One of the Most Disturbing and Dangerous of Encampment Sites Has Been Cleared and Cleaned.
By Nick Antonicello
The WHOLE FOODS grocer, one of the busiest and most popular locales in all of Venice finally saw the Rose Avenue side of this location receive a much needed cleaning as the sidewalk that was plagued with tents is now fenced, while the area that was a virtual parking lot for stationary RV’s has been turned into a temporary access passage for shoppers and residents alike!
These image(s) were taken Friday (11/3) at around 4:00 PM and area residents and shoppers were delighted with the results.
WHOLE FOODS had become downright dangerous in recent weeks as the sidewalk here was impassable and clogged with campers, transients, open drug use and a sense the area was being taken hostage by transients.
All that for now is apparently over.
City officials have fenced the sidewalk similar to previous action taken at the Venice Public Library and converted the immediate curbed access to a clean path for all to use free of any encampment entanglements.
The question now for Venetians is can this clean-up be contained and maintained?
For this is the challenge for elected officials such as LA Mayor Karen Bass and local Councilwoman Tracy Park (CD-11).
For these kinds of public policy victories over out-of-control homeless encampments are important to winning the overall objective that street living enabled and accepted is to give up the notion real and sustaining help to actually assist the homeless is still attainable, real and possible.
By enforcing an acceptable quality-of-life status on our streets, LA city officials now must keep their promise to assure the help and assistance these individuals deserve when you consider the $1.3 billion being appropriated this year alone to administer, contain and hopefully decrease the homeless population that can be done with a plan-of-action and timeline to execute a solution moving forward.
If progress can happen in smaller municipalities such as Houston and San Antonio, why not Los Angeles and specifically Venice?
In 2022 there were roughly 600,000 homeless in the US of which 170,000 reside in California. 18 of every 10,000 individuals in the US are homeless while that number swells to 44 out of 10,000 here in California.
5% nationally are unaccompanied youth and 6% veterans.
This is the public policy challenge of our lifetime that cannot be ignored and must be corrected here in Los Angeles, and specifically here in Venice.
Congratulations are in order to both Mayor Park and Councilwoman Park for their collective action and mutual partnership to solve the problem.
Now let’s stay on track and continue to decrease the homeless count and build back the public’s confidence that the government can course correct and deliver the results on homelessness so many have sought from our elected officials.
Nick Antonicello is a thirty-year resident of Venice who covers the issue of homeless encampments here in the neighborhood. Have an encampment on your block? Contact the author online at nantoni@mindspring.com
