BEACHHEAD EDITORIAL:
A lot’s at stake in the Venice Elections

On June 28, Venice will vote for candidates to fill 10 positions on the neighborhood council.

We urge a vote for the entire slate of Progressive Grassroots Candidates who are campaigning on a platform of more affordable housing and community control of development.

Readers of the Beachhead know that these are topics near, and dear, to our hearts. Over the past year, no less than six of these candidates have expressed their opinions in the pages of this newspaper. They, and their fellow slate members, are known quantities in Venice. They attend meetings, hearings and other public forums where they speak up for the interests of all of us.

Since the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood Council (GRVNC) was formed a year ago, there has been a rash of new development proposals for Venice. The current board majority seems almost paralyzed with fear of incurring the displeasure of these developers. It took a crowd of 200 people at a meeting to get the massive Lincoln Center project derailed, at least temporarily. Now, it seems, the current president, Tisha Bedrosian, who is not up for reelection this year, is trying to skirt the opposition to the project by hand-picking a small committee to meet with the developer.

Affordable, and low-income, housing is a pressing need for most Venetians, 70 percent of whom are renters, while more than 4,000 of us live under the poverty line. Again, the majority of the current Board seems unable to address this issue in any meaningful way.

We expect this to change with the election of the 10 candidates who together with the two continuing Board members of the slate will provide a progressive majority on the Board.

We’re impressed that the Progressive Grassroots Candidates Slate made their selections in full public view. At a public forum on May 31, they refined their platform and voted - by secret ballot - for their candidates (See page 7).

We believe the result is worthy of our support on June 28. We urge a vote for Elena Popp for secretary, Jim Smith for treasurer, Tom O’Meara for communications officer and votes for all seven at-large board members: Elinor Aurthur, Sheila Bernard, Peggy Lee Kennedy, Lydia Poncé, Suzanne Thompson, Sabrina Venskus and Laddie Williams.