Venice Beach area (Vista, Santa Monica, West Hollywood: leases, crime, home)

[Susan_UK]

Hi, I'm visiting LA in November for two weeks and plan renting a studio in Venice - near Glyndon avenue. I wondered if anyone had views as to how safe this area is. I've had mixed views as to the safety of Venice area. That said, I live in London, UK, which has its fair share of crime in just about every area, and I've learned to be street-wise. I will be attending a conference in downtown LA for 4 days during my stay and will need to commute for that time. How easy is the commute by metro from Venice? Any comments gratefully received.
thank you
Susan

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Susan_UK

Hi, I'm visiting LA in November for two weeks and plan renting a studio in Venice - near Glyndon avenue. I wondered if anyone had views as to how safe this area is. I've had mixed views as to the safety of Venice area. That said, I live in London, UK, which has its fair share of crime in just about every area, and I've learned to be street-wise. I will be attending a conference in downtown LA for 4 days during my stay and will need to commute for that time. How easy is the commute by metro from Venice? Any comments gratefully received.
thank you
Susan

East Venice (which is where Glyndon is) is an OK area. If you're from London you won't find it intimidating. It's not 7th and Indiana. The only part of Venice I'd avoid is roughly from Lincoln on the east, Electric on the west, Rose on the north, and California on the south.

The Metro doesn't go to Venice nor are there any plans for it to go to Venice. There are plans for it to go to Santa Monica but those are a long way off I they ever happen. As of right now it doesn't go any farther west than Hollywood.

[Jakehorror]

Hope your making some serious bank, I priced a studio the first time I went to LA (2005) and a tiny studio 2 blocks from the beach was over a grand. Crazy.

[BRinSM]

even though the metro doesn't go to Venice, there are multiple bus lines that do. The 333 bus will take you directly from the beach all the way down Venice Blvd to the convention center downtown. Your other option would be to take the Santa Monica Big Blue which offers a freeway express bus from Santa Monica to downtown LA. You can get all the routes at www.mta.net using their trip planner.

[Parker501]

Can someone tell me the boundaries of venice; the 'rough' part outlined above by "majourn" seems to be a large area and almost most of what I would guess is venice.
Thanks

[BRinSM]

the main part of venice is washington, rose, lincoln to the east, and the of course the coast to the west. venice does spread east of lincoln, but i'm not sure of the exact boundaries. i know venice high school is at venice and walgrove, so i'd imagine that is still within venice. the zip code for venice is 90291, i'm sure you can find a map somewhere on the internet.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Parker501

Can someone tell me the boundaries of venice; the 'rough' part outlined above by "majourn" seems to be a large area and almost most of what I would guess is venice.
Thanks

The area I described (Oakwood) is about 5 blocks from east to west and 5 blocks from north to south. And even within Oakwood some streets are worse than others. The streets just off Abbot Kinney aren't that bad these days, even Electric Ave. isn't that scary. Once you cross 4th (and thus get closer to the Breezes Del Mar projects on 7th, and the Oakwood Recreation Center), it gets a great deal worse.

The farther you go from the projects and the park, the better that area gets. Still, it's one of only two "bad" west side areas which would be considered to be a bad area by non-westside standards. (The other one is the tiny Cadillac-Corning area of South Robertson).

Note that the leases on the project buildings are coming due and there is talk of privatizing those buildings. If the projects go, then the problems in that area will decline further and Venice's rapidly shrinking gang culture will come close to disappearing.

The REST of Venice varies from really, really great to decent/OK.

Venice goes from Navy St. on the north (the border with SM is actually between Marine St. in SM and Navy), and the beach on the west.

The eastern and southern boundaries are less clear - the post office marks Walgrove as the eastern boundary but some people living in what is technically western Mar Vista refer to themselves as living in Venice. (Probably because Venice High School is east of Walgrove). The southern boundary (with Marina Del Rey) is much less clear - closer to the beach it would be Washington (although the Peninsula area is south of Washington and I'd consider that to be part of Venice), once you get around Lincoln it's less clear (Maxella, maybe?) It's rather confusing as to what's MDR and what's Venice as it's governed by jurisdictional boundaries that don't make a great deal of sense - comparable to what's West Hollywood and what's in the Fairfax District of L.A.

[Susan_UK]

Thanks to everyone who offered advice. I feel fairly confident that as a resident of London, I won't be intimidated, and I kind of have a 'feel' for what seems safe. In any event, I won't be wandering around at night on my own. As for transport, thanks for the tip on buses. I've had a look at the trip planner and it seems I can get a bus from a block away that goes downtown. I'll need to take a cab to come home on a couple of evenings when there are social events associated with the conference. I gather the fare is in the region of $40 from downtown. I must download a detailed map of Venice to see the specific areas referred to by 'majourn' and 'Parker 501'. Once again, many thanks.

[90266]

I'm not a fan of Venice, so I couldn't tell yah!

[DULLAH]

Originally Posted by majoun

Note that the leases on the project buildings are coming due and there is talk of privatizing those buildings.

Do you have any definitive dates for this, or any links ? Apologies, but I don't know where to look.