VNC ELECTION 2023  By Eric Ahlberg

I believe Preliminary Results come out on Friday.

All right it’s over, and we are finally free of the moral posturing and buzzword bromides, unless you go to a VNC meeting, something I have vowed never to do. I much prefer working and communicating with a good group of do-gooders in a good collective doing good, not always as easy as you might think.  I rule out meetings ruled by Robert’s Rules of Order, Brown act disclosure rules, conflict of interest rules, and petty rulers. But I guess that’s their thing.

How do I love the VNC? Not very much. I am ever reminded that all politics are local, the rhetoric is the same at all levels, it is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. They conduct public affairs for private advantage. Many politicians are eels in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is raised.

Local politics gets very stupid, as does your opponent, and why do idiots keep getting elected, are the voters idiots? These kind of thoughts drove Venice Griot George Carlin to abandon voting, declaring that he doesn’t want any responsibility for electing the idiots who just fuck things up.And Please, can we quit with the “I want to listen to everybody” and “I want to fix Venice.” It is a sign you’ve never done anything, or just lying,
So I raise my poison pen to mock the clown show, safely from my armchair.

The Venice Neighborhood Council is advisory to the City Councilperson, currently Traci Park in CD11. She owes her successful election to office to the Apartment Owners Association and The Police Protective League and Republicans Funders, they spent $634,148.31 shit posting Erin Darling. This also saved Traci from spending too much time hating on B and E, so she could spend more time on shiny futures. Seeing her at community meetings and events now, well we used to see B at those kind of things, feeding fan fantasies, that’s what you do, that’s what’s being sold here.

Same as it ever was.

I don’t see much progress in any city stuff since her election except for self-aggrandizing PR.

Same wanton destruction of people’s ID, phones, and papers, further impoverishing vulnerable homeless campers, when the camps are swept out. It takes Police Street Closures. Then St. Josephs interns to hand out vouchers and inform the poor of the sweep out date. After the warning period expires, the sanitation crews proceed to trash their way through whatever the evicted have not been able to escape with on their way to hotel hell where social isolation and lock down curfews may apply. Up goes the government cruelty index, on your dolla! Housing for LAHSA to give to homeless is all used up. Things are looking up for Traci Parks.

Each encampment sweep/eviction is its own poverty opera, the poor, the politicians, rich, landlords, the cops, social service workers, sideline cheerleaders, earnest helpers, the flash of the police closure perimeter, the grind of the trash trucks, car alarms going off, loudspeakers, someone off their meds because they were trashed. This poverty opera plays out daily in locations all over this country. Thanks Capitalism and Leader of the Free World.

“No one’s life, liberty, and property are safe, while the legislature is in session.” – Mark Twain

Again, fortunately the VNC is only advisory. Only 1,983 people voted in the last Venice Neighborhood Council election. Venice has a population of about 40,000 people, so that works out to about 5% of the community voting, but many of those may not actually live in Venice.Hardly a mandate.

The following evaluations are useless for voting now, yet they retain a value as short gestalt assessments…and I don’t have results yet. Who was worthy or unworthy of your vote? Should you regret your voting? Probably. Let’s see.

President.
Brian Averill – While we have liked him, he has joined the opposition to the Venice-Pacific Supportive Housing that VCH is developing in the Venice Median. Caving to the NIMBYS buys you entry to a special political circle in the Canals.Sorry, you sold out Brian. Please don’t say too large, too expensive, and too ugly, attracts crime. That description fits the entire city.
The main reason to vote for Brian is the other presidential candidate:
Daffodil Tyminski – Her campaign statement fawns on Traci Park, as all of Traci’s supporters are doing. Tropes: Better Days are here again, that fellow who ruined Venice is gone. I hear she is difficult and not well organized. She worked with the Sheriff’s Department on Boardwalk Cleanup.

Vice President:
Vicki Halliday – “We are not pitted against each other on land use, social or economic issues, and should be able to come up with solutions that will work for everyone.” Anyone who tries to please everyone will please no one.
Jim Robb – We still like him.
Secretary:
Tima Bell – seems like a good man.

Treasurer:
Eric Hartnack – Real Estate Agent
Helen Fallon – Traci Park Supporter
Jay Handal – Board Member for 12 years. A lot of bad stuff has gone down over the last 12 years, Bonin Trashing, votes against VCH developments.

Outreach Officer:
Brian Finnerman – boring boilerplate Statement, His Facebook page has a “Menstruating should be free” embroidered thing on a telephone pole. Might be a good disrupting wild card, for 5 minutes.
Sima Kostovetsky – a NIMBY supported by The Current, talks “Common Sense” which sounds like more beatdown on homeless people in the name of law and order. Common Sense is the set of prejudices acquired by age 18.

Community Interest/Community Officer:
Noreen Ahmed – She seems free of NIMBY rhetoric and has creds on the homelessness issue.
Melissa Montesi – boilerplate candidate statement, but she is a creative, and seems to be friends with good people on FB.
Bruno Hernandez – Curator of Venice Art Walls, shows community support activity in Oakwood.

Communications Officer:
Nico Ruderman – This fellow was a lead proponent of the Recall Bonin campaign, i.e., aligned with Republicans…although he claims to be a Democrat.Though he is running unopposed, we recommend not voting for him.

Chair of the Land Use and Planning Committee:
Michael Jensen – He is a business attorney and wants drastic revisions of the Venice Median Project, which is the lawyer’s version of death by a thousand cuts, i.e., NIMBY Tool.
Gabriel Smith – Born in Venice, some mutual friends who are good people. Emphasizes height limits on Lincoln as his big issue.Better than Jensen probably.

At Large Officers: You got to vote for only one. I like that because it means you may win with 100 votes or less. The diversity of opinion is good, maybe, but not for everybody?
Lauren Burgess – Seems to be the focus of this article: “I left my dream husband, house and job — now I’m gay, happy and traveling”
Lisa Redmond – Seems like a good person, associates herself with The Catholic Worker.
Zack Best – Vague Boilerplate campaign statement. A sincere restaurant manager. Hmmm, fast food or gourmet?
Eric Allen Donaldson – “I believe the political system of the past has failed our neighborhood.” That statement could be interpreted many ways, and is a NIMBYS trope.
Erica Moore – distributes food to the hungry.
Sergio Perez – Manages “The Great Western Steak and Hoagie Co.” Good guy.
Amara Iman Hordt – Billy Attaway (jr) Wife. Jataun Valentine’s Niece, Realtor? Jataun does not endorse her.