To the editor: The Venice Dell project was first conceived in 2016 (“In Venice Beach, it’s taken nearly a decade to not build low-income housing,” Feb. 15). The project would provide 120 units of housing for low-income and homeless people on a city-owned parking lot. The project was approved by the California Coastal Commission and twice by the Los Angeles City Council.
Many of us in the community have voiced strong support numerous times. But City Atty. Hydee Feldstein-Soto and Councilmember Traci Park (starting before she was even elected) chose to viciously oppose and obstruct this much-needed housing.
As the Venice Family Clinic’s Venice Art Walk chair for 25 years, I am most appreciative of the new permanent housing units that will be set aside for low-income artists, because Venice artists are a great gift to our community and many have been forced out by gentrification.
Since the project’s proposal, the main issue decried by some (mentioned by columnist Robin Abcarian) was the “look.” A new architecture firm was engaged to address their concerns.
As now designed, the Venice Dell project is not higher than adjacent buildings and has a soft new look with wooden siding. The building now fits well into the Venice landscape.
I would like to know if, with these adjustments, the real problem isn’t really “the look,” but some neighbors just don’t want “those people” to continue to live in this community.
Sheila Goldberg, Venice
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To the editor: It’s not only local officials who oppose the Venice Dell project. Many, many Venice residents oppose it as well.
Here are the problems: It will cost $1 million per unit, with 120 proposed units. It’s in a tsunami zone (no getting around that). It will at least temporarily displace families, with a four-unit complex needing to be torn down. And although the architect is famous, the project, with its brutalist style, doesn’t fit into the neighborhood.
Venice, being an epicenter of the homeless problem, does need housing for the homeless. But this is not the answer.
Mindy Taylor-Ross, Venice
