Venice Centennial – Country Club Style
By Carol
Fondiller
Venice’s Centennial
should be a celebration of this wonderful enclave of diversity and
non-conformity. But it has been coopted by the chamber of commerce, various
corporate entities, and the city of Los
Angeles.
Venice’s messy, exuberant 100
years will be neatly wrapped in Los Angeles city funds and corporate giveaways.
The corporate city-endorsed
“celebration” will be proper and organized. Not all groups were
invited to this event (above) to kick off the Venice Centennial. The Grass Roots
Venice Neighborhood Council was not invited. GRVNC, whether some people like it
or not, represents a good portion of Venice’s population. Highlight of the
centennial kickoff event was to be an award presented to Werner Scharff for his
“contributions to the Spirit of
Venice.”
Some of his
“contributions” were agitating the city to get rid of the Beats
because they sat on the benches on the Ocean Front Walk and “smoked
marijuana and read Marx.”
He was
instrumental in initiating code inspections and redlining so that low-income
people who owned property could not mortgage it to bring it up to code
(redlining was used by banks to refuse loans to people who need to rehab). Guess
who bought the property.
Scharff also
wanted a freeway that would have run along the ocean. He failed. He also failed
in trying to evict 75 low-income seniors from the Cadillac
hotel.
When he didn’t succeed in
evicting the seniors, he was overheard to say, “They’ll all be dead
soon, anyway.” Such a
philosopher.
One of the main
participants in the Centennial is the Venice Historical Society, who in its
recent publication was announcing a lecture on the “origins of civilized
Venice.” The supposition is that there was no civilization prior to the
coming of the white man. This, despite the fact, that the Chumash and
Gabrielino-Tongva indians had sweat baths (hot tubs), and knew like some Venice
residents what civilization really is: Hanging out, smoking the peace pipe and
having a lot of fun with one’s
chums.
What is meant on the Centennial
invite by “business attire”? A waiter uniform? A clown suit? A
wetsuit?
This is but one of a series of
events to kickoff the Venice Centennial. So get your business suit (hooker
outfit?) and earn those $50 so you can come to the next one.
Posted: Mon - November 1, 2004 at 01:48 PM