6:29am
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Vandalized.
Just days before Memorial Day Venice neighbors noticed a big, white, block-letter tag covering close to 100ft of a mural on Pacific Ave., that honored soldiers who were Prisoners of War or Missing in Action during the Vietnam War.
The illegal graffiti stirred international rage. Venice Chamber of Commerce Vice President George Francisco described it as “a desecration.”
However, the worst damage done was not by the tagger. In a rush to scrub away the unwanted graffiti, well-meaning volunteers caused the mural more harm than good by using products that not only stripped graffiti but hundreds of names that lay underneath. Resulting in thousands of more dollars needing to be raised to cover restoration costs.
The mural, which is several decades old, had no protective anti-graffiti coating, and SPARC experts had warned that removal of the vandals’ paint could destroy the mural itself.
The Venice Chamber of Commerce spent the rest of 2016 raising funds to save the mural. SoCal Gas was instrumental in kicking off the fundraising effort with a $10,000 donation. The company has a hiring program that supports veterans, hiring those recently out of service.
However, the juiciest gossip in the neighborhood was that Snap Inc slipped the Chamber a check for $25,000. Restoration will go ahead in 2017.
More in May
The LAPD bomb squad raced to the 4100 block of Lincoln Blvd, in Marina del Rey early in the morning on Monday, May 23rd. Responding to a call reporting a suspicious item outside Bartels’ Harley-Davidson.
Morning drivers were forced to take alternate routes as LAPD Pacific Division shut down a section of Lincoln Blvd, diverting traffic away from the area. Police even ordered evacuations for those in businesses close to the suspicious item.
So what was all the fuss over in the end? An empty backpack. As the saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Unless, you own a car in Venice and have to share tandem parking.
After a spike in stolen cars, police discovered car owners were not entirely innocent victims. With parking at a premium in Venice and many sharing tandem bays, Watch Commander Scotty Stevens of Pacific Division said police soon found a common thread; neighbors were leaving keys in cars to make them easier to move. And this made it easier for thieves to move cars as well. “Moral of the story. Don’t leave your FOB in the car!” said Stevens.
One moving job that wasn’t as simple was getting the last existing, flight-qualified external fuel tank for NASA’s Space Shuttle Program from Marina del Rey to the California Science Center. Dubbed “ET-94” the tank traveled through the Panama Canal to get to the Marina.
Next time you’re finding traffic a little sluggish on Admiralty Way, consider this, it took the tank two hours to travel from the parking lot on Fiji Way to the 90 Freeway. ET-94’s 16.5-mile slow crawl through the streets of Los Angeles took all day.
