Dear Beachhead,

I am a native born of Hollywood, but that has never effected how much Venice is my home. Even as a young child my family frequented the area despite living further east. My God Mother and mother’s best friend lived over by Mark Twain Middle School during the early 80’s and up and we were constantly over there. In fact, when my folks divorced my siblings and I were sent to stay there for a bit.

We always went to Venice Beach and Santa Monica pier (another town that has been rebuilt with the upper class solely in mind). I will admit my pre teen days were spent in Venice and Santa Monica being a hooligan of sorts and partaking in mischief with local squatters and street performers and so forth, I even WAS a squatter for some time.

Venice is properly nicknamed Dogtown, we are known for skate boards, pit bulls playing with pugs, graffiti, beautiful sunsets, drum circles, and cheap pizza by the slice. But recently over the past several years I have noticed things changing. I noticed how people who had lived here for years were being pushed out for ‘bigger and better things” I doubt I have to remind ANYONE about the Penmore Apartments that were evicted, boarded up and then left to stand empty while many families were forced to leave.

Or the Pioneer baking company on Rose and 5th. It used to make the whole street smell of fresh baked goods, torn down to make way for condos that as far as I can tell the plans for were tossed and the land is now for sale. The Hari Krishna People no longer frequent the giant pink house down the street and Jim’s blue house on the boardwalk has been a whore house to such brands as Nike and so on.

Street side performers and vendors who used to get along now fight among each other over the spot lottery and people just trying to make a few bucks while offering goods or provide entertainment on a lazy sunday are now treated with such hostility by the police one would think they were running a sex slave ring, four cops harass one vendor. Don’t get me started on how many cops the department seems to think it needs to harass traveling kids who might be a bit obnoxious but are not causing any harm. They ticket people for having dogs on the beach but ride horses up and down disregarding the droppings from their mount, they drive cars down the boardwalk full with people which is a very big danger potential… far more then a dog off a leash or some public drunk bum.

Newcomers to the area both tourists and people who have made Venice their home do little to learn the social taboos and quirks. I can’t tell you how many times I have been hit by a car while skating down Speedway only for the driver to yell at me for dinging his precious hummer or BMW. No affordable apartments will accept dogs and the ones that do want extra in security deposits even though I have seen unruly children do more damage to an apartment then a dog. I could go on and on and on as to what I see but here is the basic run down.

Venice is a Mecca for all of us, not just the rich. It is a little slice of heaven with grit and grime that takes care of itself if left to it’s own devices. I have seen much more policing and social justice done from the homeless, locals and even gang members than I have from the police. This town is for all of us.

Lower, middle AND upper class. But recently many things that make Dog Town what it is are dissolving in to what only the wealthy want and not what we all want.

Ian Dean