Venice

Venice is a small district in western Los Angeles, California. Famous for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk. Many times it is lined with performers and vendors. This is a year round tradition. It is very popular for walking and bicycling enthusiasts.

The neighborhoods are very unique in that they have their principal entries from pedestrian-only streets, and have house numbers on these footpaths. To gain access via a car there are alleys located in rear. This is a great way to encourage community involvement.

The popular Venice Beach includes the beach, the promenade that runs parallel to the beach ("Ocean Front Walk" or just "the boardwalk"), Muscle Beach, handball courts, paddle tennis courts, Skate Dancing plaza, numerous beach volleyball courts, a bike trail and the businesses and residences that have their addresses on Ocean Front Walk.

Downtown Venice hosts a variety of nightclubs, art galleries, and eclectic apparel shops occupying both its older brick and Art Deco storefronts and hyper-modern glass facades.

East Venice is a racially and ethnically mixed, residential neighborhood of Venice that is separated from Oakwood and Milwood (the area south of Oakwood) by Lincoln Boulevard, extending east to the border with Mar Vista, near Venice High School. Aside from the commercial strip on Lincoln (including the Venice Boys and Girls Club and the Venice United Methodist Church), the area almost entirely consists of small homes and apartments as well as Penmar Park and (bordering Santa Monica) Penmar Golf Course. The existing population (primarily composed of non-Latino whites, Latinos, and Asians, with small numbers of other groups) is being supplemented by new arrivals who have moved in with gentrification.

Venice has always been known as a hangout for the creative and the artistic. In the 1950s and 60s, Venice became a center for the Beat generation. There was an explosion of poetry and art. Major participants included Stuart Perkoff, John Thomas, Frank T. Rios, Tony Scibella, Lawrence Lipton, John Haag, Saul White, Robert Farrington and Philomene Long.

Some prominent residents of Venice include actresses Julia Roberts, Kate Beckinsale, Lana Clarkson and Anjelica Huston, actors Nicolas Cage, Tim Meadows, Robert Hegyes, Michael T. Weiss, Fairuza Balk, Taylor Negron and musicians Perry Farrell among a few.

Venice is today a vibrant area of Southern California and it continues a tradition of progressive social change involving prominent Westsiders. The Venice Family Clinic is the largest free clinic in the country. The Venice Community Housing Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the economic, racial and social diversity of Venice and the surrounding area, provides affordable housing, economic and community development opportunities and needed social services to low income residents. Women in Recovery, Inc., a non-profit organization offering a live-in, 12-step program of rehabilitation for women in need, was founded by a longtime resident of Venice, Sister Ada Geraghty. Geraghty and her organization on Coeur D' Alene Avenue annually honor those who've made a difference in helping women overcome substance abuse problems. The 2006 honoree for Women in Recovery was Christopher Lawford; past honorees have included Jamie Lee Curtis, Angela Lansbury, and Anthony Hopkins.