Gentrification, as Noel Seriale Writes, Is at the Root of How Venice Faces Displacement, Deepening Income Inequality, Homelessness, and a Clash Between Long-Time Residents and Affluent Newcomers
By Noel Seriale
Venice has been home to the vibrant, eclectic culture that we all have known and loved
for over a century. From the beautifully wide beaches with sweeping mountain views, to the street art, to the skate culture, to the culinary scene, to the iconic canals, it’s hard to find yourself bored in a place that is so full of life. Venice continues to be a magnet for people from all over the world to experience.
However, the high cost of living is a real challenge for those who call this community home and struggle to make ends meet. The inequity is so apparent that it is offensive, and it only continues to become worse since the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to focus on solutions that address social inequity at the root.
To explore deeper, let’s set the scene to understand the context in which this phenomenon is taking place.
If we rewind the tape to the late 1990s, we can see when the gentrification of Venice really took off and continued to intensify through the tech boom of the 2010s. The influx of companies like Google and Snap on the westside of Los Angeles gave rise to what some refer to as “Silicon Beach”. This came with a migration of higher-income families and individuals to the area, driving up rent and home prices. While some welcomed this shift, it created a slew of challenges for many with a much higher cost of living and the loss of affordable housing options. Many individuals and families of lower socioeconomic status have since been displaced out of a neighborhood they called home for many years as younger, more affluent populations, largely transplants, take their place. In addition to implications for long-term residents, smaller local businesses have been forced to shut down as they are replaced with chains and higher end stores. Not only does this increase the cost of living, but it also dilutes the cultural diversity of the community.
Now that we have a broader understanding of the cascading effects of the shift in demographics of Venice over the past few decades, we can see how this creates underlying social friction that has polarized the community as a whole. There is a palpable tension between newer residents and the original, longer-term locals of Venice, many of which are now unable to meet their own basic survival needs. It is no wonder that issues such as homelessness, community violence, and crime are issues in the community, or really symptoms of greater systemic issues in the city of Los Angeles as a whole.
In Venice, homelessness is ubiquitous. About 2% of the population experiences homelessness and 12% of people in this area live below the poverty line. The inequity of the community becomes visually offensive as we observe the stark contrast of multi-million dollar homes, expensive restaurants, and high-end luxury shops existing next to large homeless encampments. Let’s paint a clearer picture of what’s really going on here: we have someone who lives in a $2 million home, spending $8 on their morning coffee, $20 on their artisanal breakfast sandwich, $43 on hand soap at a local store, and $875 for a jacket, as their neighbor down the street has been displaced from their home, shoeless, holding a piece of cardboard asking for help to afford a simple meal. The gap in socioeconomic status here is both shocking and impossible to miss.
As evident as these issues are, they have been normalized in the community for years. This normalization is even more damaging to the issue, as it takes away any sense of urgency to address the root causes of homelessness and poverty. Plus, those who hold the power disproportionately represent the population as a whole, leading to marginalization of many members of the community. The clearly observable income disparities in Venice represent, as Cappelli describes, a “juxtaposition that serves as a visual and social commentary on the failure of the economic system to provide for all its members”.
To address this ongoing issue in our community, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves how this happened and what we can do about it to address the issue at the root.
This calls for policy change over simply putting individuals experiencing homelessness in shelters, or handing out free meals a few times per year. These temporary band aid “fixes” do not actually address the problem at hand. We need to build more sustainable support programs, including but not limited to affordable healthcare and mental health services, education, vocational training, low-income housing options, community support, and anti-racist policies that allow for equity and social justice.
Poverty is not a result of an individual issue, but it is a reflection of systemic-wide issues and policies that discriminate against certain populations.
Noel is a local Venice resident and a mental health professional. She has held many roles in the community such as an addiction counselor, volunteering to teach yoga and somatic techniques, and an integration coach for ketamine-assisted therapy. Noel is currently pursuing her Master’s in Social Work at USC, as she is very passionate about how systems affect the way that people experience the world.
