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Why The Venice Beach Skate Park Now Looks Like This
A drone shot captures the filled-in skate park on Venice Beach this Saturday. (Chava Sanchez / LAist)
Not everyone is observing COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. Ongoing offenders at the Venice Beach skate park pushed the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation to fill the park with sand. Caution tape alone failed as a deterrent.
We sent our visual journalist Chava Sanchez — who assures us he's wearing a mask and practicing physical distancing — to check out how the area is complying during the pandemic.
He says while police shooed away anyone near the skate park, he still saw lots of people in close proximity to one another.
"Several groups of people congregated, just sitting around and definitely not social distancing. A good amount of people just hanging out and about without face masks. The parking lots were closed, but there is plenty of street parking. And I saw a lot of people at the beach."
Shacked Magazine, which covers surfing, first reported Thursday that they'd spotted bulldozers near the popular skate park. They've documented the steps it took.
Here's a look at the park in normal times:
A young man jumps with his skateboard at Venice Beach in 2011. (Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images)
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