The Brief

Venice has lived many lives, ever since a tobacco magnet hailed from New Jersey named Abbot Kinney set sight on a plot of saltwater marshlands 14 miles west of Los Angeles, and saw in its stead a vision of a seaside resort town carved in the image of a world-famous Italian city.

In 1905, Venice of America — as it was first christened — was born, replete with imported gandolas and miles of newly constructed canals.

Since then, the beach neighborhood went through an endless series of transformations to become an indelible part of Los Angeles. It was a short-lived oil town in the 1930s. A magnet for poets, artists and writers of the Beat Generation enticed by cheap rent and the temperate weather in the 1950s. It was in Venice Beach at 1965 where a chance encounter between Jim Morrison and his film school acquaintance Ray Manzarek gave birth to The Doors. All the while, another part of the sand was solidifying its place in history — as the home of bodybuilding.

Today, it is a destination for tourists to hit the funky boardwalk, for Angelenos to shop along the trendy Abbot Kinney Blvd, and a vital part of Silicon Beach. Of the many miles of canals built in the early 1900s, only a handful of them remain, now fronting multimillion-dollar homes.

A historical map of Venice of America, produced by the Abbott Kinney Company in 1905

(

Courtesy Library of Congress

)

Venice's very own museum

So, with such a vast and colorful history, where does a museum begin to capture the multitudes that is Venice?

"You can't contain it all," said Anthony Carfello, museum manager of the new Venice Heritage Museum, whose grand opening is this evening. "Every neighborhood has its stories, but Venice just has a lot of that."

An inaugural exhibition titled "This is some place" showcasing the many identities of Venice's past accompanies the space's debut. The phrase came from a message written in a postcard sent from Venice in 1913. It struck Carfello as the perfect summation of this definition-defying neighborhood.

Photocopy of antique postcard featuring Abbott Kinney, circa 1905

(

Courtesy Library of Congress

)

"We are not limited to art, but art is part of Venice's heritage. We are not limited to music, but music is part of Venice's heritage. We're not limited to historical discussions of land use, yet that is also part of Venice's heritage," said Carfello.

"Our opening exhibition looks at these kinds of moments and collects them as a way of looking at Venice, and to think about Venice as this place [that is] made up of many places," he continued.

Included in those stories are many that are lesser known, said historian Alison Rose Jefferson, who is also a boardmember of Venice Heritage Foundation.

"There's so much rich culture that Venice has to offer from the standpoint of not only the history, but the evolving life of the community," said Jefferson.

That includes people like Arthur L. Reese, who worked with Kinney after Venice was founded.

"He was one of the inspirations for many African Americans moving to Venice, he brought his brothers and sisters and his cousins, which would have been in the neighborhood of 50 people by the early 1920s," said Jefferson.

Early Venice, near the Lion and Grand Canals.

(

Courtesy Venice Heritage Museum Elayne Alexander Collection / Kinney Family

)

Or the story of an African American nonprofit called Project Action, which Jefferson said constructed a number of affordable housing in the late 1960s.

"Nobody really knows that. And we're going to showcase that in the opening exhibition," she said.

A passion project to document Venice's history

The project to document the histories of Venice in the form of a museum was launched in 2008 by the Venice Heritage Foundation, which comprises of historians, scholars and enthusiasts. A capital campaign started a few years ago raised some $300,000 for the permanent space on 228 Main Street.

Over the last decade and a half, the Foundation has built an impressive archive of personal items, mementos donated by those who've lived, played and worked in the 3-square mile area.

Original Venice Pier novelty image, circa 1920s.

(

Courtesy Venice Heritage Museum Community Archives via Dug Miller / Lisa Asterino

)

"You're going to be seeing family photos. You're going to be seeing hand-drawn posters that people put up," said Justin Yoshimaru, president of the Venice Heritage Foundation. "So really what you're looking at is a very personal and intimate collection [that has been] sourced from the community."

With change being the only constant, it's imperative that these stories be preserved for everyone.

"This museum is built for Venetians by Venetians, for them to tell their stories of living in Venice," said Yoshimaru, who was born and raised in Venice. "If you're new here, I want you to feel welcome, but I also want you to understand the history that you're coming into, so that you can be a good steward of this neighborhood and community."

Grand opening details

Venice Heritage Museum grand opening
Where: Main Street Design Center, 228 Main Street, Venice
When: Saturday, March 9, from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Free to the public, but tickets are recommended.

Topline:

The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

(

Destiny Torres

/

LAist

)

Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

(

Destiny Torres

/

LAist

)

Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.