Category Archives: Writers
The Fire Next Time
By Jim Smith Christine Burrill’s stunning exhibit of photo collages of the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising has an impact and immediacy that few other art forms can convey. Three of the large collages were printed on brushed aluminum sheets by … Continue reading
Filed under Civil Rights, Crime/Police, Jim Smith
Tenants Reclaim Lincoln Place
Six years after they were booted out of their homes by corporate landlord AIMCO, happy tenants began returning to newly refurbished apartments on April 15. Evictees and their union, the Lincoln Place Tenant Association, plus a large number of Venice … Continue reading
Filed under Jim Smith, Tenants/Lincoln Place
To feed or not to feed, that is the question?
By Ronald K. Mc Kinley In most major cities there are ordinances stopping or restricting the feeding of the homeless. Las Vegas, “home of Lost Wages,” was one of the first. A federal judge has blocked that law. New York’s … Continue reading
Filed under Homeless/RVs, Ronald McKinley
Cinco de Mayo Pancake Breakfast
Venice’s own Fire Station #63 will hold its annual Pancake Breakfast on Saturday, May 5, from 8 am until noon at the firehouse at Venice Blvd. and Shell Ave., next to Beyond Baroque. Come and meet Capt. Rex Vilaubi and … Continue reading
Filed under Events, Roger Linnett
Santa Monica College Students Blind-sided by Campus Police
By Roger Linnett Santa Monica College has joined the list of places where the police have used pepper spray for crowd control under questionable circumstances. A dubious honor to be sure, SMC joins UC Davis and the original Occupy Wall … Continue reading
Filed under Civil Rights, Crime/Police, Roger Linnett
How Peter Douglas Saved Venice and the California Coast
By Jim Smith Peter Douglas, who was the chief guardian of the California coast for the past 40 years, died April 1. It would have been much better for Venice if this were a sick April Fools joke, but it … Continue reading
Filed under Development/Gentrification, Environment, Jim Smith, Venice
Scene of the Crime: Marker Unveiled Where Japanese-Americans Were Taken to Camps
It was 70 years later, to the day, that more than 100 Venetians gathered in support of a handful of Japanese-American survivors of the Manzanar Concentration Camp. In 1942, they had been taken away from the very spot of the … Continue reading
Filed under Civil Rights, Japanese-Americans, Jim Smith
No one ever said it would be easy: Saving the Venice Post Office
By Jim Smith In spite of a lawsuit brought by the Coalition to Save the Venice Post Office, the Postal Service has plowed ahead with efforts to sell the historic building and substitute a “hole-in-the-wall” facility in the old Safeway … Continue reading
Filed under Jim Smith, Post Office
