By Greta Cobar A lifeguard driving an L.A. County truck accidentally ran over a sunbather on September 15 at 4:25 pm near the intersection of Ocean Front Walk and Venice Blvd. Twenty-five year old Loraine Bermudez of Whittier suffered fractures and internal injuries, and was immediately transported to a hospital. Her injuries are not life-threatening....

Jim Smith – Venice Peace Park Rachel Gomez – Venice Beach Drum Orchestra Laura Shepard Townsend – Hail the Beachhead! Vernon Courteaux – Unjust OFW Ordinance ——————————————— Dear Beachhead, One of the great things about the Free Venice Beachhead is the sense of continuity and history that it gives to readers. Venice has had a...

By Krista Schwimmer Update on August 7th Boardwalk Beating Last month, the Beachhead reported on the LAPD’s tazing and beating of Arrington Samuel Calhoun – a disabled, African-American, homeless man who had simply been sleeping under an umbrella, according to several witnesses. With the help of Nazareth Haysbert, an attorney at Khorrami Boucher, LLP, we...

By Roxanne Brown, Member – Stop 600 Mildred & Concerned Neighbors of 320 Sunset VENICE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL (VNC) MEETING – SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 KIM’S MARKET – VNC reviewed proposed conversion of Kim’s Market to restaurant with liquor license. CROWD: Standing room only –mostly opposition. CAR JUMPS CURB: Alicia Searle (new owner of Kim’s Market) told...

By Krista Schwimmer Throughout the world, birds have been revered as gods and goddesses, messengers and teachers, omens and signs. Whole systems of divination have revolved around their movement. They have inspired us to sing, to soar, and to dream. In many indigenous cultures, birds are part of what the Ojibway call, the totem system....

By Laura Shepard Townsend While it is essential that we must all do our best to instigate drought strategies here in Southern California, it seems the answers, especially here in Venice, are bordering on a simplistic formula: the systematic destruction of plantings. Unfortunately this seems to be simultaneous with the destruction of so many of...

By Marty Liboff After Abbot Kinney opened his amazing Venice of America in 1905 with beautiful Italian Renaissance style buildings and miles of canals, he dreamed of bringing fine culture to L.A. He built an auditorium on his new pier at Windward Ave. and planned fine arts with opera, classical music and Shakespeare. He managed...

By Greta Cobar Talk of a possible sale of our historic Venice Post Office started in March 2011 and was followed by an unprecedented community unity in our efforts to keep it a public institution. Rallies, petitions, media attention and dozens of articles published in the Beachhead did not eventually stop the sale. Movie producer...

By Suzanne W. Zada This is a re-print from the December 2007 edition of the Beachhead After working and studying in Paris during the late twenties, Edward Biberman returned to the United States. The European critics had discovered him and it did not take long for the New York art writers to detect his skill...

By Krista Schwimmer Did you know that the first S.W.A.T. Team was created in Los Angeles in 1966? Or that you are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer then by a terrorist attack? That the origins of the police department stem from slave and Native American patrols? These facts, and...