Venice Beach, filmed by Cop Watch Venice

How did Venice's smallest park become it's largest encampment? 8 months at Venice Centennial Park.

"This is a video compilation of the past 8 months at Venice centennial park AKA Venice library park. I hadn't planned on making a video about it, but had lots of footage, so this is random on different dates labeled inorder laying out a timeline of how Venice's smallest park, became it's largest homeless encampment.

The Venice of America Centennial Park was built in 1993 and has had homeless people randomly sleeping there ever since. I even slept there as a kid many times. But it's never been like this.

The city and LAPD keeps going against the supreme court orders and chooses to chase homeless people around, criminalizing their existence, rather than help anyone, so the places for people to go are becoming harder to find. The Venice centennial park is one of the few places not entirely fenced in by the city. Mike Bonin has fenced in and closed off nearly every area an encampment was, and he's spent $650,000 on private security patrolling overnight this year alone, keeping people out of other areas. That doesn't include the 2 am sanitation and LAPD clean ups where they don't clean anything.

According to the city, the park is now the site of the next "encampments to homes program" where the city supposedly takes entire encampments into a hotel, then gets them permanent housing. Problem is, most of these people have already been through the program and we're kicked out with no permanent solution. This is just another part of the city's revolving door homelessness response, where if they pretend they can't fix it, then they can rely on voters to get fed up and say chase everyone off or leave them to die instead of spending the billions in Homelessness funding on what it's actually intended for. Real question is, where's all that money?"

Cop Watch Venice follows LAPD pacific division on world famous Venice Beach, showing a point-of-view style cop watch and update on Venice's current conditions. We make edited shorts, full scenes and are working on a documentary about homelessness and city failures.

Donate to Cop Watch Venice via Cop Watch Venice Paypal

150+ Local Brands, LA's best food trucks, 20 performing artists all at Venice Blvd's biggest street festival​.

The Venice Summer Fest Returns for the 4th time to the Mar Vista Arts District on June 25th, 2022, from 12pm to 8pm. Celebrating Southern California Culture!

Music, drinks, games and dancing fill the street with positive vibes creating the ultimate destination for your local weekend adventure!

The festival will take place on Venice Blvd. in the street, In-between Grand View & Centinela.

For more info, Click Here.

Venice Beach, 5/16/22, filmed by Cop Watch Venice

"Venice beach Homelessness and neighborhood update. There was another RV fire on Rose and Lincoln, the library park is growing and getting a lot of police attention lately, meanwhile the beach is looking as bad as ever while the city keeps taking funding to "clean"."

Cop Watch Venice follows LAPD pacific division on world famous Venice Beach, showing a point-of-view style cop watch and update on Venice's current conditions. We make edited shorts, full scenes and are working on a documentary about homelessness and city failures.

Donate to Cop Watch Venice via Cop Watch Venice Paypal

From Santa Monica Close Up:

"Santa Monica Police set up a perimeter Between Rose Avenue and Marine Street in Venice on Sunday, May 14, 2022. At 8:30 am SMPD Officers responded to area of 4th and Marine to investigate an attempted car-jacking. The suspect, a Black male, with a tattoo on his neck and wearing all black clothing used physical force (no weapon) in his attempt to take the victim’s car, before he fled on foot. SMPD officers quickly arrived on scene and set up a perimeter. Search teams comprised of SMPD Officers, K9s, UAS (Drone) team, and an LAPD airship searched the area. They concluded their search at about 11:45 AM. The outstanding suspect was not located."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

https://venmo.com/u/santamonicacloseup

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/fabianlewkowicz

UScension Volleyball Event benefiting the Veterans Housing Crisis at the Pier 360 Festival

Come be part of a HUGE Santa Monica event! Join thousands of beach and sea athletes at the PIER 360 Festival while supporting our efforts in the Veteran's Housing Crisis.

Play Volleyball, Dance and Meet High VIBE people that are making an impact in the world!

BEACH VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT at the PIER 360 Festival includes a Yoga Warm-Up followed by a Coed Beach Volleyball Tournament, or choose the Volleyball CLINIC & FUN Games for those new to the sport and a fiery DJ lineup that'll have you moving and grooving all day & taking you into a special sunset DJ set before you depart!

Date and time
Sun, Jun 26, 2022, 8:30 AM PDTT

Location
Santa Monica Pier
200 Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica, CA 90401

For more info and to register, Click Here

Come join Heal the Bay and the City of Santa Monica on Saturday, June 4 to learn about and clean up the Santa Monica beach dunes!

The City of Santa Monica is sponsoring a beach cleanup located at the Annenberg Community Beach House on Saturday June 4, 2022. The event will feature an organized cleanup event from Heal the Bay and a talk/tour of the Santa Monica Beach Dune Restoration Project from The Bay Foundation. Anyone is welcome to come show support for the beach dunes and participate in the beach cleanup for a chance to win some awesome prizes!

Date and time
Sat, June 4, 2022
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT

Location
Annenberg Community Beach House
415 Pacific Coast Highway
Santa Monica, CA 90402

For more info and to register, Click Here

Come make history with us at the First Annual: Venice Classic, the first dedicated car show to ever be held at the world famous Venice Boardwalk

Come join The DogTown Devils Car Club on August 27th for an event unlike any other in the Venice Boardwalks 100 year history as we celebrate Surf, Sounds and Southern California's Car Culture.

All Classics, Kustoms, Lowriders, Street Rods, Rat Rods, Pre-80's Trucks and Pre-80's Muscle Cars, WELCOME!

This family event will feature Vendors, Food Vendors, a Beer Garden, DJ, Giveaways and an Awards Ceremony presented by The DogTown Devils Car Club and the City of Venice.

The The DogTown Devils Car Club,

For more info and to register you vehicle, Click Here.

Nick Gabaldón Day will take place on Saturday, June 18, 2022 from 9AM – 4:30PM.

Nick Gabaldón (1927-1951) was a pioneering surfer of African American and Mexican American descent. He was the first documented surfer of color in the Santa Monica Bay. Gabaldón’s passion, athleticism, discipline, love, and respect for the ocean live on as the quintessential qualities of the California surfer.

In 2013, with the help of African American historian Alison Rose Jefferson, Heal the Bay joined forces with the Black Surfers Collective to amplify and expand their prior Nick Gabaldón efforts. Nick Gabaldón Day, in its current form, is now in its 10th year and will be held on June 18, 2022. This innovative celebration provides an amazing opportunity for broadening outreach, action, and education to connect Angelenos with their cultural, historical, and natural heritage.

RSVP to the events by signing up at Nick Gabaldon Day Registration.

The Black Surfers Collective, Heal the Bay, Surf Bus Foundation, Color the Water and the Santa Monica Conservancy, partner on the Nick Gabaldón Day programming to reach out to families in resourced challenged communities to inspire, engage and empower them through meaningful educational programming. We are helping build personal experiences with cultural, historical and nature heritage and civic engagement that are the foundation of stewardship, and the development of the next generation of civic, and heritage conservation and environmental leaders.

Heal the Bay Aquarium under the Santa Monica Pier will be free for all visitors in honor of Nick on Saturday, June 18 thanks to a grant from Northrop Grumman. A celebrity guest reader will pop in for story time and special art activities will be offered, as well as screenings of documentaries exploring issues of race, coastal access, and following your passion against all odds.

For more info and the schedule of events, visit Nick Gabaldon Day 2022. ,

Following a two-year pause due to the pandemic, Heal the Bay's Bring Back the Beach Gala is back.

Takes place at the Jonathan Club on the Beach in Santa Monica on June 2, 2022.

For more info and tickets, Click Here.