VenicePaper Recommends
Secret Home & Garden Tips and Other Events This Weekend
April 28, 2008---Forget
Dwell magazine, for years the Venice Garden and Home Tour has been doling out the best in self-help tips to better homes. It’s a self-guided tour through Venice lifestyles, an open book to what neighbors, friends, architects and non-pros have pulled off—not just with large budgets, but even bigger imaginations.
We’ve been taking it for years, and still don’t get bored—the route changes consistently. This year, the tour is staged east of Lincoln where the large lots are seriously home & garden friendly. Here’s a mini-preview of the Saturday, May 3, event:
Lebanese artist Huguette Caland’s home and garden.
Though the space is replete with a beautiful long lap pool, the garden transports you to the Middle East where Caland was born and her father served as the first president of Lebanon. Caland selected the many plants and fruit trees that populate it.
Ron Radziner of Marmol Radziner steps up for the architect’s contingent.
His firm has received extensive press coverage for it’s luxurious pre-fab designs, but on Saturday, firm principal Ron Radziner opens the doors of his recently completed personal residence. Check out the sunken kitchen which links two spacious wings stretching out in opposing directions.
The lawn is gone (at Keegan Roehr’s).
Keegan Roehr demonstrates how California’s can to the right thing—both environmentally and aesthetically offering a garden populated with California native and drought-tolerant plants.
The urban farm.
Master gardener Marlena Ross pulls it off with hundreds of fruit trees, vegetables and herbs. While home design has become a big draw of the tour in recent years, Ross brings back the beauty and mystery of cultivation.
Tix: $60 in advance $70 day of. To purchase or for more information visit:
www.venicegardentour.org
When: Saturday, May 3, 2008, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM (rain or shine!)
Start Location: Las Doradas Children's Center
804 Broadway, Venice, CA 90291
(corner of Broadway & Pleasant View, 1 block west of Lincoln Blvd)
Is Politics More Your Thing? Get down in the Dirt.
The LA County Board of Supervisors seems so distant from our lives, but recently they ponied up more than $50 million of your money for a park adjacent to their offices in downtown Los Angeles as such fundamental necessities as health care face are slashed county-wide. What’s a voter to do?
Attend a forum featuring Bernard Parks and Mark Ridley-Thomas, who are vying for the same County Supervisor slot.
Moderators are KPCC/NPR reporter Kitty Felde; KCAL/KCBS-TV political analyst David Bryan; Assoc. Dean of UCLA School of Public Affairs, William Parent; and President of LA Urban League, Blair Taylor.
Unfortunately the forum, which is sponsored by West LA Democratic Club, UCLA School of Public Affairs, and the Urban League also occurs this Saturday, May 3, 2008 between 1:00pm to 3:00pm, creating a conflict with the garden tour. But if you want to do both, be ambitious: start the garden tour at 10:00 am, blow into the forum for an hour or so then head back out to continue your garden walk.
Given the forum’s location at Beethoven Elementary School at 3711 Beethoven Street, the two events are an easy walk or bike from each other. Admission is Free—Donations welcomed! For more info: Call Bill Parent at 310-206-4136 or visit
www.westlademclub.org /
Christopher Farr, Emily Kroll and Others Discuss Their Work Incorporating Sustainable Elements at Design Within Reach
Emily Kroll speaks at Design Within Reach this Thursday night, May 1, about her new line of furniture which adheres to strict sustainability guidelines.
We’ll cop to the fact that she’s our homegirl and a longtime friend-of-paper, but the reason why we’re touting her here is her consideration of sustainability at each step of the manufacturing process.
The event is also an amazing chance to hear preeminent textile and rug designer Christopher Farr. Born in England, Farr studied as a painter before investigating the fine art of textile and rug weaving in Peru and Turkey.
Thursday, May 1, 2008. 6:00PM – 8:00PM
Design within Reach
332 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica
310.899.6000
Blogging Venice
Police Patrols Stepped Up on Boardwalk
The following is excerpted from a press release issued by Councilman Bill Rosendahl's office. Rosendahl's district includes Venice.
ROSENDAHL, LAPD STEP UP POLICE PRESENCE AT VENICE BEACH
Patrols Will Work Nights, Partner with Community
VENICE - Taking proactive steps to enhance public safety, the Los Angeles Police Department will begin beefing up patrols in the Venice Beach area, Councilmember Bill Rosendahl and Captain Joseph Hiltner announced today.
The immediate redeployment of officers in the beach and neighboring areas will allow for nighttime patrols, special task forces to target emerging problems and crime patterns, and a more visible police presence....
Venice Blog
Boardwalk Gets Darker, Murder Reported
Tuesday, March 11, 2008--We're being told by a Venice local that a young homeless man and his dog were murdered Sunday night or early Monday morning on the Boardwalk. Their bodies were "discovered semi buried in the sand behind the pagoda at the end of Breeze Avenue."
Residents of the walk streets adjacent to the area and the Boardwalk itself have noticed that the behavior of young, mostly drug addicted homeless people has grown more violent, brazen and confrontational in recent months.
Ironically, on the Saturday night prior to the murder, another local told us of their repeated requests to get more police officers patrolling the area and to have dangerous personalities removed. At the time they spoke to us, LAPD did not appear to have the resources or will to ramp up patrols in the area.
According to that resident, as crime rates have dropped in an overall sense in the area policing resources have gone to other districts.
At least one merchant has pushed for increased presence, while the Venice local who told us of the murder had contacted Venice's city council office as well as the captain of the LAPD's Pacific Division, charged with patrolling the area seeking stronger law enforcement support.
It's not news to locals how the personality of the Boardwalk changes from day to night often leaving a sense of desolation and danger. But the murder, coupled with an ongoing and seemingly dangerous physical presence, appears to have demonstrated just how dangerous the area is.
Be careful.
Venice Blog
Fur Flies over Development; Usher versus Perry and More.. as the LA Development-World Turns
Tuesday, March 11, 2008(**Revised at 1:10PM)--It's no secret that it's open-season on the Los Angeles City Planning Department. If it's not the media skewering them, it's the City Council.
But, after a couple of weeks of escalating skirmishes, the turf war over the future of Los Angeles growth exploded on Sunday, March 9, when Jane Usher, the well-connected chair of the Los Angeles Planning Commission, issued an e-mail to the public taking the Los Angeles City council to task for approving a measure that would stop review of environmental, traffic and other impacts for qualifying developments.
Usher basically said, the council could be sued over it.
Naturally, the council was mildly irritated.
City Councilperson Jan Perry verbally reprimanding Usher in today's
LA Times. The Times' David Zahniser, who is an excellent planning & development reporter, failed to note that amongst Perry's contributors for reelection is: Bill Witte, who heads the Related Cos' Grand Avenue project, a private developer leveraging millions of dollars in tax payer subsidies.
Anyone who watches Perry's politicalling for five minutes knows, she should just replace city signage outside her field office with a REMAX sign.
Never mind that Usher's head is being called for on a certain LA blog that's devoted to developer self-love. It'll be interesting to see Usher, who doesn't like to be crossed, take Perry on.
Usher's e-mail came into play a few days after City Councilman Ed Reyes said each councilmember should be in charge of the disposition of the industrial land within their own district. Meaning, that after a couple of years of giving lip service to the notion of actual planning, envision Los Angeles as a whole, it's back to rule by the Gang of 15. (And they've done such an exemplary job so far, haven't they?) Translated: more suburbia, more traffic, more developer placed city councilpeople. Development-by popularity vote, it's so
high school. Reyes, who was once a member of the planning department, should know better.
What's super tragic about Reyes pronouncement is the death mill it tolls for any hope that, on a local level, Los Angeles will contribute to the de-escalation of global warming.
Ask any councilmember, and they're bound to speak effusively about the need to end global warming. But their actions demonstrate--just don't let that get in the way of their re-election campaign and the necessary development industry funding.
Reyes spoke in a debate over whether to re-zone industrial land-use downtown (*an entirely different matter than that covered by Usher's e-mail but a debate that none-the-less put a knife into the concept of overall planning for the city.)
Under Los Angeles City Planning Director Gail Goldberg, the department has advocated that industrial land should be kept as such. And, if, you want to slow down global warming, that strategy makes sense. Keep pockets of industrial land local, reduce traffic, increase the diversity of local jobs etc rather than have such workers commute to un-heard of regions to perform such functions. But the profit margin for developers holding such properties is high and Goldberg did bungle how her department would present their plan for preserving industrial land. Led by such Councilpeople as Jose Huizar, Reyes, Perry, the Council et. all aren't about to give up control over their own little fiefdoms.
Usher, on the other hand, has no intention of chairing a meaningless Los Angeles City Planning Commission. Ergo her e-mail.
Site Logistics
Signing up for VenicePaper Email Alerts?
VenicePaper is switching our e-mail alert service. Until we've completed the move, we're asking that rather than signing up
online for news alerts, you jet a note to
letters@venicepaper.net stating: "I want to sign up for VenicePaper e-mail alerts" and provide your e-mail address. Then, input our e-mail address (
your_staff@venicepaper.net) into your address book so that your spam filter allows delivery. (Particularly essential if you use gmail, hotmail, or aol.)
Thanks, Your Staff at VenicePaper
Venice Blog
More Gang Raids
Tuesday, March 11, 2008--There was police action in the form of another raid at a personal home last night in Venice's Oakwood district.
Venice Blog
Gang Raids Hit Venice
March 8, 2008--Many of you have been hearing about law enforcement's sweep of Venice's Oakwood-area searching for alleged gang members, weapons and drugs. (Or heard shots that February 19 morning and called us asking what was going on.)
The military-style operation resulted in a story in the L.A. Times in which City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo extoled the raids success. But the Times didn't investigate Delgadillo's claims, while 19 arrests were made, the accuracy of the raids at personal residences was far from substantial.
Jill Stewart over at the L.A. Weekly dedicated reporter resources to the operation and found:
"...law-enforcement personnel came away empty-handed in their search for gang members or illegal weapons in seven households the L.A. Weekly initially interviewed - a finding corroborated by an LAPD spokesman." An additional 3 households asserted at a community meeting that nothing was found in their home.
Instead of gang members "A 50-year-old woman was made to lie in dog feces with a gun to her head, a caretaker was forced to abandon a man stricken with cerebral palsy who wears diapers...."
Click through for the story in its entirety.
Take care,
your staff at VenicePaper
News
Venice Dials In for Obama
January 27, 2008—Local volunteers and campaign delivered heavily for the Barack Obama campaign yesterday. Providing a full 10,000, phone calls as part of the campaign’s goal of phoning 100,000 Californian voters in a single day.
According the campaign communication’s coordinator for CD 30, Kirsten Pierce, 240 volunteers took part in the effort. Statewide, 160,000 calls were placed.
News
Obama Opens Venice Campaign Office
Senator Barack Obama has opened a campaign field office on Abbot Kinney. It's located upstairs at 1410 Abbot Kinney and comes with an added benefit--it almost makes up for having Pinkberry in the building. (If you don't know where the 1410 structure is--it's across from local faves Abbot's Pizza and Abbot's Habit.)
Word has it that the new owner of the building comped the space--that's Venice.
On Friday, January 25, Venetians were taking advantage of his largess--dropping in off the street and purchasing some killer t-shirts (yes, really) and bumper stickers.
Society Page
Prominent Architects Caught East of Lincoln!!!!
January 25-- VenicePaper has this critical breaking news just in.
Evidently it was boys night out for Venice architects last night, as Mark Mack, Glen Irani and Whitney Sander hit the sauna in Korea Town. (And you think we never travel west of Lincoln.)
What, they're too good to waste cash at a certain soul-less spa in SM. And just who was the fourth gentlemen to join them???
If you have information about this depraved out-of-Venice outing, dial VenicePaper WE TIP!
Stuff to Do
Art Storm
January 25, 2008--Get drenched in art this weekend at Barker Hanger. Yes, just in time for this weekend's brutal storm... The Los Angeles Art Show which is staged at Barker Hanger, next to the Santa Monica airport.
News
UCLA Student Waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay Protest
January 11, 2008--The LA Times didn't mark it, neither did we get any pre-announce from the Huffington Post, , but today, January 11, 2008 marked the sixth anniversary of Guantanamo Bay. The off-shore prison where unknown prisoners are held without charges and in often horrific conditions, spawning suicide which one military official decried as simply political opportunism by the victims.
Longtime Venice resident, reporter Michael Linder covered a protest of the infamous date at UCLA for KNX radio--his regular gig. During Linder's tenure at the station, he's seen some brutal moments--the death by lethal injection of Tookie Williams comes to mind. So you'd think the demonstration of waterboarding on a student who had volunteered to submit himself to the process wouldn't have shaken him up.
But speaking to him afterwards, it was as if by talking about the horrifying transaction he could expel it from is system. Though you won't hear it on Linder's broadcast--which we've linked below--UCLA's fake prisoner ended the ordeal locked in a fetal position, while the crowd was too stunned, too shaken to walk up to offer him aid and the 'interrogator' simply walked away. Linder painted a visual picture for us, so ugly, so bereft of humanity, we'll lose sleep over it. (And this was just a demonstration, where the parties involved were not sleep deprived to the point of madness, and well taken care of physically.)
Here's Linder's set-up and link:
"From Washington to Sydney, worldwide protests on the sixth anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. In London, protesters were locked in steel cages in front of the U.S. Embassy. And at UCLA, a terrifying demonstration of waterboarding. KNX 1070�s Michael Linder has the story."
link to broadcast
Development News
Councilman Hosts Town Hall on Pico/Olympic Traffic Proposal
January 9, 2008--Venice's City Councilman, Bill Rosendahl, hosts a town meeting tonight, January 9, on a controversial proposal to alleviate Westside traffic woes.
The proposal, developed by Mayor Villaraigosa and the LA Department of Transportation, is dubbed
"Olympic-West Pico-East."
If approved "Olympic-West Pico-East" would emphasize different directional traffic flows on each of the streets, impacting parking, lane striping and traffic signals along a seven-mile stretch of Pico/Olympic between La Brea Boulevard and Centinela Avenue.
Opponents have objected to the plan because it would erode some of the last 'neighborhood-style/mom-and-pop' shopping areas left in Los Angeles.
(VenicePaper has taken an
editorial position on the plan.)
The meeting starts at 7 pm tonight and takes place at:
Daniel Webster Middle School
11330 W. Graham Place
West Los Angeles, CA 90064
Parking is available on the street or at the parking lot on Sawtelle Bouelvard and Ivy Place.
Plan Details
According to a press release issued by the Mayor's office: "Phase 1 ensures consistent rush hour parking restrictions along both Olympic and Pico, and boosts enforcement efforts of parking rules by LADOT officers. Phase 2 creates preferential flow signal timing to allow commuters to move more
quickly along Olympic heading west and Pico heading east.
After evaluating the results of these initial steps, the City plans to re-stripe Olympic and Pico in Phase 3 of the project, adding more westbound lanes on Olympic and more eastbound lanes on Pico. The plan also seeks to protect Westside neighborhoods by limiting left turns onto residential streets and
reducing cut-through traffic on local roads."
Who Will Be There
In addition to Councilmember Rosendahl, representatives from the Mayor's office, Transportation Department employees and neighborhood councils will attend.
Breaking News
Friday Filming Makes Merchants See Red; 1311 Abbot Kinney & 1319 Abbot Kinney Bring in the Dough, Part I
by Tibby Rothman
8:13 PM, Thursday, December 19, Venice CAConcerned that the film “Four Christmases” will impinge on their own ability to conduct business during the essential holiday season, the Abbot Kinney District Association launched a drive to stop the film from shooting on the street on Thursday, December 20 and Friday, December 21.
In calling for a halt to filming, which will occur on the 1300 block of Abbot Kinney Boulevard near the corner of Santa Clara, the merchants association said that the permit was issued in violation of conditions that preclude shoots during the holidays and on Fridays.
Reached slight after 5 pm today, a community relations representative with Film LA—the City of Los Angeles’ permitting agency—said that the “shoot has permission and it will go forward.”
More Breaking News
Friday Filming Makes Merchants See Red; 1311 Abbot Kinney & 1319 Abbot Kinney Bring in the Dough, Part II
1311 Abbot Kinney, Used as Permitted?
(See Part I of this Story Above) The two days of filming will take place at 1311 Abbot Kinney, a building originally permitted by the city as a live-work space. In other words, a residence given permission to sell products made within its confines.
Almost since its inception several months ago, though, the massive structure has hosted banquet-style dinners and film shoots requiring extensive parking spaces. In addition, the structure’s owner has appropriated a section of a public lot, placing a private parking sign on it. (A few doors down 1319 Abbot Kinney, the so-called Smart Car house, is the poster child of appropriate parking going as far, which also served as a "Four Christmas" location this week
Like the so-called Smart Car house which flaunted any intention to follow city rules and disregarded the rights of at least one well-respected and longtime merchant in the area, 1311 Abbot Kinney is emblematic of the city’s inequitable planning/enforcement system.
