The Venice City Hall lights are on, but...
The lights came on at the Venice City Hall, Dec.
4, but nobody was home. Not even the “advisory-only” neighborhood
council was invited to be a part of the L.A.-run “lighting”
event.
The old Venice City Hall was one of five
locations where L.A. city officials held forth. In addition to the L.A. City
Hall, the former city halls of Eagle Rock and San Pedro were included. They,
like Venice, had been independent cities that were gobbled up by L.A. The fifth
site was Van Nuys, where, last year, a majority of San Fernando Valley voters
opted for cityhood, but were denied it by votes from this side of the
hill.
Mayor Jimmy Hahn, who won his
election by linking his opponent, Antonio Villaraigosa, in voters' minds with
cocaine-dealing Latinos, waxed eloquently about the joys of L.A.’s
diversity. He urged positive thoughts to improve the “quality of life in
our collective neighborhoods.” Warren G. Harding or Herbert Hoover
couldn't have said it better.
The event
was telecast on L.A.’s Channel 35. Hopefully, no one was watching when the
live feed from Venice came on for the first time. It showed a podium full of
nothing but LAPD officers. In retrospect, a fitting symbol for our long-occupied
little piece of turf and surf. Later, our unelected city councilmember Cindy
Miscikowski showed up dressed in red (a fashion statement, not a political
statement). The next time, the TV feed was live from Venice, it showed Cindy,
surrounded by the LAPD. Another appropriate
symbol?
The TV cameras never showed us
“unwashed” Venetians in the audience, including several who were
wearing “Free Venice” t-shirts. When a group of Ocean Front vendors
showed up in hopes of talking with Cindy about the unpopular plan for a
vending-space lottery, which she has encouraged, consternation ran rampant. How
dare they intrude on the contrived happiness of the captive cities celebration?
Perhaps, that’s why all the cops were there (no one ever got fired from
the LAPD for expecting trouble in
Venice).
I had invited a friend to
attend with some of her family. One of them declined, saying that she was Jewish
and this was a Christmas celebration. I protested, saying that of course it
would be non-religious, being a city-run operation. She was right and I was
wrong. The "Christmas" songs beamed merrily across the airways from the little
city halls. Not a word was said about Chanukah, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa or
Saturnalia, among others.
Meanwhile, it
had been announced at the Nov. 24, neighborhood council meeting by Miscikowski
aide, Sandy Kievman, that North Beach Neighborhood Councilmember Bonnie
Cheeseman would be the mistress of ceremonies at the lighting event. However, as
the night wore on, Cheeseman - all decked out in raindeer antlers - remained on
the sidelines with the rest of the
peasants.
Even though a bright Moon
shown down on our festive event, nary a note of our song, “Moon Over
Venice,” was heard. It was an “L.A. uber alles” kind of night.
–Jim Smith
Posted: Thu - January 1, 2004 at 06:38 PM