Is Venice Beach Still Paradise? (Homeless Takeover?)
What comes to mind when I say Venice Beach? For many of you, it's the beautiful beach, it’s the path here, it’s the trinket shops, it’s the eccentric people. I'm Venice Beach! How you doing brother? You're looking good man like I told you 1 day at a time man. Keep it up brother, I'm proud of you man for real! You know everyone here pretty much? Yeah man. It's just out of the respect that I give, you know, I treat everyone equally. I don't treat you as black, white, yellow. I treat you as human
got you. We're all human. That's what we got. You know. that's what the world is about. You get back what you put out, right? That's it. That's it. What's going on out here, OG? Man, it's just.. What's the story in
Venice? So let's say.. I know this long term story about from pre-pandemic right now, what's going on? Pre-pandemic it all started off when their president, Mister Trump. He started travel ban. We lost 60% of our tourist, you know, tourist crowd - period. So that stopped it, and then the pandemic came and this is where it's just… It's been a downfall man. It's been bad. It's all bad right now. Now that the all hands off because you
can't touch a person's property without a search warrant. I'm like, but… it has to be a property that you would own! I would think, you know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, this is park property, state property, and you guys are just letting them run ragged. Now, this brother right here. Alright. I want you to get him into this. He's been out here for a minute. How long you've been living out here on the Boardwalk? 20 years. He lives on the boardwalk, like those apartments right there with a little… Oh, okay, not in a tent, but on the… no, No, he's he's got… A temple of the dog. What do you think about what's going on out here?
It's the most free Venice Beach has ever been. how do you feel about it? I feel inspired, grateful and it's ground zero for human evolution, so… the opportunity to shift and change things, there's a window open right now. How so? How's that shift and change? Basically, it's the Wild West. So if you have a vision, and you've got the will
power, and you have let God lead the way, you're always going to be at the right place, at the right time, with the right people in abundance and celebration, inspiration. You're an optimist. I'm aware. Okay, What story you want to listen to? You become what you think. It's the first time that you can actually bring a tent and legally be able to set it up and be protected by the law. Well, that's a whole opposite of my story. I'm just going to keep it real.
Doggism. Doggism and then Harry Krishna. I love you man. So OG, he was basically saying the opposite of what you were saying The whole opposite haha. I love him to death but umm.. That was bullsh*t, f*ck that, No one wants f*cking homeless here, that’s crazy. Im a recovery addict. Really? Yeah. From what? Lifestyle. Everything from crack… Well, alcohol, crack marijuana, gambling, sex, you know, those
type of things. All the vices. Yeah, I didn't like meth that sh*t was too much work. What the hell are y'all doing that? Yeah. Drop it like it's hot. I'm Derek. Thank you. No, it ain't the package I wanted no. I'm just kidding. Well, you're
clean, you're clean right. I am but sh*t don't mean I can't stop, no. I'm f*cking with you. And once the pandemic hit, it's when the police were more so hands off, you can check for yourself, you can look it up: They're tourists, but we need to be… This is the number one tourism destination in LA? It was the second: Disneyland and… okay. Alright, but yes, we
want the tourism, but we want This sh*t to get cleaned up for them to feel comfortable. Why would you want to take your little girl walk past that? Right. You know, I don't have anything against the homeless. Yeah. I feel that there's some that choose to live this way. There's some that need help. If you look closely, you see a lot of people talk to themselves. It's
not just the drugs. It's also people not taking their medicines or their meds. You know, it's people out here with serious issues, and they're just pushing them on the beach and leaving them be. If you're down here, you good. They have a bus to come pick em up at night when it gets cold, and then they'll drop them right back off here, you know. Why would you drop em off and not police them at the same time? How you doing sister? Good! It's always good to see you. How do you feel about
Venice Beach? Do you love it as much as I love it? I love it! And where you from. I'm from Russia. Russia. Well, she can see you. Man! Well, she's a tough cookie. Russian don't give a f*ck. They decriminalise drugs where it's not illegal. I mean
it's decriminalised to the fact, where you can walk around with a toast to an ounce of meth. Yeah! You know so… to walk around and you're high, and you walk around with drugs. You don't want to walk around. Yeah. People's kids, kids are seeing things that they shouldn't see out here, because the police are not doing their job. So the police are getting their orders from whom right now? From the city. You know, they told me to get on the council. Venice Beach Council. I'm like
Y'all. Don't do nothing. Y'all come out and talk, talk. From what I've learned, Los Angeles is a very sectioned off neighbourhood, like neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods. You know, they don't mix, but by them being hands off, somehow the word got out where other neighbourhoods comes out here and then it becomes a gang issue, you know, and then it becomes more dangerous and it's like… you know, it's just… Well, I’m staying in Hermosa Beach. Oh, you're fine. There are no homeless, so how does that work? That's what I'm saying! We got a store in Hermosa Beach also. You know and it's like…
Republicans will pay people to not go for that sh*t. They don't even try it. And I'm just saying why can't our police be like their police and not put up with it. It's like you can go right there to Malibu. You won't see that sh*t there, not even up that mountain. Either they don't know, it don't show or they don't care about us. Now you know they know because the show so what's
the last thing to say? They don't care. California politics - right out of the handbook. Even though I'm mad at Ice Cube right now, but he said that that's what's going to happen.
That's the worst because there are a lot of people like this place has been closed for the last year. The place on the corner has been closed for the last year. Several stores are now here are giving u,p they're closing. So now they say you're not supposed to have corporations in Venice Beach, but they let Ben and Jerry's here, they let Starbucks, so that's that means that law is no none existent. That means you come out here now. Now imagine: give it 2 years when they start to boom and Nike say I want a store out there. They can afford to buy this whole building and put one pair of shoes in there for sale and just hold the building till it starts to pump, then all the travelers are back. Then they say boom: we’re going to close
this building down for a month, build it to a Nike store. These are the companies that are looking at Venice with a close eye, saying we're going to come in and swoop up and then it's going to be 3rd Street promenade. I bet you none of this will be out here then. I bet you won't be out here then. So that's the biggest worry for you, small business owners, right? They're going to, we're going to get wiped out. If they keep letting this happen like this and we start, you know, because we're behind and run a little bit. Not much, thank God, but enough to say that if we don't make it this year, it might be our last year, but Nike's just waiting. Like, you got a nice size piece of
property, we come in there and just write it off. Love man. Respect. Thank you for your authenticity and your realness and just keeps it real. That's all I know. You know that's a real attribute these days. It's becoming rare and rare to find people that just speak your mind. You got to man. It's like you got to.
Treat people as you wish to be treated, every action has a reaction. If you're willing to deal with the consequences behind your actions, you have no one to answer to you. Stay true to yourself and respectful to others. It will show and
they will know. I hope you got something you can use man. Yeah. I hope to see you there. I'll give you my channel. Alright, let's go check out more of Venice here. How has Venice Beach changed in the last year or so? Honestly, the biggest changes is when Snapchat came in, I think. What happened was they bought up a bunch of businesses and like local stuff you feel one way or another about like money coming into a community, you know, but then they left and so it kind of just f*cked everything up, because they all the businesses are now gone. A lot of them were, that they bought up, and then like… it wasn't being built so come see us. Why did they
want to leave? I think they weren’t, they had like a few bad quarters. They were not making it anymore. Okay. How about the vibe of Venice has it changed much or is it still the same old Venice? I've been like moved away for a while, but it still feels pretty similar, like it doesn't feel that it. It feels like same spirit in a lot of ways, still very artsy community. I mean, of course, there's like, you know, more
tents and more stuff like that. But honestly, like these people have the best property in the world. So you know I like I'm not going to knock them too hard. Oh, yeah exactly. I will say California does a really good job keeping it's beaches clean. You know, over there not so much, but over here no trash out there in the sand. As OG said, it's legit
here, it's legal and nobody's going to do anything about it. But this doesn't seem like any sort of solution. You know what tourists are going to come here? Who's going to bring their kids here? As OG said some people prefer to be out here on the beach, where there are no rules. He was telling me there are no
rules, therefore, you know, there's no curfew, easy to do drugs, easy to sell drugs, easy to live whatever life you want. If you go into a home or, you know, city provided housing, there are rules and you can't live the same life, so a lot of this is by choice he was saying. Finished. Look, we got a nice grassy park,
perfect place for tents, but there aren't any, and it's basically in that one mile stretch. And then obviously they're getting removed from from this space. So what do you think is the future of Venice Beach? You think it's going to be… What do you expect, everybody's got a problem, issue. They're coming to the ocean or next to the ocean, to, you know, to stress out, to relax. You love it here? Of course, of course. The homeless stuff doesn't bother you or? Some of them they do, but what else we can do? 4 days ago outside of the building is a glass, it’s seven-eight big glasses, and then in the morning I was going to go to work. I said: wow, they’re broken,
completely! So we see that type of stuff, some of them they are right. They are real homeless. They are very quiet, very understanding some of them very very, very intellectual, but some of them they're taking advantage of the homeless. When the food is coming, they're coming. It’s fine, I’m saying that, I mean that they choose to be homeless because we have Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, 6 days a week food is coming here, free food, and then some people from the Malibu rich people they bring them in the blanket, and you just name it. I mean they're for women and men. They give it
away. They give away tents. And those people they're taking advantage and say, okay. Why should I work 216 in the year and the is coming free? Why should I go to the apartment to pay for all the expenses? Why should I get that responsibility? Most of them look at the how strong they are, healthy and strong, 208 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:40,960. So you're saying some people are here are honestly homeless, other have mental issues, drug issues… Exactly! And some are just working off the system. Yeah, some of them some of the young people sometime I'll talk to them, I said: can I ask you a question? If you don't mind tell me why are you, why are you homeless? One of them very honest, two of them actually said: yeah, I used to be involved with drugs, and my parents they asked me if we give you a $1,000 a month get out, don't be a part of the family. The parents give him a $1,000? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Get out of the home.
Can I turn the camera on you guys chilling? Yeah. What's going on tonight? Chilling, smoking, trying to make $10 by this guy's art. We live out here. Where? The beach. Beach here? On the beach there. So is it like good community out here? Yes. Well, mostly. No, it's not our badge. Don't go pass roads. People don't like it. Don't go
pass where roads? That's up there. Yeah, we call it Methlehem. Methlehem? Yeah, don't go there don't go to Methlehem, all about Methlehem because that's where all the tweakers live. Yeah. Wow. So the tweakers stay together? Kind of, yeah. There's a few tweakers down out here, but mainly they are right there. So what do you guys want you guys want to stay here for a while you think? You're lucky as sh*t out here? I have a quote to say: if you live in Venice… If you live in Venice, there will always be free weed and food, free weed and food. Like yeah, feeding each
other, everybody else. Like people come out, they give out free food, people walk by you. We eat well! He holds it up, people hand him $20 prerolls, $50 prerolls we. Right, I'll tell you what though, right here it’s $60 dollars every time the cop shows. The rent is $60?
You gotta pay the cops? Every time the cop shows up - the $60 ticket. It's $60 hey, but I'd rather be paying that to live out here in the tent. I'd rather pay that sixty to live at the tent than pay 1.5 or 600 thousand for a house out here. It cost too much out here. Wait, wait so $60. You get a ticket, how often do they come and get tickets? Well, I got 3 today. Today? Today. So it can get expensive? They pay the ticket at the where, the shelter? It's like validated parking. See you
guys are making a lot of friends out here with the ladies. Yeah, sort of. As we go, what's your fail ratio? 96% of the time. It's about a 96-98%. You fail 100% of the time? You won last night. Who cares man you got the charm and you got the confidence in his face. A lot of girls man. You just gotta pull the confidence and smile at them.
You said he had a chick last night right. Yeah. So you're she kind of left in the middle of the night came over to the other tents, Cowabunga dude, but bro got to cuddle for a bit. Yeah, you had a little cuddle time. Yeah. Alright. She actually ended up sleeping next to this one. Hi! I got mine. Hi! Hello! She's behind you. Oh, hi! Hey yo y’all. What you doing today? Hey, OG! Alright guys, good talking. Good talking man. Good luck with everything. Peace babe. Who's OG. He's OG
Take care! Take care guys, all the best. Alright guys, we're going to call it quits here. Finish up on a few thoughts. Venice has always been an interesting place, that has not gone away. You do not get bored here. It's
stimulating and this homeless situation is complex, and as you could see from what I ran into, there's not one story. You know, those young guys - they're out here having a good time together and I think it's. An adventure I think it's like a feeling of being connected to friends. Others are tweaking out on drugs. Others are… I don't know all the stories, but
there are many stories you can't put one label to it. It's gray. It's not a black and white situation here like pretty much everything in life. Alright until the next video take care.
2021-05-19 07:43
