READER COMMENTS POSTED AT ARGONAUTNEWS.COM:
Re: “Bonin draws line in the sand on Venice Beach boardwalk chaos,” news, Aug. 7
‘No simple answers’
Thank you for covering the unacceptable state of Venice Beach and our ongoing work to give the people who live, work and enjoy the area the clean, safe and characteristically funky neighborhood they expect and deserve.
Venice Beach and the surrounding neighborhood is a tourist attraction, but it also a residential neighborhood and a business district — and it too often is held hostage by rowdy punks and criminals who manipulate vending rules and laws meant to protect the homeless to create their own sketchy environment and campground. It is not acceptable.
We must and will be expanding programs and coordinating services to help the needy and those who are left with no choice but to sleep on our streets. But those are not the people causing problems in the neighborhood. To combat that problem, we are installing brighter lights at Venice Beach, and we will be installing 24-hour security cameras. We are increasing neighborhood cleanups, and the LAPD is instituting new patrols and policies. We are also going to tighten up vending regulations that create a scofflaw underground economy that is forcing out the entertainers and performers.
There are no simple answers to the complex intersection of social justice and public safety issues at play here. Government and the community need to work hard to respond with dignity, compassion, and assistance for those who want and need help — and to provide hard and strong law enforcement for those who violate the law and think our neighborhoods are a cool place to party, cause trouble and live off the grid.
Mike Bonin
Los Angeles
City Council member
Housing is the issue
The issue here is that the people who are homeless on the beach often have nowhere else to go — and no one is providing them options. A strict law enforcement approach leads to police harassment of the homeless while they are trying to clean up your “jewel.” A big part of the reason that the homeless in Venice are so restless could be because they literally get no rest. The LAPD repeatedly wakes people up during the wee hours of the morning and harasses anyone who chooses to sleep anywhere but Rose and 3rd (which is often dirty and completely packed with people).
The only housing option available to Venice’s homeless is jail. I honestly believe that by relaxing or eliminating laws that seek out homeless people, such as loitering laws (which are only enforced in Venice upon the homeless), and sleeping in public laws (which are only enforced when the homeless are sleeping somewhere the LAPD decided they shouldn’t), and camping laws (because really, doesn’t it make more sense for homeless people to sleep on the beach at night than to force them to sleep on the sidewalk in residential areas?), the general unrest and turbulence that the homeless community feels will be reduced, therefore making everyone’s experience in Venice more enjoyable.
Additionally, implying that a homeless person set their own mattress on fire is ignorant. Would you burn your bed, especially if you had been sleeping on the concrete for goodness knows how long before you got it, and will be again now that it’s garbage?
I understand the frustration that comes from living in an environment that is also shared by hundreds of homeless people. However, in reality, they were there first. You can’t come into a community and gentrify it and expect things to go smoothly, especially if you try to do it by criminalizing people and trying to force them out.
What Venice needs to do is adopt a Housing First program and open spaces for these people to go.
Sarah Werman
Boardwalk connects all walks of life
This is a Band-Aid solution designed to put more homeless people in prison instead of in proper housing. I work on Venice Beach and watch law enforcement harass homeless people on a daily basis — homeless people who are doing nothing but sitting on the side of the boardwalk selling necklaces or flying a clever sign, creating part of the unique tourist attraction that is Venice Beach. Venice is made lively not just by the shops that line the boardwalk, but by the largely homeless population who sets up their stalls every morning and close up at sunset to find a warm place to sleep. They are a part of Venice, part of what makes us a Mecca for creative travelers from across the world. We are a highway for connecting people from all walks of life. Why can’t we just give them a place to sleep?
Allison Villegas
Venice deserves better
Finally! I think this is a great start in addressing the impossible-to-ignore issues on Ocean Front Walk. No doubt it is a complex and nuanced issue. But as the proposal suggests, there are a number of programs proposed to reduce crime and vandalism. Those who live, work and play in the area deserve a clean and safe environment. I don’t see this as an attack on the homeless at all (as some of the others suggest). I appreciate their passion of homeless advocacy; however, the status quo is unacceptable and incredibly dangerous for the peaceful individuals who sleep on the beach. This strip of coastline deserves better, and so do the residents.
Kiran
Bonin refuses to expand the Venice Free Storage Program (which has been way over capacity since December and has a 100 person waiting list) and refuses to take simple, low cost solutions like putting more trashcans on heavily used streets and bathrooms that stay open 24 hours a day there, but instead is increasingly inciting hatred and fear of unhoused people and spending city money unwisely. These sweeps cost a minimum of $7500 each and will cost the taxpayers at least $180,000 this year alone–even without these middle of the night crazy ones.
With that money we could do a lot to get more people closer to jobs and housing with bathrooms, showers and storage containers so they can be free to pursue jobs, education, housing, AA meetings, counseling, medical and other assistance rather than have to worry about these basic human needs that otherwise take up most of their time. Mostly the people you see “laying around” are really guarding all the stuff they have in the world. That is what is usually in that “pile” they are sitting next to! Their important paper work, heart medication. blankets, dog food, clean underwear, a wheelchair, tools for fixing small items to make a couple of bucks, a birthday card from their kid and a couple of her baby teeth…everything that is important to them in the world!
Bonin, stop punishing homeless people and stop “stepping up” expensive punitive measures–which do nothing to solve anything–obviously–and please, please, please try real, low cost solutions that are a win/win for everyone in Venice!
As much as we all really want to, no one can house all the unhoused people immediately. Pretty obvious. So at least treat the ones still left on the street–for now–with dignity and give them bathrooms, showers and a place to put their stuff. Those simple–very affordable–things help immensely! A win/win for the whole community!
Watch this for actual, low cost solutions:
Then email Bonin that you want this program expanded immediately
If you want these issues actually resolved….
If you are into solutions rather than punishment…
It’s the LEAST we can do!