The Venice Census –
LOOK – WE’RE STILL HERE
By Jim
Smith
It may come as a surprise to
those who constantly lament that the good-old-days in Venice are gone for good.
Actually, our community has not become a haven for the rich, and it’s as
racially and ethnically diverse as ever.
The U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t make
it exactly easy to find the information you seek about a particular community. I
was shocked to discover that the City of Venice is not officially recognized by
the Feds (or Mayor Hahn, for that matter). The closest approximation for census
data is the zipcode 90291. This information does not include those sections of
old Venice that are south of Washington Blvd. and in a different zipcode. Many
people in the south prefer to think of themselves as living in Marina del Rey
for some inexplicable reason. Anyway, the vast majority of undisputed Venice
lies in 90291. The following figures are for
90291:
Median household
income:
Venice:
$45,769
L.A.
County: $42,189
California: $47,493
Of
course, median means that half the household incomes are above that figure, and
half are below.
In terms of rich
people, there are 2,905 Venice households - out of 15,518 - with an annual
income of $100,000 or more. This is 18.7 percent of all the households in
Venice. The comparable percentages for L.A. County and California are 15.1 and
17.3.
At the other end of the scale,
there are 4,114 Venetians (13.2 percent) living in poverty. This includes 793
children. 17.8 percent of all Venice children live in poverty! The figures for
L.A. County are 17.9 (individuals) and 24.2 (children). In all of California,
nearly five million people live in poverty (14.2 percent of the state) and
1,705,797 children (19
percent).
Housing:
Venetians
are overwhelmingly renters. This is why the affordable housing crisis has hit so
hard in Venice. There are 16,233 housing units in 90291. Of these, 4.6 are
vacant. How odd that we have twice as many vacant housing units in Venice as
there are homeless people. Seems like a “matching” service is
needed.
Owner-occupied housing: 28.3
percent
Renter-occupied housing: 71.7
percent
Of the tenants who occupy the
11,107 units, 17.8 percent of them pay more than half of their household income
for rent! There ought to be a law - a rent-control law! An astounding half of
all renters pay more than 25 percent of their entire income for a roof over
their heads. That doesn’t include utilities. It’s no wonder that so
many Venetians have had to move into their cars or out on the streets. At press
time, Congress had not bothered to extend unemployment benefits for the millions
who are victims of the latest economic recession. Maybe our landlords will have
pity and lower their
rents.
Commuting to
work:
Venetians use their cars less
to get to work than others. There are 3,634 of us - 19.9 percent - who don't
drive to work. This is better than the 14.6 percent for L.A. County and 13.7
percent statewide. Our secret is that more than twice as many of us work at home
- 8 percent! Unfortunately, the census bureau doesn’t say how many work
nude, in their underwear or with a coat and tie. More research is
needed.
On the other hand, the figures
show that we Venetians do not take advantage of carpooling or public
transportation, even though we have one of the best bus systems in the
area.
Here’s the
figures:
Ethnicity:
Overall,
Venice is holding on to its diversity. Here are the figures for 2000 and
1990:
In 2000, the Census Bureau began
allowing people to identify with more than one ethnic origin. In Venice, 1,731
people did so. The Bureau also split the Asian/Pacific Island category into two:
Asians and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific
Islanders.
The biggest change in the
past 10 years is the decline in African-Americans and Latinos in total numbers
and percentage. While part of this may be attributed to some choosing the
“two or more races” identity, most of the decline is more likely
related to rising property values and rents as well as being aggressively pushed
out of the neighborhood by new affluents.
Venice has changed, but slowly. It
still retains its character as a working class (artist class?), diverse and
relatively low-income ocean-side community. How many other beach communities in
California can say the same?
Posted: Wed - January 1, 2003 at 09:01 PM