Letters
• Careful what you joke about - Alexander
Cockburn
• Beachhead Sells Out -
Anon
• The End of Venice? - F.E.
Bloomquist
• Response from Sheila
Bernard
• On Criticism - DeDe
Audet
• An eviction worthy of
conviction - Barbara Eisenberg
• A
ringing endorsement for the Beachhead - Rick Feibusch
Careful what you joke
about
Dear Beachhead,
Beware of your jokes about your paper
and its aging hippies selling out to Rupert Murdoch. They could come true. Back
in 1977 when I was working at the Village Voice, east coast sanctuary of aging
hippies, Rupert Murdoch was only at the beginning of his US rampages. The Voice
had been founded in the late 50s, and at the start of the 70s , just before I
got there, two of its founders, Dan Wolfe and Ed Fancher, had sold the Voice to
the late Carter Burden for what was then regarded as the vast sum of $3 million.
There was much grumbling that Dan and Ed didn't share their windfall with long
term Voice editors and writers. Then, I think it was in '77, the Wolf and
Fancher era came to an end when Clay Felker of New York magazine took over for
$15 million.
Then, lo and behold
Murdoch who at that time owned (in the US) only the National Star and a
newspaper in Texas bagged both New York magazine and the Voice for , I think,
$45 million, though at this distance I'm a little hazy on the numbers .
Beachhead take note! Murdoch promised Jack Newfield and me he'd make no changes
and then, later the same day, fired the editor, Marianne Partridge. Jack and I
had to go back uptown and threaten a strike unless he reversed his move, which
he did. Marianne was allowed to stay on another year. Murdoch hated the Voice
because if he had imposed his repulsive views it would have destroyed a valuable
property which he finally sold to Leonard Stern, a New Jersey dog biscuit prince
for many, many more millions. Who knows, Murdoch could bring out his checkbook,
buy you out, and then pump up the Beachhead, waiting for the Voice's west coast
property, LA Weekly, to try and protect its market by buying him out and closing
Beachhead down. Come to think of it, isn't that the sort of trick the Feds just
nailed the Voice and New Times for trying to do? Watch out, Beachhead, it's a
jungle out there!
Best,
Alexander Cockburn,
Petrolia, Humboldt county, California North
Coast (visiting Venice).
(When not
reading the Beachhead, Alexander Cockburn edits CounterPunch magazine.
www.counterpunch.org * 800-840 3683 * CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA
95558)
***********
Beachhead
Sells Out
Dear Beachhead (by
voicemail),
It’s real nice that
the Beachhead has the money behind it, but Rupert Murdoch - it says right here -
owns Fox, the New York Post and other publications. (sigh) Fox News Network. . .
they all lie. . . the media lies. So that’s scary to me. Real
scary.
The Beachhead
responds
Alright,
already! It was a joke. An April Fools Joke! We apologize for the emotional
trauma we caused our loyal readers. We couldn’t sell the Beachhead, even
if we wanted to. It doesn’t belong to us. The Free Venice Beachhead
belongs to the people of Venice. The current members of the collective are but
the latest of hundreds of Venetians who have been the custodians of the
traditions of our community for the past 35 years. And that’s no
joke!
*************
The
End of Venice?
Dear Beachhead,
I grew up in a Venice with chickens
running in the yards and kids playing in the streets but recently left Venice in
search of affordable, beach adjacent, housing. My wife and I found a house in
San Pedro and it, the neighborhood, reminds me of the Venice I once knew. The
Venice I miss. For I shan't miss Julia Roberts and Robert Downey Jr.'s Venice.
That Venice is faced with some real problems the solutions of which won't be
pleasing to people like me who long for the Venice of
yesteryear.
So what happens, what is
one left to do, give up? Sometimes I think - despite common Oprah logic - that
the answer to that question is an unequivocal "Yes". Venice will never again be
what it was and now that sister Cindy has been installed as our new
developer-in-chief, (and sometime representative), I don't think affordable
housing, (i.e. affordable with the minimum wage), is anywhere on the
horizon.
The Manhattanization and
Redondoization of Venice has taken on a speed that defies gravity itself. So
traveling, Venice flies ass over tea kettle ever deeper into the abyss of racial
and financial segregation, of discrimination and affluence, of BMW's, dog parks
and cafe lattes, "spinning" classes and the stench of
superiority.
It's sickening I know. I
was baptized in Venice, raised in Venice, wanted to raise my children and die in
Venice. Yet, I am satisfied with the realization that there is no stopping the
drunken lout of targeted prosperity from trampling over the very things that
once made Venice great, ask Mr.
Dunne.
I will forever remember Venice
as it was and hold in high regard those who are trying with every breath to keep
alive the feeble pulse within the dying body of old Venice. It is with sorrow
and some regret, that I pass it on to the foolish and arrogant, the greedy and
self-possessed, the Hollywood set. May they forever be condemned, (and may God
have mercy on their beleaguered souls)to knowing they have killed
her,
my sweet Lady
Venice.
V#13 por
vida.
F.E.
Bloomquist
***********
Response
from Sheila Bernard
Dear
Emigrant--
It is too early to lament.
In other words, reports of Venice's demise are premature. Take for example
Lincoln Place. We are now engaged in a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles
to save the remaining 760 units of historic affordable housing. We have been
protecting our neighborhood for fifteen years, at enormous cost in volunteer
time and local donations. And we aren't going anywhere. The owner managed to
demolish 2 of our 52 buildings, but we are protecting the remaining 50 buildings
with unshakable determination. Watch the Beachhead for the story as it continues
to unfold.
Although I understand your
need for a stable home and your discouragement about some recent events in
Venice, I urge you not to be a stranger. You have a new City Council rep where
you live now, and you have a lot to share with her about what is happening with
Mr. Dunne, with Lincoln Place, and with affordable housing all over Venice and
Los Angeles. And if you have the resources (or friends with resources), please
remember us with desperately-needed donations to our legal fund (LPTA, P.O.Box
1312, Venice 90294) and the funds of other organizations which work steadfastly
day after day, year after year, to help our community evolve in a direction we
can all be proud of.
You can take the
Venetian out of Venice, but you can't take Venice out of the Venetian. Maybe we
ought to send a warning to San
Pedro!
Sheila
*************
On
Criticism
Dear
Beachhead
Lately I have received
several phone calls decrying criticism in the Beachhead. Criticism,
passionate or dispassionate, personal or impersonal, is indispensable in a free
society. It is the proof that a free society
exists.
Periodicals that try to
be impartial end up being kind of blah. I was fortunate to be able to live in
Spain at a time when there were newspapers on the left, newspapers on the right,
and El Pais, which I regarded as the establishment record. There I learned
that you can’t always be sure that the left is totally left or the right
is totally right.
Here’s an
example from Spain: remember Iran-Contra? When the U.S. was secretly
shipping armaments to Iran, transshipping took place at a port in northern Spain
before proceeding. A right wing periodical based in La Coruña exposed
the event, the left wing periodicals denied it, and El Pais investigated. Here
is a right wing rag exposing a right wing maneuver, the left wing concealing it,
and El Pais ducking.
It occurred to
me, in that time, in that place, that the right wing international cabal was not
working. Ditto for the left wing international cabal. It meant that
all politics is local. The right wing in Spain was more interested in
using the story to criticize the government in Madrid than in supporting a right
wing international movement. There are some who claim, but for that story
published in Spain, the Iran-Contra investigation may never have taken place.
Most important is that the story got
out.
That’s what the Beachhead
can do. I want to remind everyone that it was only the Beachhead that gave me
space to tell how city employees lied to me about plans for the Marina Bypass,
an extension of the Route 90 Freeway that would have destroyed Venice. So,
if some article in the Beachhead rips me apart, I will write a letter in
response and get my name in the paper twice. It could even make me a
heroine of the right. Let me think about
it.
This reminds me of the time, thirty
years ago, when I read a scathing review of a meeting of the old Venice Town
Council in the latest issue of a local weekly. A large part of the diatribe
consisted of a description of the personal appearance of the un-named
chairperson leading the council and a particularly vicious stab at the
chair’s manner of conducting the meeting. Since I had chaired the
meeting of the Town Council a few days before, I felt this was totally uncalled
for, inaccurate, and directed at me. While I stewed and stormed, my
husband read the article and then told me that he thought it didn’t sound
very much like me. Of course, I responded, that was the problem, it was all
lies.
I enjoyed my anger for a while
until a friend called to ask if I had read, in the latest issue, the great
article about how Goldie Glitter had chaired a Town Council meeting that took
place several months before.
Hearing it that
way made my emotions mix and re-mix. I had to make the journey from fury
at being in print to sorrow at not being the one picked to write
about. Along the way I also had to explain how I had identified myself with
the description of Goldie. This was specially funny to some of my friends. Now I
am past all that. I need a reputation. So, please throw a few brickbats my way,
spell my name correctly, and have a nice
day.
DeDe
Audet
Note: Some readers may not know
that Goldie is currently featured in a documentary “The
Cockettes.”
************
An
eviction worthy of conviction
Dear
Beachhead,
I am writing on behalf of
Laura L. Ponce, who was evicted from Lincoln Place Apartments, in Venice,
December 3, 2001. I do not feel that Mrs. Ponce's eviction from her home of
fourteen years was either legal nor moral. In legal documents processed by the
Los Angeles Housing Department "the intent to evict" and provided to Superior
Court, for the eviction proceeding, Mr. Bisno blatantly misrepresented the
number of days 1012 Frederick Street would be uninhabitable for completion of
work of a primary nature.
In these and
other documents, Mr Bisno promised and assured Mrs. Ponce and the City of Los
Angeles, that when the rehabilitation was completed, Lincoln Place would again
be her home.
The eviction was always
described as only temporary with the rehabilitation requiring her absence for
between 59 and 120 days, where the unit would supposedly be uninhabitable. To
date, the rehabilitation of 1012 Frederick #3 has not been completed, nor was
there a permit to do so since November of 2001, when Mrs. Ponce was still in
residence. Mrs. Ponce should be allowed to return to Lincoln Place and have any
apartment she wants.
She was
unnecessarily tortured for months with no water, no gas, no electricity, a
leaking roof during rain, unfinished walls and a makeshift spray paint booth in
her hallway. She bravely endured this while suffering from Lupus and other
personal tragedies of breast cancer diagnosis and surgery. She is entitled to a
harassment-free environment in her own "home" at Lincoln Place Apartments.
– Barbara
Eisenberg
************
A
ringing endorsement
for the
Beachhead
“My suggestion
would be for each and every one of you Watchdawg Readers to go down to the beach
or your local coffee house and pick up a copy of the (Beachhead). . . .and read
it from cover to cover.”
–
Rick Feibusch, editor of the email newsletter, the Watchdawg
Posted: Thu - May 1, 2003 at 06:19 PM