Victoria Paper

Victoria Cuthbertson

Professor Slobod

113B/Univ Writing

4 March 2012

A Great Place but is it The Right Place

            Venice Beach is a well known and loved place from tourist to locals many go to see the pretty view of the water, street performances, eat at the many restaurants, and shop at the hundreds of vendors at the boardwalk. Though many love the vendors, they have caused much controversy throughout the years. From their distribution of marijuana, bongs, medical cards, etc people are starting to feel negatively about vendors. They feel as though vendors are making it too easy for kids and teens to access drugs and other illegal things. Venice’s lack of security and monitoring of what these vendors sell and who they sell to vendors have become more harmful then helpful to Venice Beach and its consumers. While vendors at Venice do attract many tourists, introduce many different cultures, and provide jobs, As helpful as they are they do more harm than help when it comes to keeping Venice a safe and protected place.

            A vendor is “A person or company offering something for sale.” Vendors can sale a variety of items, the vendors at Venice sell things from “smoking pipes, a "Venice" t-shirt, or a palm frond bent in the shape of your favorite baseball player.”(Vendors - Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California, 2012) You can find all the vendors located along the boardwalk on “the 200 peddler spaces along the 1.5-mile long asphalt strip bordering the beach.”(L.A. Votes To Limit Vendors On Venice Boardwalk : NPR,2012) For a vendor to have a legal shop they must own a street vendors license: food vendors license if they want to distribute food, and a peddlers licenses. Just recently “U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson issued the preliminary injunction last week, effectively stating that the city's permitting and lottery system for boardwalk performers and sellers violates the 1st Amendment.”(Blankstein, Andrew, Abby Sewell, and Los Angeles Times, 2012) Many of the vendors and Venice do not own these licenses and as a result of that many people are against them distributing goods.

            Though we enjoy all the wonderful things we get from vendors, many of the residents at Venice do not approve of vendors selling on the beach. “This has longtime storeowners and artists steamed, and residents in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood clamoring for a clamp down on the increased noise and transients”( As economy sours, vendors crowd into Venice Beach,2012) Many of the people who oppose vendors at Venice are the store owners on the beach who are losing business, money, and customers because of all the vendors. “It's become a real free-for-all, really aggressive," said Therese Dietlin, who has distributed alternative political literature for nine years on the boardwalk, which is lined with cafes, medical marijuana clinics and souvenir shops.”( As economy sours, vendors crowd into Venice Beach,2012 ) Because the owners of these vendors are there illegally they are not paying to be out there, where as the store owners who are paying rent to be where they are. While still continuing to compete with the vendors, which long time store owners see this as unfair. Lastly the reason most of the Venice residence do not approve of or like vendors is due to the bad reputation and attention that it is brings, because there are so many controversial and illegal things sold by vendors also because they sale them without following the proper guidelines.

            While the vendors at Venice know what they are doing is illegal there is no one around to stop them or monitor what they do. As a result of this these vendors have gotten away with selling drugs to kids, soliciting inappropriate items, and promoting sex. I have personally experienced this first hand while at Venice a vendor trying to sell me a fake medical marijuana card and a smoke bong. I was out at Venice with a group of friends on a summer day when we were walking down the boardwalk and a guy approached me and asked me if I would like to own a medical marijuana card. He never asked my age nor to see an ID and frankly I don’t think that was a real concern of his. Once I turned him down and told him that I was not interested he then proceeded to offer me a bong and see if I wanted to buy some. I again turned him down and rite after he asked my friends the same question; we were standing there for 5 minutes trying to get away while being harassed by this man. It really just amazed me how easy it would have been for me to get access to drugs and how this man was literally trying to force me and my friends to take action in such an illegal act. What also came as a surprise to me was the fact that no one around me seem to be fazed by what was going on and also that there were no security guards there to stop something like this from going on. This is one of the many cases that I have experienced or people that I know have experienced, and one of the reasons why people are so against vendors being out on the boardwalk.

            Although these are all negative aspects of having vendors on the boardwalk there are also still some positive aspects toward having vendors. For some of the vendors they bring many different cultural and artistic things to Venice which we would not have if it was not for them. From tribal art and artifacts to different types of clothing these things are all accessible to people at Venice and without vendors many of these things would not be available to the public. Also Venice and its vendors are a very big tourist attraction for people from out of town, it is something that many tourists want to see before they leave California, and if you took those things away it would take a tourist attraction. Lastly for many if not all of the vendors this is their livelihood, this is the way they feed there families and pay their bills and they work hard to do all these things so is it fair to take that away from them? We may not approve of or like their methods but vendors at Venice Beach do benefit the beach by attracting tourist and providing a since of culture to the beach.

            We all love Venice Beach and the many different vendors that they have but the controversy they cause and the negative attention they bring has made many people/residence want to get rid of them all. Because of the lack of security and carelessness of the law at Venice vendors have been able to get away with things like selling marijuana, medical card, and sexual items. Also not having the proper papers and license that they need to own these shops and distribute goods to people. As a result many if not all of the legal shops on the boardwalk are working to get rid of the vendors that surround them. Venice is not a bad or negative place, it is however a place with a lack of security and surrounded by people who don’t seem to care what is really going on. Though Venice Beach does provide us with a since of culture and jobs for many different people it also promotes many negative things. I love going to Venice Beach and tend to have a good time every time that I go but I could live without some of the vendors that they have. I just recently took a trip down to Venice Beach and some of the things that I did not enjoy was the strong smell of marijuana everywhere also the constant hassling of people trying to get me to buy a medical marijuana card and lastly people offering me marijuana every ten sec while I walked the boardwalk. As much as I love Venice and walking down the boardwalk these things are really making me not want to visit the beach anymore. It takes the fun away when you are constantly being bugged and hassled by people, especially about something that you’re not interested in. If something doesn’t happen to stop these vendors or monitor what they’re doing many people are going to stop visiting Venice and the stores, vendors, and restaurants are all going to suffer as a result.

Work Cited

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msnbc.com." msnbc.com - Breaking news, science and tech news, world news, US news, slocal news- msnbc.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36077368/ns/travel-destination_travel/t/economy-sours-vendors-crowd-venice-beach/>.

Blankstein, Andrew, Abby Sewell, and Los Angeles Times. "Venice Beach | Judge blocks

Venice boardwalk permit system - Los Angeles Times." Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/27/local/la-me-venice-vendors-20101027>.

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News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. <http://www.npr.org/2011/12/21/144087068/l-a-votes-to-limit-vendors-on-venice-boardwalk>.

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Restaurants, Hotels, etc... - Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. <http://www.aboutvenicebeach.com/Vendors.shtml>.