A Small Step Forward In The Venice Homeless Crisis

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Pretty much everyone is bustling about getting ready for the big meal with family and friends, celebrating our gratitude and abundance. Except some people have nothing at all, and you can see that on the streets of Venice every single day. Something must be done about the absolute crisis that homelessness is in this entire country ... this country that claims to be great, but looks the other way when it comes to poverty. There is no good excuse for the squalor that is everywhere that you look in a nation that has so very much.

The Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) meeting was held last night in the Westminster School auditorium, with the 720 Rose project up for a vote. The supporters of this affordable housing project from Venice Community Housing (VCH) were out in force, clad in black t-shirts and holding red roses to show their solidarity with this plan. As opposed to the completely disgusting mayhem that was last month's Town Hall meeting on the MTA homeless housing project, this one was very civilized and respectful - thank you all for that. There were 77 speaker cards turned in, and almost all of them that we heard were in support of this project, and almost all know that this Rose project for merely 35 homes is just a drop in the bucket, but that we MUST start somewhere. There was hardly anyone there that opposed the project, as I guess they just want to yell and make a scene when news cameras and the Mayor are there. Also, the ones who oppose homeless housing tend not to offer any solutions, they just complain, so it was a relief that they mostly sat this one out. Come with solutions or zip it. Seriously.

I kind of don't get why these projects for NEW buildings keep getting proposed for millions of dollars, when there are plenty of unused large buildings all over Los Angeles that could be repurposed for affordable and low or zero income housing (In fact, it was just approved that the massive County General Hospital in downtown L.A. will be repurposed into housing for the homeless, and that will help massively. That seems to be the main opposition, the spending of big money when housing can be done for so much less (though some VNC board members were all held up on parking spaces - and how many homeless people really need parking? - and height dimensions and stuff, when really, who cares? There are big ugly houses all over Venice that they approved - and those same board members seem to be very much in cahoots with money grab developers. It's gross.). As one speaker said, "Why do you care at all about parking spaces when people are sleeping on the street?" Exactly. C'mon. We need SOLUTIONS, not just complaints, though board member Jim Murez offered up the solution of the decommissioned USS Enterprise battleship to be stationed at the end of the pier for housing, and the flippancy of it was not well-received by the community in attendance. Because it's not at all a joking matter. People are DYING on the streets. On Thanksgiving.

Several speakers had great things to say, and several mentioned that tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and why not try some humanity, for goodness sakes! Most were longtime Venice residents, again as opposed to the awful Town Hall that was mostly all NIMBYs behaving badly. Many mentioned that they want to "Keep Venice, Venice" - meaning welcoming, accepting, and diverse. An eclectic community worthy of its legend and history. My friend, Alice Stek, was there and I thought had the best and truest comment of the night when she said that those board members opposed to the project, "Your opposition is actually opposition to poor people in the community." Which is sad, because Venice has never been an enclave for the wealthy. When I first lived in Los Angeles, I lived in Beverly Hills. I couldn't wait to get out of there and live in Venice, where I hung out every weekend. All of my B.H. friends were opposed, saying it was sketchy and dangerous and a dump. Well, times change, but the people that made Venice great in the first place have not. They're here, they're proud, and they have hearts. At least most of them do.

At meeting's end, VNC Board President, Ira Koslow, said, "Well, that was surprisingly pleasant!", and he was right. People who support affordable and supportive housing are generally civil and polite and want what's best for everyone, and not just out for themselves and their property or resale values. The project passed with a 9-4-1 vote, with the expected people voting as expected. It's a tiny step toward solving this terrible crisis, but at least it's doing SOMETHING. I honestly am still not sure if it's a good or bad project in the long run, but time will tell. I mean, your friend CJ STILL needs affordable housing, so this hits close to home. I'm also working on our documentary 90291: VENICE UNZIPPED, and we shot our homeless family the last couple of weeks, and I know how hard life is for them (but it looks like they're getting housing - THANK YOU ST. JOSEPH'S CENTER!), so this whole issue might mean more to me than someone else, but it SHOULD mean something to us all. Because we're a COMMUNITY. Everything that happens here affects us all, and it really could be you someday. I hope it's not, but don't get too comfortable in this crazy world. I don't have all the answers, or any really, for this ENORMOUS issue, but I do know that SOMETHING must be done.

So, tomorrow we all take a break from that crazy world to gather and give thanks for all of the good stuff in our lives ... but that also means DOING good. Gratitude is the Glory.

Happy Thanksgiving, Venice! Thank you.

New Mural On Speedway Celebrates Muscle Beach

There's a big new mural on Speedway right behind Muscle Beach at Speedway, and it shows off some of the things that have historically made Venice a cool place to be. Skating. Surfing. Babes. Boards. Muscles. The good stuff.

Jonas Never has been making his mural mark around town for a while now, and this is another good one that gives passersby a true sense of place. A place that has its fair share of problems, but none of them outweigh the good vibes, and the general aura of letting the good times roll.

There is yet another VNC meeting tonight that will deal with affordable and homeless housing, both sorely needed in this place where Art has always met Crime (and now Eviction - thank you Attaway and Gallo for coining these phrases). I hope that if you're planning to attend (and you should if you care about the future of Venice), and if you do, and you're planning to speak, I hope you're coming with ideas for SOLUTIONS, and not just your complaints. Everyone knows people don't like needles and human waste and people sleeping on the sidewalks, and that you don't want your kids seeing these things on the way to the beach. We get it. But if you're new, and you're freaking out about that, well ... you probably shouldn't have moved your kids here. If you're old school and freaking out about these things, come with solutions, not just shouting over other people. People just embarrassed themselves (but were so self-involved that they probably didn't notice) at the last one, and I'm hoping for a much more civil evening tonight. A meeting where mature citizens who can agree that we all love Venice can come together as the intelligent and creative people that we are (or can be) for the greater good. Come on. Make us all proud. One Love. Thanks in advance.

On a cooler note, right after I saw this new mural this morning, I also saw dolphins! Another bit of glory we get to witness in this excellent (perhaps last) beach community of color and diversity and art. These are the moments you put in your back pocket to get you through things like tonight's meeting - and what makes it all worth it. V's up!

Venice Art Crawl Fundraiser At The Lantern House - An Eclectic Arty Party

There was an extra-fun fundraiser last weekend for the Venice Art Crawl held at The Lantern House on Milwood that both showed everyone a great time and got funds raised for the big "Afterburn" edition of the VAC that costs a pretty penny to produce.

If you've never been inside The Lantern House, it's really something to see, and a truly Venice experience. There are all of the lanterns and chandeliers hanging in the trees lighting up the night, but there are also several bungalows making up the whole, all full of art and curios that beg for their stories to be told. (And we're having a fundraiser there on June 16th for a documentary I'm working on about income inequality in Venice/America - please message me if you'd like to come!)

There were speeches made by the VAC's Sunny Bak and Andrea Tan, and a welcome from our host, Scott Mayers, who also offered up a 12 person meal in his wonderful home for the silent auction (And you may still donate and/or bid HERE any day, to ensure that we get to have this super awesomely fun and cool Afterburn event this fall and keep the art in Venice all the time!)!

The theme for the event was "Eclectic", and to that end, there were beautiful mermaids and painted ladies (and even a blue-eyed wolf) making the rounds, and people were dressed up to impress (especially Amy Kaps in her art performance dress!). It was also really fun because I got to meet several people I'd either only previously known by name, or not at all. New friends!

There was food, drink, and merriment to be sure, but there was also entertainment. There was a magician named Danny Wolverton (aka "Special Head"). No one knew that the old man who looked like Gandhi that roamed around in our midst was really the entertainment, and would soon be levitating in the living room.

Levitating! I'm sure there's a trick to it, but we saw no wires and I believed. Wolverton had a ringer in the audience who yelled "Do it naked", and soon he transformed from a little old bald man into a young "naked" (he was in a sheer unitard) man, who could grow roses out of thin air! It was rad.

As was the whole party. There's not a lot better than an evening of mingling with Venice locals and artists for the great cause of keeping locals and artists IN Venice. Unless you get to follow it with a perfect focaccia (and meal) at Felix with some of your new friends you just made. Thanks, Ira & Gail!

Please support the Venice Art Crawl all year round. It's one of the best events we have here in Venice, and it really is all about the art and the locals. The next one is May 17th with a focus on the Cultural Corridor of Venice Boulevard. Please join us for yet another excellent evening of art in the neighborhood!

More Love!

If you read my last post, you'd know that I've been having a hard time with all the hateful rhetoric going around these days, never mind the actual violence. I decided to really make a point of searching out and  focusing on the LOVE that I know exists in everyone, and talk about that instead. When you make these choices, the world seems to arrange itself accordingly. Like when first thing this morning I saw David Busch sitting on the sidewalk in front of Mystic Journey on Abbot Kinney, offering "Free Love" to anyone passing by.

Well, I of course took him up on not only a "More Love" piece (which is a "command"), but also the chance to sit down on the curb there with him to hear what he had to say about the state of our city and country's affairs these days. I asked what he'd been up to lately, and he simply replied, "Love". Awesome.

We discussed the homeless "problem" here in Venice, and the only problem he sees is the persecution of people by authorities simply because they can't afford a proper house - because of an affordable housing crisis here in Venice that we all feel. He considers the sweeps on the homeless down at the beach a form of terrorism, and so do I. It's all about fear, and we both cannot understand why people who need the most help in one of the richest cities in the world, really aren't getting barely any. We talked about Venice being a "Cultural Wetlands" - which I loved - and how it's biodiversity of both people and creativity are being severely endangered ... and how we'll both fight to preserve it.

This will all be discussed in depth tomorrow night at the Venice Neighborhood Council meeting held at Westminster School at 7 p.m., where they will attempt to come up with "Homelessness solutions." David Bush will be there, perhaps with the best solution of all ... More Love.