Lincoln Place - Tent City Report


By C.V. Beck

Tent City is located at the southwest corner of California Avenue and Frederick Street, Venice, California (sometimes called Squirrel Square,  that is behind the Ross parking lot)...We still maintain although we have reduced our hours to 10-4 pm, Wednesdays and Saturdays because of the winter darkness. 


What's new over here, you might be asking?  Well, let me tell you that we are now awaiting a Santa Monica court hearing date of Monday, December 4, 2006 at which event we will find out if AIMCO's motion to reconsider our right to have a trial will fly or if we will, at long last, have a trial date set, possibly for January, 2007.    Hold your breath!  I know we are.
 
We continue feeding the squirrels peanuts mostly from the "99" (unsalted) and have some tasty assorted morsels for whoever comes by.  We tell jokes and dish and have a good old time, socializing and  being supportive of one another in a truly neighborly way. People continue to come by to hear the latest or just to hang out, act "normal" for a little while and try to relax.    As we head into winter, if it is raining,  we will not be here, according to our usual sensible plan. 
 
On Wednesday, November 15, there was a large police presence around California Streets, including the Ralph's/Ross/Lincoln Place areas, with a police helicopter flying around most of the day.  I assumed it was a preholiday traffic "putsch" but as it turned out later, it was a drug bust in the Oakwood neighborhood.
 
On Saturday, November 18, we had a gaggle of people coming by, or driving around, some were friendly, some were not.  For example, at 11:00 AM a small dark bluegreen-ish pickup truck with two occupants, came by and drove around the Frederick/Doreen circle, the first time, shouting, "Go home and clean your house!", the second time, this driver, with black framed Buddy Holly type of glasses, also shouted again, "Go home and clean your house!".  I responded appropriately with a spirited, feminist "Eff off!" both times.  We debated this very odd (to us at least) occurence all afternoon...as to what it might mean.  But what we thought it meant was something on the order of either "keep 'em barefoot and pregnant", or "kinder, kuche, kirche"...the very orthodox feminine role...right? 
 
On another occasion, a pushed-out--of-Lincoln Place-former-resident, a single mom, came by and told me after she had moved out of Lincoln Place, she has had to move twice already and her rent is going to go up majorly again at the beginning of the New Year.  A woman with a camera walked around Lincoln Place for a while and came up to chat, saying that she lived on Brooks and wanted to know what was going on here.  She apparently knew nothing about our struggle but was very tuned into the traffic problems we now have on the "western edge" due to the extreme hyper/overdevelopment, insufficient green factors and overly sufficient greed factors.  There is a man who is painting pictures of the Lincoln Place complex with an easel on the sidewalk, this has been going on for several months now.
 
Odd things continue to happen.  About a month or so ago, a white tandem truck came by and went to Elkgrove Circle, then shortly returned back to Lincoln Boulevard.  I had a report later that same day from a resident when he went to see what they were doing, they told the security that "the company" had sent them and that the 2 large piles of earth they dropped in the roadway of the circle, , . were "for the spring garden"! ! !
 
There is a rumor I have heard that the Cafe 50's lease is up soon and people are worried that either there may not be a new lease or that it might be too expensive...

Posted: Fri - December 1, 2006 at 05:53 PM          


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