By Greta Cobar

The owner of our former, historic post office is being sued for close to $2 million in delinquent payments resulting from his renovation of the 1601 Main St. building. The lawsuits threaten foreclosure if not paid.
Following the purchase of our beloved post office in 2012, Silver’s luck in the movie business went south, with his current projects not even earning back their production costs.
Our beloved center-of-town gem has been an eye-sore ever since Silver’s purchase, covered in scaffolding and graffiti. The re-opening of the building is a year behind schedule.
Silver is currently in violation of the lease between him and the United States Postal Services (USPS), according to which the public should have access to the Story of Venice mural by Edward Biberman for a minimum of six days a year.
The Venice community was vehemently united against the sale of our 1939 Works Projects Administration post office, and was deeply hurt when our community’s mural was given to Silver for fifty years at no cost. We have not seen the mural here in Venice since.
The Venice community lost its historical post office as a result of illegal, behind-the-scenes transactions between Silver and the Los Angeles Conservancy (Linda Dishman!), the USPS, and real estate agents (Dianne Feinstein’s husband!), all of the above operating under the spell of private shipping companies that want to tap into the more affordable, more available, labor-unionized services offered by USPS.
A lawsuit was filed in D.C. Circuit Court in March 2012 challenging the sale of our post office, and more recently a petition for rehearing was filed August 2014.
When I incidentally ran into Silver during the 2013 Abbot Kinney festival and questioned his unpopular actions in Venice, he replied, with a severe case of entitlement, that whoever has the money controls the situation, and if I want to have a say I should pull out the money. If money is all he has to stand on, and the money is all gone, he’ll sink quicker than a piece of shit.