Venice Beach sucks
Posted on July 24th, 2008 in Rant | 5 Comments »
This weekend, I had the opportunity to see one of California’s original landmark, Venice Beach. Not surprising to say (at least coming from me), it was a big disappointment.
I am sure that back in it’s hay day, Venice Beach was a nice place with great sun, art, and street life. But on my visit, it was dirty, stinky, crowded with ghetto kids, and cheap. My main beef with Venice Beach is that it looked like a prison yard, minus the dirty restroom facilities (meaning prison probably has better restrooms). Besides the entertaining basketball game that was going on, the rest of the boardwalk made me want me to cling tightly on to my purse (if I had one).
However, I don’t think that the unfriendly environment at Venice Beach is unique. In fact, I would say that most of the beaches and boardwalk (ie. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk) I’ve seen in California are very undesirable places to visit. It is a sad reality that we have all these great natural wonders, yet we do not take care of them. We let graffiti get painted on the walls, garbage to collect on the streets, and shady characters loiter around the corner selling drugs and panhandling.
Perhaps if we spend more money cleaning up these natural resources, it could become a source of tourism income for the local economy.
But that’s just my opinion. Some people wouldn’t let stuff like this bother them. Me on the other hand, I won’t be coming back to Venice Beach any time soon.
5 Responses
Vinh, you should really change the name from Blog to RANT. Cuz thats all I’m reading. Bitch bitch bitch, just like at that holiday inn hotel!
uh i’ve never heard anyone complaining about venice. but then norcal ppl hate everything in socal anyway. i wonder why ppl want to go to socal (hint hint haha) in the first place when they know it isn’t their thing
and hey, at least we have beaches where we can bath in, unlike norcal right?
I live in LA and I absolutely HATE Venice Beach too. It is no longer the artistic mecca that it was meant to be. It is filled with ghetto thugs, alcoholics, drug addicts and overall filthy disgusting people with no class. It is not safe to take your family there at all. People let their dogs shit everywhere and have no respect for their fellow human beings. There is nothing peaceful or human about that place at all.
Los Angeles is my hometown, and while I love many parts of the city, I have to admit that Venice is an open sewer. Wannabe bohemians from the mid-west seem to like it (as long as mommy and daddy are paying for them to live in expensive, secured buildings). Homeless people and panhandlers also seem to have an affinity for Venice. As for self-respecting people who don’t enjoy filthy, overcrowded conditions, you won’t find many of them in Venice. If you’re coming to the L.A. area, check out some of the hidden gems of this region like the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the Old Bank District in downtown L.A., and Stony Point in Chatsworth.
did you really just say people should visit palos verders and chatsworth instead of venice?! venice is eclectic, to say the least and it’s still the same great place it always was. if you want scenic beauty, visit palos verdes, if you want strip clubs, visit chatsworth, if you want diversity, culture and some great beach hotels in L.A., visit venice.