Abe Osheroff, Venice Hero and Spanish Civil War Vet, Dies at 92
By Emily
Winters
I knew the Osheroff family many
years ago when I lived next door to them on 28th street in Venice, late 1960s.
There was a plan to refurbish the canals by assessing the property owners in the
canals and on the peripheral areas.
They wanted to widen the alleys that would take
away footage from the already undersized lots. and make the canals a private
gated community. Many of these property owners were unable to meet the stiff
assessments because they were very poor, retired and on very fixed and limited
income.
Abe led us – we who were
so inexperienced – in our fight against city hall using his know how and
expertise. We fought long and hard and when the decisive day came, created the
Venice Canal Festival to say goodbye. But lo and behold, there were no bids. Our
tactic of delaying the project as much as possible worked! Not to mention that
we emphasized that the canals were city property and should not be privatized!
Our Canal Festival became a
celebration! We closed off 28th Ave, and the community came out with free food,
drink, music and camaraderie. The Festival became a yearly event for seven years
until it became way too large and out of control as well as commercial. So we
had a Canal Festival Funeral using the old barge and a huge paper mache
duck.
I received my “hands
on” political education from Abe’s leadership. He also led the
struggle to create a children’s park in an empty city lot on the canals.
We had a large population of small children living in the canals with no park.
Other communities were getting small vest pocket parks, but we were denied. He
took old telephone poles, donated wood and created a small park including a
wooden sidewalk over the crumbling sidewalks. This became a media event as he
and I watched his two young sons chain themselves to the fence, and be cut away
and carted off to jail. We got the park as depicted in my JAYA mural on the
corner of Dell Ave. at S. Venice Blvd., and it has been moved to another lot and
still serves the toddlers of today.
His
lively, creative and talented family are a monument to him. I still see his
three Venice children, Nick, Dovie, and Sara from time to time and his former
wife, Noel Osheroff, is still my good friend
today.
Photo: Abe at a Canal
Festival, circa 1970, by John
Hider
*More about Abe’s life
can be found at www.abeosheroff.org.
Posted: Thu - May 1, 2008 at 07:12 PM
