Is Sunday the only day Venice Beach is packed?

[jc76]

I like VB during the week, during the winter months it's usually pretty calm and laid back. Never been there in Summer cuz I never lived in LA in the summer. We were on VB in April one time and it was freezing! And that's coming from a guy who lives in the cold part of the country, that was quite a shock it was so cold and windy that day. Still fun though!

Anyone else like the older black man who walks around singing "Jingle bell Jingle bell help me get drunk"???? I talked to him one time and he's really cool.

[ITChick]

Originally Posted by jc76

I like VB during the week, during the winter months it's usually pretty calm and laid back. Never been there in Summer cuz I never lived in LA in the summer. We were on VB in April one time and it was freezing! And that's coming from a guy who lives in the cold part of the country, that was quite a shock it was so cold and windy that day. Still fun though!

Anyone else like the older black man who walks around singing "Jingle bell Jingle bell help me get drunk"???? I talked to him one time and he's really cool.

Yeah, I do remember visiting there in January and thinking "Wow, it's cold here today!". This is coming from someone who braves Chicago's Winters.

I think I know the guy you're talking about. Good to know he's friendly. There are some folks that hang out there on a daily basis that I would probably not be brave enough to talk to, being the shy type that I am.

[West of Encino]

Weekends in general are always crowded at Venice Beach. If you have time off, it's better to go on weekdays when it's less crowded. It's more safer Mondays through Thursdays.

[yamota]

Between the gangbangers and the homeless people, it's a wonder people still go to venice beach

[StaggerLee22]

Flash mob event on Venice Beach boardwalk ends in shooting

[majoun]

Originally Posted by StaggerLee22

Flash mob event on Venice Beach boardwalk ends in shooting

Nobody involved in this shooting was actually from Venice or from any community even near Venice. These people were all from Compton and South L.A.

I'd wager that a great deal of trouble in Venice OTHER than that caused by the homeless is caused by outsiders.

[StaggerLee22]

I agree, and would add that they were all VERRRRRRRRRRRY young.

[West of Encino]

If I'm not mistaken, Venice Shoreline Crips is still active in the area. Maybe it was one of them. Reminds me of the 1988 killing in Westwood of a bystander.

I'm afraid Venice Beach is turning into Watts or the crime rate is similar to it. There's been another brawl the day after the shooting. It was like a riot! There's also been clashes between drum circles and the cops.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by West of Encino

If I'm not mistaken, Venice Shoreline Crips is still active in the area.

In Oakwood. Not where the shooting happened. Their numbers have declined although they have not been entirely eradicated, which quite frankly they should be. V13's bigger, although still less numerous than in their heyday. The V13/VSLC war was the very first Latino vs. black gang war, and one of the very few with roots going back before the '92 riots, that undoubtably caused some Crips to leave the area. They tried setting up in Del Rey's MV Gardens projects but CxC drove them out. Let's put it this way: there used to be drive-bys in Oakwood every weekend, now the time between drive bys in Oakwood is defined in periods of months not days.

It was the emergence of Crips in Venice and the resulting problems which caused my family to move, and why I went from doing 7th grade at Mark Twain to doing 8th grade at Webster. Oakwood is within the area for Mark Twain.

The gang problems WITHIN Venice are nowhere near as bad as they used to be. The homeless problems OTOH are a different story, they are still severe.

Maybe it was one of them.

It wasn't. Those involved were from Compton and South L.A.

Everyone who saw the shooting said it involved outsiders.

Reminds me of the 1988 killing in Westwood of a bystander.

Not really, because the person who got killed was a gangbanger from Compton. Nobody involved was from Venice. Karen Toshima, otoh, was not a gangbanger. The current equivalent of her murder would be what happened to Bryan Stowe at Dodger Stadium.

I'm afraid Venice Beach is turning into Watts or the crime rate is similar to it.

Not even close. Watts, which sees few visitors, has the 8th highest violent crime rate in L.A. County, and Watts - unlike Venice, Hollywood, etc. - does not draw in people from outside which distorts the crime statistics based on population. All of the 10 most dangerous neighborhoods in L.A. are in South L.A. (and none are destinations for outsiders).

Venice is #72, similar to Hancock Park and Winnetka. And this doesn't take into consideration that at any given time there are far more people in Venice than the number of residents, especially on weekends. It's still a higher violent crime rate than average, and no doubt even accounting for more people being there at any given time than the actual population, it would still have a higher violent crime rate than average. There are some Valley areas with bad reps with lower crime rates than Venice, however, like Reseda, Sun Valley, North Hills, and Arleta (although I think Arleta gets an unfairly bad rap just for being an overwhelmingly Latino NE Valley neighborhood that's surrounded by really bad areas - it doesn't have gang activity like its neighbors and is pretty settled and middle class. It happens to be right next to the 2 worst Valley areas, which gives it a bad rap by association.)

Highland Park's crime rate is also lower than Venice's despite having a much larger number of gang members (it's fortunate enough to not have any Crips, though). In fact, Highland Park's crime rate is lower than the L.A. average, and by and large the people seem more real and (except for the gangbangers) more friendly. Lincoln Heights' crime rate is lower than Venice's, although higher than the L.A. average, and again the people seem more real and (gangbangers excepted) friendly. Of course I say this as a white male who's often thought to be Latino. Sadly, if I was black I probably wouldn't be treated as well there.

There's been another brawl the day after the shooting. It was like a riot! There's also been clashes between drum circles and the cops.

The drum circles attract plenty of homeless runaways, who are the #1 cause of crime in Venice. The runaways are the most crime prone of all the homeless in Venice. Most of them are meth addicts, not surprising considering what goes down after dark on the sand.

Even with those events in mind Venice isn't as dangerous as South L.A. (even the safest South L.A. neighborhood, University Park, or, if you consider View Park-Windsor Hills to be part of South LA which I don't - I consider it Southwest L.A. - have higher crime than Venice) Also remember there are large parts of Venice with little violent crime, like South Venice (south of Venice Boulevard), East Venice (east of Lincoln), and North Beach (i.e. between the SM border and Brooks, and west of Main). Venice DOES have major property crime issues (which the homeless problem contributes to), but the violence is confined to very specific areas. Oakwood, obviously, being the main one. It's very sad that this crap is going down on OFW between Brooks and N. Venice Blvd. as well as in Oakwood, but most of Venice isn't dangerous.