Venice: Planned Refurbishing of City’s Oceanfront Area

I find it extraordinary that you continue to publish the diatribes of Jerry Rubin regarding the refurbishment of the oceanfront in Venice. As countless of us residents, taxpayers and contributors to the Conservancy workshops have written you, Jerry Rubin’s ideas (Letters, March 12) were overruled by the vast majority. We gave up mammoth blocks of our time to agree, finally, that Venice Beach needed new safe restrooms, better lighting, and an improved boardwalk surface with accommodations for skaters and walkers separate and equal. We agreed to disagree about the Pavilion, and left it specifically out of the Prop. A funds, which we barely managed to eke out of the hands of the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy, which wanted all of it.

Many of us, including myself, would like to see the Venice Arts Mecca flourish. Many of us have also seen countless numbers of great ideas such as this die at the Pavilion, probably because the building is damp, cold and has horrific acoustics.

It is time the Prop. A funds were released to start construction before the price of lumber triples again, and all the money we won for Venice is down the inflation tube.

DIANA HOBSON

Venice