Why YSK: All beaches in California are public domain up to the mean high tide line with the exception of the beaches controlled by the United States Military. Although private properties may show obvious “No Trespassing” and/or “Keep Out” signs, they are in fact illegal and not allowed by the California Coastal Commission (CCC) - the body responsible for enforcing the California Coastal Act.
When the pandemic hit, a lot of the public areas were closed, like the Muscle Pit, the basketball and handball courts, etc, and the homeless who were already in the area took over those spots. But it seems to be much more than just a local response, and "tent cities" were set up on the beach, along the bike path, on the Boardwalk's related grassy areas, up and down the streets in the area (including some streets many blocks away from the beach), and several streets are lined bumper-to-bumper with beat-up RVs, more or less permanently parked, that are used by the homeless. There's tons of videos on YouTube that show how severe and widespread it is, but most don't say anything about why it is so concentrated at Venice Beach.
There was previous attempts to clean the area up, and the homeless moved right back in after the attempts were made. Now the city is trying to open it back up again and it moved everyone out once more, but where did all of the homeless people all come from and why was it so bad at Venice Beach and the surrounding area?
You get there and expect to have this great time but once you get there it’s really just:
Hard to park and costly
Getting sunburnt
Sitting uncomfortably with nothing to do
Getting sand everywhere
Not having great access to the bathroom
Not having great access to food (kind of quick camping?)
Being surrounded by rambunctious kids, or creepy guys, or some frisbee amateurs
Don’t recommend
