Dennis RomeroIn the 1988 film Colors, a chase scene ends when a gangster crashes through the window of an upscale restaurant at North Venice Boulevard and Pacific Avenue.
See also: Los Angeles' Douchiest Neighborhoods.
Since at least then, and perhaps even dating back to the community's 1905 birth, Venice locals have been bemoaning the gentrification of their community.
But it feels like things have been coming to a fever pitch lately, and now a group called Save Venice is throwing shade on a planned GQ magazine celebration of Abbot Kinney Boulevard's utter coolness:
Learning that the men's fashion bible was “taking over the coolest block in America on November 16” for “a day of style, eats, drinks & good times”, the group is planning a protest.
The Save Venice folks state on their Facebook page:
Credit: Save Venice
Lets give GQ a warm welcome to Venice this Saturday. Does anyone remember paying $5 for a beer or even coffee on Abbot Kinney? Is anyone stoked about paying $14 for a sandwich? Are you tired of your rent increasing and afraid you will never be able to afford a home in the place you call home? Are you worried about being forced to move inland to make ends meet? Do we really need GQ bringing yet more unwelcome pressure to our corner of the Pacific by pumping the ridiculously gentrified and overpriced Abbot Kinney (formerly West Washington Blvd) yet more as the “coolest block in America”? Come represent this Saturday during GQ's “Style Bible” sponsored Shopping Glutstravaganza. …
Last year GQ named a stretch of Abbot Kinney “the coolest block in America” and celebrated surf fashion for non-surfers, interior design and designer haircuts.
Much of that, of course, is anathema to Venice's unpretentious history of Beat poetry, bohemianism, skateboarding and surfing.
See also: A Hotel for Abbot Kinney? One Developer Could Be In For a Hard Fight.
Credit: Michael Loadenthal / LA Weekly Flickr pool
Save Venice wants a show of hands on Abbot Kinney Saturday:
Make a big sign, rock it and represent the dispirited of Venice by telling GQ and anyone else who wants to capitalize on our beach community they can Google themselves the heck out of here.
[h/t Yo! Venice!].
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