By Charles Dunn

The Snake that curls around Venice every Saturday and Sunday is easy to see as it slowly squeezes and suffocates its victim (Venice) like its next meal. Venice has become the metal Snake’s new prey, with the residents having to stand by and tolerate its invasion each weekend.

I`m talking about the overloading, ever increasing amount of traffic on our roads. The traffic has numerous heads and tails which wind around the Venice streets – coursing, snarling and creating jams with no end in sight – not to mention the noise pulsating out of car windows, with no choice for the listener.

Let`s put an end to this undesirable problem. We`ve all seen the empty parking lots at the Abbot Kinney library and at Venice High School the empty parking spaces outside local office buildings and businesses. A` Park and Ride` system should be adopted. We could have a tram line setup, with maybe two cars that travel in a loop up and down Venice Blvd., running on Solar Power.

Presently every available parking space is taken up, disregarding the needs of Venice residents. One local said “they come to park in spots needed for us, then when they go home,  they leave their trash behind for us to clean up some time Monday.”

We need a solution to this problem for all parties involved. It`s not right that Venetians should suffer and it`s not right that the visitors are having to sit in endless traffic congestion. These visitors are unwittingly overpowering us with their unnecessary pollution.

Most of the visitors spend a good length of time in traffic during their visit and I`m sure this may eventually keep people away,  thus local businesses would lose the much-needed revenue generated by these visitors, which in turn helps to pay their escalating rents.

I for one wish not to see Venice swamped with multi-story parking lots, ruining the unique Venice landscape – take other cities around the world as an example, they have excessive multi-story parking lots and ever expanding shopping malls.

Main St. in Venice once had a tram system (its existing lines can be seen when the road is under construction), and was known as the `Red Line` – maybe it`s time to bring it back.