In Venice we have 741 homeless individuals living on our streets and in
our parks, many of whom are mentally unstable and/or drug addicted, we
have home invasions, car break-ins, and assaults on residents, and this
is what gets media attention:
http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2015/04/23/42534/venice-considers-letting-women-sunbathers-go-tople/
The Venice Stakeholders Association is dedicated to civic improvement. The VSA supports slow growth, protection of the limits of the Venice Local Coastal Specific Plan, neighborhood safety, better traffic circulation, increased parking for residents, neighborhood beautification projects, historic preservation and protection of coastal waters.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Sunday, April 5, 2015
VSA Opposes SB 608, the So-called "Right to Rest" Bill
The VSA has submitted the letter below to the Senate Transportation
and Housing Committee opposing SB 608.
Venice
Exhibits:
April
6, 2015
Senator Jim Beall
Chair, Senate Transportation and Housing Committee
Members, Senate Transportation and Housing Committee
Members, Senate Transportation and Housing Committee
State Capitol, Sacramento ,
CA 95814
Re: Opposition to Senate
Bill 608 (Senator Carol Liu)
Dear Senator Beall, dear Members of the Committee:
I am writing on behalf of our organization to urge you to reject
Senate Bill 608, the so-called “Right to Rest” bill.
The Venice Stakeholders Association is composed of residents in Venice , California
We led the effort to remove over 250 RVs and campers from our
community that previously occupied the curbs in front of our residences on a
full-time basis, with all the problems attendant to the use of residential
streets as an urban campground.
We recently sued the City and County of Los Angeles
Our opposition to SB 608 is driven by the irrefutable evidence
that within transient populations are individuals who are mentally ill,
criminally prone, drug addled and tragically, on occasion, violent and/or
lethal.
Due to the ill-advised Jones settlement and its limit on the Los
Angeles Police Department’s ability to enforce the “No lying, sitting,
sleeping” ordinance in Los Angeles between the hours of 9 PM and 6 AM, we have
seen a dramatic increase in the transient population living on our streets and
alleys in close proximity to residences.
This has been accompanied by a serious increase in crime, assaults and
home invasions, with horrifying results.
As documented in the on-line exhibits, the six block area around
my residence has experienced five home invasions since last April by transients
living on public property in Venice
The Venice
neighborhood beautification projects, historic preservation, habitat
restoration and protection of coastal waters.
VSA Opposition to SB
608….page 2
In one incident a homeless man dove through a glass
door of a duplex at 4:30 a.m., made his way to the upstairs bathroom and tore
two bolted sinks off the wall, spattering the room with blood. The tenants – a
young mother and her children – escaped down a back staircase and called 911.
Police later told the mother that the intruder’s Hulk-like strength suggested
he was high on PCP. Before the break-in
neighbors had called LAPD to complain about a man shouting hysterically on
their street, but since he’d done nothing more than that, the police did not
even send a patrol car to investigate.
In another widely publicized home invasion last
September, a deranged homeless man broke down the door of a home just before 9
a.m., and chased a half-dressed woman out her bedroom window and onto her roof.
Again, LAPD missed a chance to prevent this. Just 30 minutes earlier, the
intruder was in police handcuffs being questioned about yelling in public and
attempting to climb the fence of an adjoining property. Yet the police, having
been effectively neutered by homeless advocates and the courts, let him go
because they had not caught him in the act of committing a crime.
Allowing transients greater rights to live right
next to residences will only result in more harm to more residents, such as the
rape and murder of the pregnant Ms. Eun Kang four blocks from my house by the
mentally ill drifter Boneetio
Washington, the assault on Robert Di Massa by a transient living on a walk street
because Di Massa’s service dog had urinated nearby, or the recent incident in
which a transient living on the streets in Venice bit off the fingertip of Clabe
Hartley, the owner of a restaurant on Washington Boulevard.
SB 608 offers no increase in welfare benefits, no
housing, no counseling, no transportation, no treatment and no more ease in
committing mentally ill homeless to custody, so it does nothing to address the
fundamental problems of the homeless, while assuring future harm to residents
everywhere in the state.
Please
reject this misguided proposal. Thank
you for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Mark
Ryavec
Mark Ryavec, President
Exhibits:
1. http://www.venicestakeholdersassociation.org/2015/01/anatomy-of-attack-on-venice-resident.html
2. http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/02/03/familys-narrow-escape-from-
venice-home-invasion-sheds-light-on-public-safety-concerns/
3. http://www.venicestakeholdersassociation.org/2014/12/reports-of-two-more-home-invasions-in.html
4. http://www.venicestakeholdersassociation.org/2015/02/five-terrifying-home-invasions-in-10.html
5. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ryavec-homeless-laws-sb-608-20150308-story.html
3. http://www.venicestakeholdersassociation.org/2014/12/reports-of-two-more-home-invasions-in.html
4. http://www.venicestakeholdersassociation.org/2015/02/five-terrifying-home-invasions-in-10.html
5. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ryavec-homeless-laws-sb-608-20150308-story.html
Friday, April 3, 2015
From Yo!Venice's First Print Edition: Is Charlie Beck a Climate-Change Denier?
Is Charlie Beck a Climate-Change Denier?
MARK RYAVEC
Yo! Venice Contributor
Do you think the LAPD should implement demand staffing that automatically
puts additional officers in Venice when the temperature is predicted to go
over 74 degrees?
PHOTO BY VENICEPAPARAZZI.COM
This might appear to be an odd question, but it
has significant implications for the safety of residents
and visitors in Venice.
Anyone who has lived here for the last three
decades, as I have, knows that the weather we have
been having is bizarre. Cool and rainy is the historical
weather in winter and early spring. But since
Jan. 1 we have had 18 days above 77 degrees and 10
days above 84 degrees. We hit 93 on March 14.
These conditions draw many of Los Angeles
County’s 10 million residents to the beach to cool
off, and a good proportion of them come to Venice.
Estimates range from 11 to 16 million visitors
annually. This causes a severe strain on public
safety, one that is apparently not understood at the
highest levels of the Los Angeles Police Department.
It appears that Chief Charlie Beck and his
management team do not accept that climate patterns
have changed and that visitor flow to Venice
has increased with it.
Two LAPD officers recently told me that on
these very hot days they are “slammed” and cannot
keep up with the situation. The huge increase in
visitors requires that they focus on gang suppression,
traffic violations, accidents, an increase in
crime, more radio calls, etc.
This distracts them from enforcing quality-of-life
ordinances that are important to residents, like
the ban on open alcohol containers in public,
harassment of residents, trespass on private property,
public defecation and urination, drug dealing,
illegal camping along Venice Beach and total
blockage of sidewalks by transient encampments, a
violation of the American with Disabilities Act.
This is because enforcing these laws will usually
take two officers off the beach for at least half a day
to transport and book the offenders. The Beach
Detail commander and officers have told me that
officers cannot in good conscience be absent from
Venice when the visitor numbers skyrocket.
The LAPD focus on visitors has other ramifications.
For example, a plan to fully enforce the 12-
5 am Beach Curfew and the ban on camping in the
Venice Beach Recreation Area – including an
LAPD presence in the Venice Beach Recreation
Area (VBRA) at 4 am – is on hold due to the diversion
of staffing to daytime hours. The result is that
the VBRA continues to be a powerful magnet for
transients from across the nation, including a percentage
of criminals, mentally ill and the drug-addled.
On a recent stroll along Venice Beach at
5 am I counted at least 26 people camping in tents,
lean-tos or out in the open in sleeping bags. (Due to
the poor lighting there may have been many more
that I could not see.) It only takes one of these disaffected
transients in a drugged-out state to lose it
and someone gets hurt or killed, as we saw with the
vehicle assault that left Italian newlywed Alice
Gruppioni dead and 16 people injured on the
Boardwalk less than two years ago. And as we witnessed
just recently when a transient bit off the tip
of the finger of Clabe Harley, the owner of the
Cow’s End restaurant on Washington Boulevard.
The transient had been harassing Harley’s customers.
When Harley moved in to defend his customers,
the transient attacked him – with his teeth.
As many Venetians know, Venice receives a
summer compliment of about 35 additional officers
starting with Memorial Day. (Some years ago,
when there were several incidents of gang-related
violence on the Boardwalk, the number was
higher). The purpose of the additional officers is to
cope with the huge increase in visitors drawn by
warmer weather and school vacations. And to prevent
gang conflicts that can quickly careen out of
control and cause harm to innocent bystanders.
With the very hot temperatures we’ve been
seeing, the LAPD should have followed the crowds
and implemented demand staffing that automatically
put additional officers in Venice when the
temperature is predicted to go over 74 degrees.
Captain Nicole Alberca, the new commander
of Pacific Division, told me recently that she had
requested additional staffing for hot days but been
told by LAPD headquarters to find the officers by
reassigning within Pacific Division. But the visitors
are largely from other parts of Los Angeles or the
County’s other 87 cities, not from just Pacific Division.
If the increased summer staffing is to address
the increase in visitors than logically Venice
deserves the increase whenever the temps go over
74 degrees. There is even a good argument that
County sheriffs should also be posted here since a
large number of visitors are not from the City of
Los Angeles but rather from other cities in the
County of Los Angeles or from points farther
away.
Captain Alberca acknowledged that when
thousands of our inland neighbors seek relief in
Venice from extreme temperatures, the LAPD
presence is very thin in comparison with the size of
the crowds and that attention to resident concerns
suffers.
We have long passed the time that City and
County leaders should have realized that Venice is
the most popular, free recreational destination in
Southern California and that it requires significantly
more police resources from both the City and
County whenever temperatures go up, which is
now happening more frequently due to climate
change.
MARK RYAVEC
Yo! Venice Contributor
Do you think the LAPD should implement demand staffing that automatically
puts additional officers in Venice when the temperature is predicted to go
over 74 degrees?
PHOTO BY VENICEPAPARAZZI.COM
This might appear to be an odd question, but it
has significant implications for the safety of residents
and visitors in Venice.
Anyone who has lived here for the last three
decades, as I have, knows that the weather we have
been having is bizarre. Cool and rainy is the historical
weather in winter and early spring. But since
Jan. 1 we have had 18 days above 77 degrees and 10
days above 84 degrees. We hit 93 on March 14.
These conditions draw many of Los Angeles
County’s 10 million residents to the beach to cool
off, and a good proportion of them come to Venice.
Estimates range from 11 to 16 million visitors
annually. This causes a severe strain on public
safety, one that is apparently not understood at the
highest levels of the Los Angeles Police Department.
It appears that Chief Charlie Beck and his
management team do not accept that climate patterns
have changed and that visitor flow to Venice
has increased with it.
Two LAPD officers recently told me that on
these very hot days they are “slammed” and cannot
keep up with the situation. The huge increase in
visitors requires that they focus on gang suppression,
traffic violations, accidents, an increase in
crime, more radio calls, etc.
This distracts them from enforcing quality-of-life
ordinances that are important to residents, like
the ban on open alcohol containers in public,
harassment of residents, trespass on private property,
public defecation and urination, drug dealing,
illegal camping along Venice Beach and total
blockage of sidewalks by transient encampments, a
violation of the American with Disabilities Act.
This is because enforcing these laws will usually
take two officers off the beach for at least half a day
to transport and book the offenders. The Beach
Detail commander and officers have told me that
officers cannot in good conscience be absent from
Venice when the visitor numbers skyrocket.
The LAPD focus on visitors has other ramifications.
For example, a plan to fully enforce the 12-
5 am Beach Curfew and the ban on camping in the
Venice Beach Recreation Area – including an
LAPD presence in the Venice Beach Recreation
Area (VBRA) at 4 am – is on hold due to the diversion
of staffing to daytime hours. The result is that
the VBRA continues to be a powerful magnet for
transients from across the nation, including a percentage
of criminals, mentally ill and the drug-addled.
On a recent stroll along Venice Beach at
5 am I counted at least 26 people camping in tents,
lean-tos or out in the open in sleeping bags. (Due to
the poor lighting there may have been many more
that I could not see.) It only takes one of these disaffected
transients in a drugged-out state to lose it
and someone gets hurt or killed, as we saw with the
vehicle assault that left Italian newlywed Alice
Gruppioni dead and 16 people injured on the
Boardwalk less than two years ago. And as we witnessed
just recently when a transient bit off the tip
of the finger of Clabe Harley, the owner of the
Cow’s End restaurant on Washington Boulevard.
The transient had been harassing Harley’s customers.
When Harley moved in to defend his customers,
the transient attacked him – with his teeth.
As many Venetians know, Venice receives a
summer compliment of about 35 additional officers
starting with Memorial Day. (Some years ago,
when there were several incidents of gang-related
violence on the Boardwalk, the number was
higher). The purpose of the additional officers is to
cope with the huge increase in visitors drawn by
warmer weather and school vacations. And to prevent
gang conflicts that can quickly careen out of
control and cause harm to innocent bystanders.
With the very hot temperatures we’ve been
seeing, the LAPD should have followed the crowds
and implemented demand staffing that automatically
put additional officers in Venice when the
temperature is predicted to go over 74 degrees.
Captain Nicole Alberca, the new commander
of Pacific Division, told me recently that she had
requested additional staffing for hot days but been
told by LAPD headquarters to find the officers by
reassigning within Pacific Division. But the visitors
are largely from other parts of Los Angeles or the
County’s other 87 cities, not from just Pacific Division.
If the increased summer staffing is to address
the increase in visitors than logically Venice
deserves the increase whenever the temps go over
74 degrees. There is even a good argument that
County sheriffs should also be posted here since a
large number of visitors are not from the City of
Los Angeles but rather from other cities in the
County of Los Angeles or from points farther
away.
Captain Alberca acknowledged that when
thousands of our inland neighbors seek relief in
Venice from extreme temperatures, the LAPD
presence is very thin in comparison with the size of
the crowds and that attention to resident concerns
suffers.
We have long passed the time that City and
County leaders should have realized that Venice is
the most popular, free recreational destination in
Southern California and that it requires significantly
more police resources from both the City and
County whenever temperatures go up, which is
now happening more frequently due to climate
change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)