The Venice Stakeholders Association is dedicated to civic improvement. The VSA supports slow growth, protection of the limits of the Venice Local Coastal Specific Plan, neighborhood safety, better traffic circulation, increased parking for residents, neighborhood beautification projects, historic preservation and protection of coastal waters.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
VSA Calls for Enforcement of Camping Ban at Venice Beach after Cow's End Owner Loses Finger Tip in Biting Attack by Transient
http://ktla.com/2015/03/23/venice-officials-discuss-increasing-security-after-transient-allegedly-bites-mans-finger/
Saturday, March 7, 2015
LA Times: As Homeless Get More Liberties, Residents Suffer
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ryavec-homeless-laws-sb-608-20150308-story.html
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Five terrifying home invasions in 10 months underscore the dangerous reality facing Venice Beach residents
http://argonautnews.com/power-to-speak-transient-related-crime-is-no-exaggeration/
By Mark Ryavec
(In response to “Venice Needs More Cops,” news, Jan. 22; and “Homelessness and the Big Lie,” opinion, Jan. 15)
As a concerned resident living near the Venice boardwalk, I have to ask: Have five home invasions happened since April in any other six-block area of Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin’s district?
In his letter to Police Chief Charles Beck, Bonin agreed with the Venice Stakeholders Association’s lawsuit that Venice is fundamentally unsafe and under-policed. He has asked for more officers and that they be permanently stationed here so they can learn our unique conditions: a coastal park and major tourist destination next to a predominantly residential community with a large, problematic and occasionally dangerous transient population.
Bravo Mike! Better late than never.
The dangerous reality our councilman painted in his letter to Beck has been underscored in my immediate neighborhood, four blocks from Ocean Front Walk, by five home invasions since April committed by transients camping in or near the Venice Beach Recreation Area.
The first saw a drug-fueled beach dweller dive through a glass door on Horizon Avenue at 4:30 a.m. on April 8 and climb the stairs to the tenant’s apartment, dripping blood along his path. He proceeded to the bathroom where he tore two bolted sinks off the wall and was found, 25 minutes after the victim called 911, wrestling on the floor with the shower curtain. Neighbors had called LAPD prior to the break-in complaining about a hysterical and loud person on their street. The police dispatcher asked if he had done anything other than being loud and obnoxious, and the neighbors had to respond “no.” The LAPD did not send a patrol car at that time, which could have prevented the traumatic experience the young mother and children had to endure, running for their lives down the back stairs, then to a neighbor’s across the street, and later having to face their blood-covered home.
The second was the now internationally famous Sept. 26 break-in on Riviera Avenue, where the drugged-out intruder (some 30 minutes earlier in police handcuffs being questioned on the street, according to a neighbor) forced a young actress out under her roof eave in her sleepwear, where she called police. Her precarious position was photographed by a passing neighbor, which went viral on the Internet. After a 40-minute standoff, with the police below and the half-naked woman cowering on the roof, firefighters arrived and helped the woman to escape down a ladder.
The other three incidents were equally terrifying to the victims.
Two young men broke into a residence on Grand Boulevard in the middle of the night on July 18 while the young couple and their very small children were asleep, the mother told me.
On Oct. 4 on Rialto Avenue, neighbors rallied to defend a young woman screaming that someone had broken into her home in broad daylight and moved toward her with hands raised.
A young actor and his pregnant wife on Venice Boulevard were awakened in the middle of the night on Nov. 29 by an addled young woman, known to the police, who had climbed their fence and broken in.
On these pages a columnist recently suggested that I and others are exaggerating the threat from the large transient population in Venice. I would challenge anyone questioning the danger Venice residents currently face to talk to any of these residents to understand the fear they live in. The young mother in the first episode above now lives in Santa Monica behind three locked doors.
Maybe this is what the columnist meant when she wrote that “People come to Venice to be changed by Venice, not to change Venice.” This young woman and her oldest child, who was old enough to know the danger they were in, are certainly changed; they now live in fear.
This shibboleth, that those who choose to live in Venice must not try to change it, is fundamentally undemocratic.
I was born in Santa Monica, but my father’s career in the Navy sent us out-of-state for 11 years. When we returned in 1961, residents had a choice of voting in local elections for either conservative Republicans or the even more conservative John Birchers. Fast-forward to the construction of the Santa Monica Freeway bringing thousands of new apartment units and their far more liberal inhabitants. In 30 years Santa Monica went from far-right to the People’s Republic of Santa Monica.
Just as the new renters in Santa Monica many years ago had the right to exercise their political values, the newcomers to Venice — frequently families with young children — have every right to demand a safe environment.
Also, after 28 years in Venice it’s ludicrous for anyone to contend that I’m a newcomer or that I should just bend over and accept the filth, crime and danger that frequents the boardwalk and its surroundings.
The trend in Venice is on the side of those who demand public safety. Those who dream of the Venice of 1970 may be the ones who should think of moving on. Check the calendar: It’s 2015 and your time is up.
Mark Ryavec is president of the Venice Stakeholders Association.
By Mark Ryavec
(In response to “Venice Needs More Cops,” news, Jan. 22; and “Homelessness and the Big Lie,” opinion, Jan. 15)
As a concerned resident living near the Venice boardwalk, I have to ask: Have five home invasions happened since April in any other six-block area of Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin’s district?
In his letter to Police Chief Charles Beck, Bonin agreed with the Venice Stakeholders Association’s lawsuit that Venice is fundamentally unsafe and under-policed. He has asked for more officers and that they be permanently stationed here so they can learn our unique conditions: a coastal park and major tourist destination next to a predominantly residential community with a large, problematic and occasionally dangerous transient population.
Bravo Mike! Better late than never.
The dangerous reality our councilman painted in his letter to Beck has been underscored in my immediate neighborhood, four blocks from Ocean Front Walk, by five home invasions since April committed by transients camping in or near the Venice Beach Recreation Area.
The first saw a drug-fueled beach dweller dive through a glass door on Horizon Avenue at 4:30 a.m. on April 8 and climb the stairs to the tenant’s apartment, dripping blood along his path. He proceeded to the bathroom where he tore two bolted sinks off the wall and was found, 25 minutes after the victim called 911, wrestling on the floor with the shower curtain. Neighbors had called LAPD prior to the break-in complaining about a hysterical and loud person on their street. The police dispatcher asked if he had done anything other than being loud and obnoxious, and the neighbors had to respond “no.” The LAPD did not send a patrol car at that time, which could have prevented the traumatic experience the young mother and children had to endure, running for their lives down the back stairs, then to a neighbor’s across the street, and later having to face their blood-covered home.
The second was the now internationally famous Sept. 26 break-in on Riviera Avenue, where the drugged-out intruder (some 30 minutes earlier in police handcuffs being questioned on the street, according to a neighbor) forced a young actress out under her roof eave in her sleepwear, where she called police. Her precarious position was photographed by a passing neighbor, which went viral on the Internet. After a 40-minute standoff, with the police below and the half-naked woman cowering on the roof, firefighters arrived and helped the woman to escape down a ladder.
The other three incidents were equally terrifying to the victims.
Two young men broke into a residence on Grand Boulevard in the middle of the night on July 18 while the young couple and their very small children were asleep, the mother told me.
On Oct. 4 on Rialto Avenue, neighbors rallied to defend a young woman screaming that someone had broken into her home in broad daylight and moved toward her with hands raised.
A young actor and his pregnant wife on Venice Boulevard were awakened in the middle of the night on Nov. 29 by an addled young woman, known to the police, who had climbed their fence and broken in.
On these pages a columnist recently suggested that I and others are exaggerating the threat from the large transient population in Venice. I would challenge anyone questioning the danger Venice residents currently face to talk to any of these residents to understand the fear they live in. The young mother in the first episode above now lives in Santa Monica behind three locked doors.
Maybe this is what the columnist meant when she wrote that “People come to Venice to be changed by Venice, not to change Venice.” This young woman and her oldest child, who was old enough to know the danger they were in, are certainly changed; they now live in fear.
This shibboleth, that those who choose to live in Venice must not try to change it, is fundamentally undemocratic.
I was born in Santa Monica, but my father’s career in the Navy sent us out-of-state for 11 years. When we returned in 1961, residents had a choice of voting in local elections for either conservative Republicans or the even more conservative John Birchers. Fast-forward to the construction of the Santa Monica Freeway bringing thousands of new apartment units and their far more liberal inhabitants. In 30 years Santa Monica went from far-right to the People’s Republic of Santa Monica.
Just as the new renters in Santa Monica many years ago had the right to exercise their political values, the newcomers to Venice — frequently families with young children — have every right to demand a safe environment.
Also, after 28 years in Venice it’s ludicrous for anyone to contend that I’m a newcomer or that I should just bend over and accept the filth, crime and danger that frequents the boardwalk and its surroundings.
The trend in Venice is on the side of those who demand public safety. Those who dream of the Venice of 1970 may be the ones who should think of moving on. Check the calendar: It’s 2015 and your time is up.
Mark Ryavec is president of the Venice Stakeholders Association.
Friday, February 13, 2015
Debate on Retention of the 12-5 AM Beach Curfew for Venice and Along LA's Coast on KPCC
http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2015/02/13/41554/venice-beach-curfew-who-owns-the-coast/
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Superior Court Judge Overrules City and County of Los Angeles on Venice Stakeholders Association Lawsuit for Dangerous Public Nuisance at Venice Beach
Dateline: 2-9-15
Superior Court Judge
Gregory Alarcon today overruled demurrers lodged by the City and County of Los Angeles
The suit said the failure
of the City and County to enforce laws against camping and the storage of
personal items in the coastal park deprives residents of the quiet and safe
enjoyment of their homes and the Venice
“Basically the judge
agreed with us that a viable nuisance claim exists,” said Kristina Badaraite of
the law firm of Luna and Glushon. The
judge set a trial date in October.
Mark Ryavec, president of
the Stakeholders, said “I am hopeful that the City and County would use the
judge’s decision as an opportunity to sit down with the residents to discuss a
settlement.”
“We would like to see the
City and County enforce the camping ban in the park, disband the encampments,
and also provide services that the campers may need to assist them get back on
their feet”
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
CBS Investigative Report on Home Invasions in Venice and VSA Lawsuit
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/02/03/familys-narrow-escape-from-venice-home-invasion-sheds-light-on-public-safety-concerns/
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Anatomy of the Roof-Top Escape from a Venice Beach Transient
(Editor’s note: This is another installment in the series
about home invasions and attacks on Venice
residents committed by transients living in or near the Venice Beach
(9/24/14) My single, female next door neighbor/tenant
was awoken by a homeless, completely drugged out man trying to open her front
door. After seeing him walk away she went back to bed and was jolted up again 8
minutes later by him kicking in that same front door.
Upon making
eye contact he proceeded to climb up the ladder into her loft where she slept,
then chase her out of her bedroom window onto the roof. She was dressed in just
a small flannel shirt with nothing on below. Luckily, an off-duty police
officer happened to be driving by and saw him breaking in and called the police
immediately.
To add
insult to near injury she wasn't given a blanket or shirt or anything to cover
up her completely naked lower body, even as she climbed backwards down the
ladder in front of 50 gawking neighbors/police officers/ firefighters....
Less than 30 minutes before this incident, this same homeless man was in handcuffs in front of my house. Numerous neighborhood residents had seen him walking around throwing stuff, yelling, and being a scary nuisance. Two homeowners called 911 to report that he was trying to climb their fence and get into their yard, which resulted in his questioning in handcuffs, and then eventual release a few minutes later. After the police left, he was so drugged out that he decided to kick-in my tenant’s front door literally 20 yards from where police had him cuffed 15 minutes earlier.
Less than 30 minutes before this incident, this same homeless man was in handcuffs in front of my house. Numerous neighborhood residents had seen him walking around throwing stuff, yelling, and being a scary nuisance. Two homeowners called 911 to report that he was trying to climb their fence and get into their yard, which resulted in his questioning in handcuffs, and then eventual release a few minutes later. After the police left, he was so drugged out that he decided to kick-in my tenant’s front door literally 20 yards from where police had him cuffed 15 minutes earlier.
My house, right next door to hers, was broken into twice within 45 days over the past year. Both times the front door was kicked in and anything that could be grabbed was. After the second incident I decided to put bars on all my windows and metals screen doors in the front and back. Both times it took over 30 minutes for the police to arrive, the second time it happened within minutes of my wife getting home and she basically scared them off.....so they were still right in the neighborhood yet it took that long for someone to respond.
This is NOT
blaming police officers, they are doing their job...There just aren't enough of
them in our neighborhood.
Are these types of brazen home invasions tolerated elsewhere
in LA? What if your wife/daughter/sister was chased naked onto a roof by a
crackhead, would that elicit more of a response to this problem?
We as
residents do not feel like our voices are being heard and enough is enough.
Does it take another murder ? See: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/pregnant-woman-with-twins-raped-and-murdered-in-venice-calif
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