best for us as a city, and as a people. FREE - that's a big big part of why I chose to live here, to feel free to live however I want to, with like sorts that also greatly value their freedom. That's why the paper is called The FREE Venice Beachhead. It's the core value, I believe, of Venice.

So let's talk about all of it ... First Fridays; supporting local business and the best ways to do that; if Cityhood is a real possibility that has support and benefits everyone, litter; parking; and anything else you want to talk about. Write to The Beachhead, or stop me on the street Monday-Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, since I probably won't be seeing any of you at First Friday (er, tonight).

First Fry-days ... The Food Truck Invasion

So ... we all need to have a little chat. How do you feel about the Mobile Food Vendor trucks that swarm into Venice each First Friday (and lots of other days too, just not as many)? In talking to store owners, neighbors, FF revelers, and friends, there appears to be many mixed feelings about them. It's an issue that's getting pretty heated, so we need to address it and come up with positive solutions, instead of just freaking out about it.

First Fridays started as a way to drum up business when the economy started its downturn. It worked. Gone are the free wine and loud music for the locals days, but that jump start did the trick, and now you can barely move at the beginning of each month, as crowded as it is.

With the increased popularity of that night each month, word got out among food truck operators (beginning with the Kogi one, that currently has 61,729 Followers on Twitter!) and where there's a buck to be made ... They will come. With them came a slew of issues of which each could - and should - be its own separate item on the Neighborhood Council agenda: Trash. Parking. Safety. Etc. Etc.


There are pros and cons of the Food Truck epidemic. They offer affordable food - pro. They leave nowhere for anyone to park on First Fridays - con. They bring new customers to Abbot Kinney - pro. Those new customers throw their trash on the ground (or in my bike basket) - con. They create a Carnival atmosphere - pro AND con.

One business owner says they hurt their business ... customers can't park or get past the line of people waiting for their "gourmet" taco to get inside, and they want to punch the rude truck worker out. Another says it's been great for business, and they give the truck a "Bathroom Letter" to use their restroom facilities.

(*In calls and emails to our Councilmember Rosendahl, Venice Officer Skinner, the LA County Health Inspectors, and City Hall, it appears that there is only ONE regulation at the moment - that is the Trucks must be parked within 200 feet of a bathroom facility for the workers in the truck to use if they're going to be parked over one hour, and have a letter from the permanent business offering the use of their bathroom. That's it.)

The Health Department Inspector I spoke to said that with 14,000 registered vehicles to keep up with (never mind the as many as 28,000 ones operating illegally), it's hard to strictly regulate them all (especially in a State that's pretty much broke). 8 Trucks were shut down for Health violations at the March First Friday, and there is no Rating System for food trucks (yet), so the Bathroom Letter is really the only weapon those opposed to them have to brandish.

I have no problem with the old time-y Mexican food trucks, like the great Taco one that is usually around Lincoln and Rose. Those have been a big and important part of L.A. culture for years, and whatever regulations or crackdowns are to be implemented to keep the peace, I hope those original ones can somehow be Grandfathered out of the loop, so they can stay in business. It's the flashy (some corporate) new ones that we're talking about here.

Some of my friends love the new trucks. Many of them abhor them. I personally feel like I do about Chain businesses ... they don't really seem to fit in Venice. It bothered me to see a Pizza slice truck parked a half block away from Abbot's Pizza Co., who have served up their delicious slices for years and years. It irked me to see a guy in a wheelchair not able to navigate the narrow sidewalk because of the line swarming in front of one of the trucks. It concerns me that with all the trucks parked on the street, it's difficult to see around them to cross an already sketchy crosswalk at Palms. It bugged me to return to my bike to see the basket filled with trash from the 11 (!) Food Trucks parked in The Brig parking lot across the street last First Friday. But these are all things that can be addressed and dealt with. Right? Especially if they do indeed increase business for our local merchants whom we love. But DO they? I've heard many locals say that they now avoid First Friday because it's turned into such a madhouse of Food Trucks and "Bridge and Tunnelers". What do YOU think? There's another First Friday right around the corner ... observe and report!


The Food Trucks will be an agenda item at the next Neighborhood Council meeting, so attend and make yourselves heard. Communicate openly about your concerns with the Food Truck Vendors themselves. Write to the Beachhead (and become a Sustainer while you're at it!) to offer your own creative solutions. But above all, please continue to support your LOCAL businesses, who made Abbot Kinney into a destination in the first place.

Word.