Hundreds of cities require sidewalk vendors to obtain special permits. In San Francisco, people can sell arts and crafts in designated areas, including Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square and Market Street.
But first they must go before a screening committee at the San Francisco Arts Commission, where they display the crafts or art they intend to sell on the street (in some cases they are allowed to show the committee their wares via video). Once approved, the vendors may sell only what they themselves make.
When Howard Lazar, director of the San Francisco Street Artists Program, hears about the latest law in L.A., he laughs.
"They're heading for a lawsuit," he says. "That is such an infringement on the First Amendment."
So why not copy San Francisco and not risk another tangled lawsuit? The short answer is, because L.A.'s leaders want to do something unique. Councilman Rosendahl and others consider Venice Beach completely sui generis, a city park with a tradition of being wild and untamed.
"Venice Beach attracts those kinds of people," Rosendahl says. "I just want to see that energy come back."
But instead of the screening committee and permit system adopted in San Francisco, in Los Angeles the police will be expected to decide whether items such as neon-colored skulls are mass-produced, or crafted by the person peddling them.
"Eventually," Rohde says, "police officers [will] have to make on-the-spot artistic judgments, as well as political and ideological judgments about the nature of this material, and figure out if artistic expression predominates."
Rosendahl admits that only "time will tell. The hope is that we'll catch those who have created mass-produced stuff that competes with the other side" — the Venice Beach shops that pay rent and taxes. He says the city will allow frequent crafts fairs on Venice Beach to mollify newly banned vendors such as jewelry peddlers and makers.
Already, vendors are bracing for change. A cardboard sign on Tom Crossland's table reads, "Going Out of Business." Crossland, a middle-aged man with a Lakers cap and salt-and-pepper beard, sells crystals, each representing a different aspiration. There are crystals for healing, balance, love, etc.
"Some believe that it's a pathway to enlightenment," says Crossland, who plans to transition to selling art in the coming weeks. "That ideology is considered of no value to L.A. City Council."
Reach the writer at hillelaron@mac.com.
Born n raised here. It's sad to see Venice Beach get gaffled by these bougie transplants and the sucka ass politicians catering to them. Nothing wrong with the boardwalk, its nature is relatively the same it's been since I can remember. They're just catering to all the new white folk moving in at the expense of the locals who have made Venice what it is. Piece by piece they manipulate the power, It's called gentrification.
Hello, I'm RODICA CARROLL a.k.a. R.C.INCOGNITO 99% THE PEOPLE'S POET, Y can visit me on facebook or the Boardwalk.Obama said "YES WE CAN", encouraging us to create our own jobs in a jobless market.Villaraigosa said "OH. NO Y DIDN'T". "Mr. Mayor it is yr job to help us put food on our kids table, not tie our hands behind our back so we can't fead our kids"."Stop wasting police time and resources making them implement BS laws they are the 99% and have families, too. This is not what they signed up for"."This is not were my taxed dollars should go, should yours?""WE ARE NOT DEALING AND STEALING" - it's the BOARDWALK - NOT WALLSTREET.
"Rosendahl sees things differently, saying, 'You can put five lawyers in a room and get 10 opinions of what free expression is.'"
There are only five lawyers whose opinions ultimately count: a majority of Supreme Court justices. I hope the City has finally succeeded in passing a vending/free speech ordinance that passes Constitutional muster.
1 Like
Now, there will be no reason to visit Venice beach. I always enjoyed the eclectic group selling their wares on the boardwalk. I always made it a point to take out-of-town visitors there, just to see it. I really think it's time we need a new City Council. One not filled with recycled cops and loser politicians.
OK...fine...don't visit Venice Beach...you AND your visitors...the other 16,000,000 a year of us will just have to muddle through without you...three cheers for a city council that finally has the courage and the intelligence to pass a no-vending-on-the-west-side-of-the-boardwalk ordinance that will hold up under constitutional scrutiny and end the hijacking and kidnapping of the boardwalk by 200 illegal business-people which has utterly destroyed the true free spirit and creativity which is Venice Beach....
If Rodica Carroll were a corporation, then she would be the type PERSON important to the government. Corporations are People; human beings are not
Ms. Carroll has to get real. How much money has she paid back to the mayor to her councilman? LA is a Pay to Play City, and obviously Ms. Carroll has been too stingy in her payoffs to the corrupt city council and mayor.
it's a sidewalk ajacent a city park...it is not zoned for commercial activity... the only justification the vendors have is that what they are doing is protected by first amendment free speech... which is a complete and utter distortion... there is only one thing being said here : "Give me your money"... they are commercial vendors - pure and simple - trying to hide under the constitution - their activity is not legal in this park and they have destroyed the very freedom and expression they deceptively cloak themselves in - of coiurse, we all sympathize with the need to make a living, but go do it in some legal setting and quit destroying the atmosphere of open-ness and freedom that is the hallmark of the unique street theater known as the Venice Beach Boardwalk...I'm sick of 200 illegal business people hijacking the atmosphere and ambiance that 16,000,000 visitors a year come looking for...good riddance to the vendors...
oh...excuse me...i didn't realize this was "vendor street"...maybe they should re-name it "vendors beach"... in fact, the Boardwalk is 107 years old, and the vendors didn't hijack it until the early 90's...let's be generous and say that they have been performing their illegal activities for 20 years.... less than 1/5 of the time the Boardwalk has existed... that hardly makes them "an" institution, let alone "the" institution for which the Boardwalk is famous... it's more like banning the Goodyear Blimp from Bourbon Street....a completely appropriate and LONG overdue action on the part of City government...
Hijacked in the early 90's, eh?Oh boy you're a piece of work. I was videotaping these same people as far back as the early 1980's and they had already been there for decades.
it's a sidewalk ajacent a city park..e v.it is not zoned for commercial activity... the only justification the vendors have is that what they are doing is protected by first amendment free speech... which is a complete and utter distortion... there is only one thing being said here : "Give me your money"... they are commercial vendors - pure and simple - trying to hide under the constitution - their activity is not legal and they have destroyed the very freedom and expression they deceptively cloak themselves in - too bad about the need to make a living, but go do it in some legal setting and quit destroying the atmosphere of open-ness and freedom that is the hallmark of the unique street theater known as the Venice Beach Boardwalk...good riddance to the vendors...
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city
