REGARDING OPD
Submitted by robintheresa on Tue, 06/06/2006 - 4:34pm.
To whom it may concern,
I am writing in regards to the flyer I found in my mailbox stating:
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transient campground
Normally I don't care who parks on the street and for how long...and I certainly don't support having to pay to park on a street that I've already paid for through taxes. And I certainly don't want to hassle with guest and visitor passes for parking.
However, not too long ago, a young lady and her dog were living in her car on my street. One day she's undressing right on the street at the very moment I'm walking back to my place with my young nieces and nephews.
Plus, have you seen 4th Street lately? I drive on it everyday. Guys have set up couches on the sidewalk and are there drinking early in the morning. Not exactly the best environment for a mother walking kids to and from the laundry on Rose and 4th.
I don't want Venice to have permit parking, but I'm also not wanting it to turn into a transient campground on the streets.
Politicians seem to be crafty at everything else, so have them draft up some ordinances that deal specifically with the problem. We shouldn't have to substitute one problem for another.
Sad but true.
I do care who camps, throws trash, goes to the bathroom, discards sofas, takes up four spots, breaks glass, dumps sewage in the gutter, blocks driveways, and lives outside my doorstep. This is not Woodstock. I believe that opening up the parking lots in the evening to campers, homeless, and trailers could be a solution, but fear that is just passing the above mentioned problems onto those living near the parking lots. I don't know what the solution is, but I'd vote for resident permit parking in a nano second.
I live here too.
I have lived around 4th and Vernon for six years now and have witnessed and lived with the activities of the 4th St. RV park on a daily bases. A previous writer characterized those working against the RV parking as people of entitlement. In fact, what I view on 4th St. is an area of people who feel that they are entitled to live where-ever they please regardless of the fact that they do not pay rent, mortgages, city service fees (DWP bill) or property taxes (renters pay it through their rent). I am neither rich or poor and have never felt entitled to have someone else to pick-up my tab.
The east side of 4th St. between Sunset and Vernon carries a two hour parking restriction between 8am and 6pm, the RV dwellers apparently feel entitled to get a pass on that. There is a very practical reason for this restriction, the street becomes narrow and unsafe for drivers to pass through when there are RVs parked along both sides of the street, which is common. Drivers have to be very careful as I have seen many a close call. Sympathies aside, this is just plain dangerous.
My neighbors and I pick up trash that collects in the area. Often this includes furniture on the sidewalk used for afternoon drinking binges by those living in the RVs. I know this is happening because I see and hear it. What I have never seen is someone from the 4th St. RV park going through the area cleaning up. I wouldn't mind them freely using our trash cans so much if they did.
Unlike the previous writer I do not consider this to be so much of a class struggle because I do not typify everyone living in an RV as a one person who may be unlucky, underprivileged or beneath anyone else in any way. I have met some of them first hand and many are just plain folks making a life choice, others are not. Obviously they are equal citizens in our society with all of the same rights and responsibilities. When something is against the law, such as living in a vehicle in Los Angeles, that law applies to everyone.
The restricted night parking concept seems to be the City's way of making it, "not our problem". I do not believe that in order for this issue to be dealt with local residents should have to inconvenience themselves further and pay for the privilege of doing so. This should be handled as a law enforcement issue, which is what it is.
In regards to the question of where RV dwelling should be allowed, possibly the beach lots could be used as previously suggested, for a fee.
Homeless parking in Venice
Having lived in Oakwood for five years, I too have a major problem with the majority of homeless people living in their cars in Venice. There may be a minority who respect their neighbors by cleaning up after themselves, not selling/buying drugs, etc., but most do not.
Unfortunately because of this, most people aren't welcoming of those who are in the predicament they are in. Whether you agree with it, or not people spend much of their savings and most of their paychecks paying mortgages, insurance, upkeep, city utilities and other expenses. Real estate is the one investment most people ever have to leverage for retirement. Not everyone in Venice is a real estate developer flipping properties. I personally watched the equity on my house fall partly because of the abandoned couches, trash, people urinating/defacting in the park and elsewhere and selling/buying drugs.
There are campgrounds and RV parks where people can spend a nominal amount and get the benefit of electricity and running water, as well as security. Unless a person is mentally unfit, disabled, or recently unemployed, they should find some type of employment. Even part-time employment should provide enough for those living in cars to afford overnight stays in parking locations set up for that purpose.
I donate time, money and pay taxes which are designated for those who are needy. I draw the line at feeling unsafe and living with trash and junk strewn about in my neighborhood by those who have no vested interest in the community.
I take issue with Ms. Witt's comment about calling the authorities on the person distributing fliers in mailboxes. She chooses based on her agenda the use of the same rules and laws she decries around illegal parking.
At some point people need to help themselves. I'm weary and tired of hearing about how people who own homes in Venice owe the homeless. No one handed me anything...not my education, nor my job, nor my home...I worked my ass off for it. Oh, and by the way, I was homeless too.
To all you busters, no one
To all you busters, no one gave a rats ass about homeless living in their cars and all that before you rich kooks from who knows where came from, chasing the speculators and developers, buying out the poor folks, who delt with the bs for decades. A real VENICE homie would not even trip. Putting it down for decades. Blood on the streets. Earned my stripes.FTW