____________________________________________________________________
VICTORY FOR PUBLIC BEACH
ACCESS!
Venice
residents cheer California Coastal Commission
for
reaffirming its stand against restricting overnight parking,
for
seeking real solutions despite lawsuit by
so-called
Venice Stakeholders Association
November
18, 2009, Venice, Calif--Venice Action, a diverse group
of Venice residents, salutes the California Coastal Commission for adopting its
revised findings in support of its previous denial of the applications
submitted by the City of Los Angeles to establish overnight parking districts
throughout Venice. The overnight parking districts were originally sought in
order to prevent people living in vehicles from parking on Venice streets.
The
Commission, after a public hearing on June 11, 2009, determined that the
proposed overnight parking districts would
adversely affect coastal access and would exclude the general public from
parking on the public streets. The Commission found that there are
alternatives that would accomplish the goals without adversely impacting
coastal access.
One such alternative has been working its way through the Los Angeles City
Council guided by Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, whose
district includes Venice. Rosendahls proposal, which
passed through the Homelessness Committee with Councilmember Jan Perrys support, would change current law to allow council
districts to designate discrete areas where people staying in vehicles can
lawfully park overnight.
Criminalizing
people who live in their cars and campers is wrong, Rosendahl was quoted as saying in an Argonaut newspaper
article. What we need to do is to find places where people living in their cars
and campers can go to get proper outreach support and wraparound
services.
Venice Action commends Councilman Rosendahl for
taking this progressive stand in tackling some of the social problems of
homelessness on a regional basis, rather than pushing the homeless from
neighborhood-to-neighborhood. Further, Venice Action applauds the Venice
Neighborhood Council for voting to support Councilmember Rosendahls
City Council motion.
The
issue has remained in the news because of a lawsuit against the Coastal
Commission brought by a group calling itself the Venice Stakeholders
Association (VSA). Recently, VSA was joined by the right wing,
anti-environmental Pacific Legal Foundation which has attempted for years to
dilute the safeguards of the California Coastal Act. This partnership finally
brings clarity to the real intentions of the VSA which have been obscured by
confusing legal maneuvers and misleading public statements by VSAs
spokesperson, Mark Ryavec.
The
saying goes that if you put three Venetians in a room you'll get four opinions,
said Venice Action spokesperson Christopher Plourde.
That's reflective of the creativity and diversity of our community. Venice
Action believes that Venice can and should be the place where we create
solutions that the rest of the world will follow, not where we follow the
stale, failed solutions of master planned communities.
VENICE ACTION is a group of residents of Venice, California who would rather be surfing, jogging, cycling, dining, shopping or otherwise enjoying Venice’s many charms.
If
Jesus were bodily present today, he would be working not just for, but with the
people sleeping on Skid Row, being displaced by gentrification in Boyle Heights
and Downtown LA, and being told they cannot even sleep in their cars in
Westside LA.--Roger Cardinal Mahony
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