From June 2005 – 5 Years Ago

MTA lot

The bus maintenance lot at Sunset, Pacific and Main redevelopment is proceeding. An Environmental Impact Report has been issued and is available for perusal at the Vera Davis Community Center and the Abbot Kinney Library. The developers want to put a gated community in the middle of Venice. Many residents would rather have an extension of the walk streets that constitute the surrounding neighborhood. So far, no hearing has been scheduled by the city. If you want to get on the list to be notified about the hearing, contact Jimmy Liao at 213-978-xxxx.

From June 1985 – 25 Years Ago

The Independence Day Parade Committee (formerly the Free Venice Parade Collective) regrets to announce that the July 4th parade will not take place.

First there was the $125. filing fee (non-refundable) to be turned in with the parade application, with no assurance that the application would be approved by the Police Commission. We could have raised the money, but some of us thought it would be better used for other community needs.

Then there was the committee itself. We changed our name to have broader appeal. (What does Free Venice mean? Collective? That’s a commie word, isn’t it?) No one could quite remember who had proposed the parade, so there was no one clearly in charge. Almost everyone on the committee is already swamped with other responsibilities, leaving us to wonder who would do all the work: taking the application through the bureaucracy, contacting groups, businesses, individuals, putting out press releases, distributing leaflets, distributing posters, recruiting monitors, etc.

So, before we went any further, we decided to cancel the proposed parade. (We could always have one next year, or even later this year.)  Sorry.

From June 1980 – 30 Years Ago

Excerpts from “Chuck’s Briefs”

by Chuck Bloomquist

———-

“The ten most profitable companies (in billions) in the U.S. for 1979 were:

• Exxon $4.3
• IBM    3.0
• GM                2.9
• Mobil Oil         2.0
• Std. Oil – Ca.    1.8
• Texaco            1.8
• Std. Oil- Ind.    1.5
• GE                 1.4
• Gulf Oil           1.3
• Std.Oil – Oh.   1.2″

(So, out of a total of $21.2 billion, $13.9 billion,

or 66% of the profits were by oil companies.)

———

From 3/09/80 NYT article:

“IKI ISLAND, Japan (Reuters)-

About 4,000 dolphins massed around this island today, forcing fishing boats back to port, a day after fishermen from the island slashed and stabbed about 200 dolphins to death after trapping them in their nets.

Meanwhile, an American environmentalist, Dexter Cate, 36, from Hawaii, was charged with obstructing fishermen’s business by force and damaging equipment by cutting nets.

Cate freed some 250 dolphins that had been trapped in the bay at Iki Island where the others had been killed.”

————–

“There are a series of ten U.S. spacecraft called Vela. Their sole function is to monitor the planet for atomic detonations. They had correctly reported over forty such explosions over the years, the last being in Sept., 1979, off the southern tip of Africa. South Africa has 50 kilograms of enriched uranium, that they got from us. They could have the bomb.

So could Pakistan. Israel probably has one.

Kenneth Brower reporting in the April issue of OMNI magazine said, “Of all the dangers inherent in nuclear power, proliferation is the gravest. . . .It is not remotely conceivable that we can avoid nuclear war in a world where 50, or 100 nations, have nuclear bombs.”

(Current count is 9 nations.)

From June 1975 – 35 years ago

Excerpts from “Harpy Droppings”
by Carol Fondiller

“Guess what — the Marina Del Rey Bicentennial Commission is going to have a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party, and we’re all invited to watch them throw tea bags into the Marina.” (The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

——————-

“The Venice Marina Del Rey Chamber of Commerce, that group who objected to public drinking at the Canal Festival, is having a floating wine and cheese party. The Harpy is aghast and appalled. There are enough drunks floating in the Marina already.”

From June 1970 – 40 years ago

Lincoln Place:

Recently 75 families living in the Lincoln Place Apartments received notices to move. The notices flatly stated that “these building are to be converted to adults only.”

The tenants crimes then were two-fold. 1. They had children. 2. They were not rich. Incensed, the tenants held a meeting at the Venice Library to organize some resistance to management’s action. Approximately 100 people attended, including a management fink who took down everything that was said. It was learned that a total of 150 families on Penmar had children and could expect to get notices soon. A committee to carry on the protest was formed. The next day the committee met with the manager of the apartments who, very divisively stated that not everyone was required to move and that all cases would be treated separately (contrary to what was stated in the notice). Our friend, the manager, was also very aggrieved that no one had spoken to him before going to the meeting.

Currently, no more notices have been received by the tenants and some have asked management to be allowed to stay. Their requests have been graciously granted. Organizing towards a tenants association continues.

–compiled by Roger Linnett and Jim Smith