VENICE BEACH BOARDWALK COALITION SPOKESWOMAN RUNS FOR CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY 2010

Her name is Green, her vision is Green and she's the only Green Party candidate running for the 53rd District in the 2010 State Assembly election. Here are just a few of the issues on Lisa's agenda:

• Single Payer Healthcare - Providing healthcare for all with a balanced, holistic approach....

• Marriage Equality- Every person should be able to marry regardless of sexual orientation ...

• Marijuana Sales Tax/Grow Industrial Hemp -Tax sales of marijuana to adults & grow hemp to increase revenues...

• Amend Proposition 13 - Adopt the split-roll property tax system....More  

Venice stakeholders interested in fair and honest representation in the Venice Neighborhood Council please join the newly formed Stakeholders of Venice group on Facebook.

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SANTA MONICA STREET PERFORMERS FIGHT FOR PERMIT

By Jorge Casuso

Fearing a court decision in Seattle could reap discord in Santa Monica, street performers on the Third Street Promenade are banding together to defend a local ordinance that requires a City permit to perform on the popular walk street.

More than 60 performers have signed a petition showing "strong and unwavering support" for the 12-year-old ordinance, which could be tested after a U.S. appellate court last month ruled that a Seattle law regulating street performers violates the First Amendment.

The petition was circulated after two dozen performers held an impromptu meeting Saturday and agreed that the Seattle law could reap chaos on Santa Monica's carefully orchestrated rules governing street performers on the Promenade, the Pier and the Downtown Transit Mall. "The consequences of not needing a permit could be devastating," said Steven Bradford, the Bayside District's venue manager, who is in charge of monitoring street performers Downtown.

"Everything we do here is based on the fact that you have to have a permit." Santa Monica police have stopped enforcing the provision in the local law that requires performers to obtain a $37 permit renewable each year. Although more than 500 permits have been issued this year, only about 50 performers are regulars on the Promenade, officials said.

Bradford fears performers without a permit won't know the rules that have helped make the Promenade a venue that draws performers from
other countries to display their talents before the estimated 10 million visitors who flock to the strip each year.

In addition to requiring a permit, the law regulates the volume of a performance and makes sure performers move every two hours at least 120 feet and are no closer than 40 feet from another performer and ten feet from store doorways and vending carts.

Although the Seattle ruling does not affect those restrictions, Bayside officials and performers fear it will be difficult to maintain order if anyone can simply claim a spot and start to play.

With a permit, says performer Rade Zone, "I have at least a little bit of control."

One of the fortunetellers on the strip forecasts trouble if the City is forced to drop its permit requirement.

"Being a psychic, I can tell you it's not going to be a good thing," she said.

The June 24 Seattle ruling, which could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, struck down a seven-year-old law that required permits
and restricted activity to designated spaces in the Seattle Center, an 80-acre park and entertainment complex.

The law was challenged by a balloon artist who argued it violated his rights to free speech. Berger won the case in U.S. District Court in 2005, but the City of Seattle appealed the decision.

While there are significant differences between the Seattle and Santa Monica laws and the locations they govern, the permit provision
applies to both cases, City officials have said.

Local performers think the permit provision is worth fighting for.

Requiring a permit, the petition says, "promotes community and cohesion" in "the world's beast street performance venue."

More on this issue from Santa Monica Daily Press

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One year later, Los Angeles Police Department detectives are still trying to sort out a murder mystery on Venice Beach.

Who killed a man found buried in a mound of sand along the boardwalk? The Times' Homicide Report has taken a new look at the case:

Nathan Alan Morgan was found beaten to death and buried under a mound of sand shortly before 8 a.m. on March 10, 2008. Morgan’s battered body was discovered by a Parks and Recreation employee in an area of Venice Beach known as the drum circle. Paramedics called to the scene pronounced him dead. More than a year after his killing, the circumstances surrounding his death remain hazy. Morgan's body was discovered just hours after he had been treated in Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center's emergency room for an injury to his left elbow. Coroner’s records show that he told hospital officials he had hurt himself while “doing gymnastics drunk.”

Los Angeles Times - Read the full story here.

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