Letters
• The Venice Boot! - John
Humphrey
• Venice Specific Plan,
Another View - Chris Plourde
• Santa
Monica Pier Savior - Jim Harris
•
Immigration - Ron Lowe
• LNG Terminal
for SM Bay - Maureen Cruise
• Abbot
Kinney Festival - Mary Jahn
• Kudos -
Dawn Pisturino
The Venice
Boot!
Dear
Beachhead,
I suppose I’m
especially sensitive to eviction stories, because it almost happened to
us.
But I frequently wish there were
more details in these reports because so often I talk to people who are unaware
of the rights provided to them by the Rent Stabilization
Ordinance.
To help remedy this,
I’ve put up a website, a forum, where people can find links to City Gov't.
info concerning Rent Control, and also tell their own stories and seek
(non-legal) advice from fellow
Venetians.
If you’ve got a story,
an ongoing issue, know of a good resource, or are looking for good links to
pertinent facts, please drop by
www.VeniceBoot.com
Best, John
Humphrey
*************
Venice
Specific Plan – Another View
Dear
Beachhead,
The Venice Specific Plan was
designed, we are told, to keep Venice looking and feeling like Venice and avoid
the Santa Monica/ Marina-fication of our community. As strictly enforced,
however, the plan has the paradoxical effect of maintaining the veneer of Venice
while destroying the community that is Venice’s heart and
soul.
Venice isn’t Venice because
of its building height, Venice isn’t Venice because of its tiny lots and
small houses. Venice is Venice because of its diverse community, and what we
need is a land use policy that puts the community first, not one that declares
that limiting height and density are more important than
people.
Thanks in no small part to the
Specific Plan, Venice seems destined to follow the path of Greenwich Village,
where the community that made the Village a beacon to the world has been
replaced by wealthy celebrities and the current president’s daughter, all
drawn by the desire to live somewhere “bohemian” but safe,
surrounded by people just like
them.
Chris
Plourde
*************
Santa
Monica Pier Savior
Dear
Beachhead,
I’m writing in
response to you letter writer Panos Douvos. I was ecstatic to find this letter
in your paper. Picking it up was the best part of my
day.
By coincidence, we are in the
process of organizing the 100th Anniversary Celebration for the Pier, and are
trying hard to locate the people who worked so hard to save the Pier in 1973.
Unfortunately, those people have been hard to find. For some reason, very few of
those old records have survived… We would love to find Diana Cherman and
anyone else whose lives were dedicated to making our celebration
possible.
Thanks, and best regards,
Jim
Harris
************
Immigration
Dear
Beachhead,
The anti-immigration
movement is a shrill chorus of self-righteous white xenophobics (people afraid
of foreigners) who have been sucked into a divisive nationalist agenda.
The immigration debate about
brown-skinned Mexicans and Latinos is no different than the social unrest over
blacks in the 50’s. Racism has just spiraled around again and taken on a
new shape.
An example of what
most Americans are not seeing as they ride in the comfort of their SUV. I ride
public transportation and many of the passengers are Mexican. They don’t
wear signs saying I am a legal or illegal immigrant. They are hard working and
courteous fellow passengers. But, there are others who ride the same buses who
have an agenda; white, rude, belligerent, and obnoxious anti-immigrationists who
spew out obscenities on Mexican men, women and children. The police have had to
be called on occasion.
So, who
would you rather sit next to, be with? A respectful immigrant or one of these
white hatemongers? This is not an extreme and isolated
case.
Ron
Lowe
************
LNG
Terminal for SM Bay
Dear
Beachhead,
This is regarding the
proposed Australian Gas Corporation, Woodside’s LNG Floating Terminal
proposed for Santa Monica Bay. Located in the bay 27 miles from LAX, 21 miles
from Pt.Dume, 18 miles from Catalina, the pipeline surfacing at Dockweiler
beach, to extending along LAX to storage just north east of LAX at Westchester
Parkway and Arbor Vitae street.
You can
Google articles about LNG Terminal, FERC, Public Citizen, Wikipedia, Pacific
Environment, RACE (Ratepayers for a Clean Environment), Tim Riley Law, there are
many articles describing this proposal, the issues surrounding LNG, the overall
FERC plans and the efforts to oppose the LNG Industry by citizen
groups.
Last spring, there were over
2,000 people assembled to defeat a similar LNG proposal in Oxnard. For this
proposal in our Bay.... on Sept. 26 at the public hearing at LAX Marriott
Hotel... there were only about 120 people...many of those industry
proponents/shills/lobbyists. We cannot stop something we don’t know
about.
Please know that we must
mobilize our communities against this horror or we will get stuck with this
dangerous, polluting, environmental disaster. Become informed, organize
meetings, contact the groups fighting this for speaker forums. Involve your
congressperson, city councils and local activist
circles.
Maureen
Cruise
************
Abbot
Kinney Festival
Dear Beachhead:
I was impressed by the content,
quality and heightening of our social awareness in especially the top set of
photos on your Oct. first page ... when what I saw at the Abbot Kinney Festival
was much too much commercial stuff and some crafts. The emphasis here was on
helping us notice that at least some vendors cared about more than making sales
by having clever signs, and relevant mdse. instead of just more of that
“Buy, Buy, Buy, here!” These pix of the scenes were uplifting.
But who is “Alex”? No name
or other information about this guy was visible to know who had the guts to show
us what we may have personally missed in the crowded arenas of more & more
stuff, for sale. The social conscience always needs to be awoken. and
“Venice Unchained” with adjacent grinning fruity loops made me
smile [on p.6 photos].
Good issue,
especially for those of us who couldn't take much of the heat, the crowds, the
elbowing, and the prices beyond our working means. Thanks for the good
photos.
From Mary Jahn, an elder
Venetian who hates to miss anything in our
neighborhood.
From the
Beachhead Collective: Thanks for the compliments on the photos. They were shot
by Alexandria, who coincidentally has an advertisement for her photography work
at the bottom of this
page.
************
Kudos
I
really like your website and newspaper, and I was happy to talk to some of you
on the beach this last summer when I was there.
Keep up the good work! I have added
you as a link on my websites, www.cosmichealth.org and www.wageslave.bz
I’ll send you some free wage
slave t-shirts!
Dawn
Pisturino
Posted: Thu - November 1, 2007 at 02:20 PM