Road Trip to Bohemia


By Jim Smith

A chain of cities along the west coast of North America have shared a common philosophy and lifestyle since the 1960s. For lack of a better term I’ll call them the Bohemian cities.


Along with friend Karl - a certified Bohemian - I recently had the opportunity to check on their condition. It was more of a drive-by than a scientific investigation. I didn’t have time to talk to their officials, investigate their laws, evaluate their treatment of the homeless, or study the extent of their poetry, song and painting.
Like Venice, most are under siege from development and gentrification. Still there seems to be a significant proportion of the population that refuse to be corporate wage slaves, but instead pursue the muses.

We headed north so I’m not able to comment on the bohemian state of Laguna Beach or Ocean Beach. Our first stop was Santa Barbara. Some might say that Santa Barbara should be excluded from the list because it is so wealthy. Yet, the town has a sizable barrio, quite a few homeless and a gaggle of street performers. We met Johnny on State Street who treated us to a great rendition of “St. James Infirmary.” Before dropping out, Johnny had been a nuclear physicist and friend of the great scientist, Richard Feynman. Now he lives in one of the cheap hotels off State and performs for spare change.

One sour note was the growth of chain stores along State Street. Many of the local businesses are gone, replaced with chains. Let’s hope that the Venice Neighborhood Council Land Use Committee gets the lead out and promotes an ordinance so that doesn’t happen here.

Our Santa Barbara informant, Lynette, told us that the annual Fiesta was beginning the next day. “It turns Santa Barbara upside down,” she said, with a gleam of anticipation. Much as we wanted to see that happen, we had many miles to travel before we slept.

We rushed past Isla Vista, best known in Bohemian history as the place where the locals burned the BofA to the ground during the great student uprising against the Vietnam war and the invasion of Cambodia.

Rolling into Santa Cruz around sundown, we knew we were in a flourishing bohemian town. Our guide, Janie, took us to the boardwalk. Unlike Venice’s, their boardwalk has a great roller coaster - the Giant Dipper.

Downtown Santa Cruz restricts auto traffic in favor of pedestrians (wouldn’t it be great if Abbot Kinney Blvd was like that). Santa Cruz is still recovering from the nearby 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake that struck in 1989. Perhaps this accounts for the funky atmosphere and large number of head shops, record stores and book shops. Santa Cruz definitely remains true to the Bohemian vibe.

Because of time restraints we were unable to visit Bay Area centers of bohemianism including Berkeley, the Haight and North Beach. Instead, we stopped in the less well known Marin County haven of Fairfax. This well-hidden community includes numerous coffee houses, Batik stores and cheap restaurants.

Ever northward we traveled. We zoomed past Anderson Valley and Mendocino County, both of which are countrified bohemian areas. We stopped for the night in Garberville, the center of the second largest agricultural cash crop - after rice - in California. This is an area where the hippies drive pick-up trucks and tote guns to protect their crops. A giant sign in the middle of town (above) is the only tip-off. It’s a good idea not to wander off into the countryside around Garberville. You might be mistaken for a poacher.

In the far north of California lies the campus town of Arcata. It’s built around a central plaza, much like the Venice Circle. But unlike the Circle, it’s actually in use by the community. Arcata is another true bohemian town. It has a lively arts scene, an organic co-op, the cops drive electric cars and it’s a center of the anti-old-growth logging movement. Once again, regrettably, we found out that we missed “Reggae on the River” by one day.

We were about to leave town when we noticed a poster on the front door of Delilah’s Hair Salon. It was the back cover of the May Beachhead! The hair stylist only knew that someone had mailed them the newspaper. Somehow the reach of our local paper extended 750 miles to the north!

Time to travel on. This time coming down in Eugene, Oregon. Until recently, it was known as the town that time forgot. One seemed to be going through a time warp back to the 60s when visiting. Recently, there’s been some development. Yikes, there’s a Niketown! But there’s still an Oregon Country Fair, Saturday Market, the 5th Street Market and other bohemian institution. Eugene probably has the largest concentration of anarchists per capita in the world!

Time to hit the road again. Our final destination was Victoria, British Columbia. It was raining in Portland (isn’t it always?). Seattle, looking very business-like, was quite different from the last time I was there for the history-making, anti-WTO demonstrations in 1999.

We took a fast ferry to Victoria where we met a slow customs agent who asked endless questions about what firearms we had brought with us.

After that, we were greeted by several former Venetians who we had once lived with in a commune on Brooks Ave. They had decided to retreat to Lasquiti Island in British Columbia, a place with no electricity, no running water and no cops. Over time, most of them relocated into real houses in Victoria. In the early 70s, Victoria was a staid, traditional “British” city known for its gardens and tea time.

Thanks to Venetians like Howie Siegel and Joe Weisbrodt, as well as other immigrants from both the U.S. and the rest of the world, Victoria soon had an Italian restaurant, (Pagliacci's) a breakfast hangout (John’s Place), coffee houses (Bean Around the World), and a replica of the Fox Venice (Roxy Cine-a-Gog).

Victoria may be a late-comer, but it is definitely bohemian today in its outlook. There’s a thriving arts scene.
Native Victorians and immigrants alike are disgusted with G.W. Bush and show it by participating in a variety of political causes. They take pride in their free health care and their well-ordered and fun-loving community. Victoria’s Chinatown is the best preserved in North America and has traditionally aligned itself with China not Taiwan.

The most popular coffee house in town is Bean Around the World, which looks disturbingly like Abbot’s Habit. The only difference I could tell is that the Bean serves organic coffee. Otherwise, from Venice to Victoria there is a chain of beautiful bohemian cities that will make you feel right at home.

If you’re doing some traveling this year, consider visiting Venice’s west coast sister cities, and writing about them for the Beachhead.

Here’s my rating of the bohemianness of the following cities (more stars being cooler):

**** Venice
*** Santa Barbara
***** Santa Cruz
*** Fairfax
*** Garberville
***** Arcata
**** Eugene
**** Victoria

Posted: Wed - September 1, 2004 at 03:37 PM          

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