By Rudabeh Shahbazi
Perspectives Editor
Locals rock in hammocks high in their mural-adorned boardwalk apartments, gazing at the ocean and bustling people, the eclectic mix of tourists, locals, street performers and drug addicts.
Venice is never just a “day at the beach,” and the scene is a drastic contrast from its neighbor to the north. It offers an insight into Los Angeles’ beachfront counterculture that has grown with its own unique identity since the turn of the century.
While Venice is the same distance from Pepperdine as the Valley, few students choose to make their homes here. Some are scared of the “weird people,” others are deterred from its legacy of crime. But some students do live in Venice, and they love it.
Senior Renee Ramirez, who has lived there for two years, loves the neighborhood, which she said provides a stronger sense of community and greater artistic and entertainment opportunities, but says she can understand why Pepperdine students do not generally make Venice their home.
“Homeless people go to the area, and for people who aren’t used to that, coming from Malibu where you don’t see anyone who’s homeless, it can be shocking,” she said.
Ramirez said though Malibu is stunningly beautiful and was a great experience for two years, she is very happy with her decision to move to Venice.
“There’s just a lot more to do in Venice,” she said. “The public transportation is really easy to get to, you can take it anywhere. It’s so easy for people who don’t have a car to get around.”
While the only institution in Malibu with any life after 9 p.m. is the Malibu Inn, Venice offers a varied and exciting nightlife. Young trendsetters fill bars, clubs, restaurants and coffee shops until morning.
“There is always stuff going on at night on my street,” said Ramirez, who lives on Main Street.
Instead of driving from one location to another on the strip of PCH, cosmopolitan Venetians glide on wheels or walk around the neighborhood and on the beach, where sage and incense smoke swirls dance to the percussion of drummers and techno music radiates from beachside shops.
Dreadlocked venders sell beads on blankets and jazz musicians belt out on saxophones. Hippies sell hemp necklaces and fortunetellers sell crystals. Anti-war campaigners convey their message with white painted faces, and rollerblading girls in bikinis swerve around the pedestrians and cyclists.
Artists, writers, photographers and actors gather in little cafes and bars playing Sublime under the sun. International bohemians discuss their world travel and read poetry.
Pepperdine computer graphics professor Dana Collier said she has a “love-hate relationship” with her Santa Monica building, on the border of Venice. She now uses the apartment primarily as a studio during the day because it can get loud at night. “You can really feel the pulse of the city,” she said. “But at the same time you can be panhandled the minute you walk out the front door.”
Venice has been a breeding ground for artists and musicians since its inception in the early 1900s, when its tobacco mogul founder, Abbot Kinney, sought to recreate Venice, Italy, with canals and Venetian architecture.
The canals now form the center of a trendy, upscale neighborhood. Houses are still painted in bright Venetian blues, purples, oranges and reds, but now modern glass homes are staggered between them.
“The neighborhood was never chic until the 80s,” said Collier.Now BMWs line driveways. Locals who have homes on the beach often decorate them with tropical, Moroccan or modern themes. Crimson and orange flowers are strewn along once-dangerous alleyways and gates are covered with lovely vines.
The old wooden houses that line the avenue named after Abbot Kinney have been converted to shops, bars and restaurants.
Twenty-somethings drink beer on their rooftops at sunset, watching the masses gather around the famous beach drum circle, its percussions vibrating through the sand, hypnotically drawing in crowds of all races and ages. Purple and pink skies silhouette drummers, who, depending on their affluence, sometimes use water jugs, cans with sand in them, and any other contraption that has the potential for rhythm. Strangers come together in one of the earliest known primal expressions of celebration shared by most cultures around the world.
This bohemian lifestyle, centering around art, poetry and new age jazz, descends from the beatniks and hippies, known as the “Beats” in the 1960s. In those days the roller skating capital of the world was known for rock bands and drugs. Jim Morrison of the Doors, who lived there, played for the locals of Venice before he became famous. He epitomized Venice culture and is now immortalized in a mural on the beach.
Hippies soon replaced the Beats, and flower children flocked to Venice to experience free expression during the “summer of love.”
In the 1970s, when the massive influx of real estate prices prompted new homes to be built and old ones remodeled, affluent homeowners replaced many of the artists and bohemians, and the nude sunbathing that had been briefly allowed in 1974 was abolished.
Just as shocking, for some visitors, are the street performers. One man who stands outside in his Speedo and huge grin, no matter the temperature, juggles silver balls along his body. Another juggles chainsaws in a ring of fire. Locals walk by fire breathers and men balancing tourists on their chins without a glance.
Confused children stare up from their strollers, submerged in the melting pot of unique creativity, passing breakdancers on roller skates, body builders, sand sculptors, surfers and walls of plastered spray paint where teenagers legally vent their creativity. Seagulls fly above the guy who rides his bike around with a lizard perched on his head.
To many, Venice is known as a freak show of dangerously peculiar people. To others, it is the last bastion of the true free spirit of California, where tourists and locals from all walks of life leave their differences behind and come together to celebrate the art of life.
Submitted April 1, 2004