(upbeat music)
– Good morning, guys.
Iconic Venice Beach, I did
a video here two years ago,
capturing the feel and vibe of the place.
Now, I’m back here
2023, doing a follow up,
seeing what’s changed, if anything.
And from first impressions,
I can already see quite a big change,
but we never know until
we talk to the locals.
So that’s what we’re gonna do.
We’re gonna walk around
down this very fascinating,
unique sliver of America
and see what’s going on.
Let’s do this.
(upbeat music)
The famous Muscle Beach
where Arnie used to come out.
– We as humans, we are
all souls and young faces
from the land where we was
created with the culture view.
So if you stay one place too long,
you get burned out too smart.
That’s how we say you drown
without touching water.
I can go up on that wall
and give you 25 handstand pushups
and as respect to my action, look.
(upbeat reggae music)
– [Peter] Oh, wow, wow.
– [Peter] Wow.
(upbeat reggae music continues)
– 10.
– [Peter] Jeez.
– 20.
(upbeat reggae music continues)
30.
– [Peter] How old are you?
– 56, age is a number of years.
– All right, we’re
talking five minutes in.
And that’s what I love about Venice Beach.
There’s all types of backgrounds.
Everyone just sort of doing their thing.
And there’s a life here.
(upbeat music)
– Hey, here to stay, ah!
Wait, let’s get a groove on.
Oh, and she’s next, come on.
Hey, hey, hey, oh, she
ain’t scared to party.
Here to stay, hey, hey!
– [Peter] Oh, he’s twerking,
he’s twerking!
– Hey, hey.
(people laughing)
That’s what I’m talking
about, where you from?
– Alabama.
– Alabama.
– He’s the California
state twerking champion.
– No, really?
– Just got into competition.
Hey, I give you a 7 outta 10.
– Thank you.
– That’s what I’m talking about.
– Last time I was here,
this was just full of tents.
– [Darick] All tents.
– All tent city here.
Well, you had a little swath
in front of your building because…
– Well, we ended up
getting rid of all that,
because we had the community come together
and had to be hands on, we filled up life.
– You had to be hands on,
that’s a nice way of saying.
– Yeah, you gotta go.
There’s several ways of being homeless,
but if you’re out here doing drugs
and not doing anything for anybody
and just doing drugs all day in a tent,
no, you gotta go.
– Okay, so the city has removed all that.
– The city, well, they had
the sheriffs come out here
and made a big thing, there
were like the sheriffs,
like 12 of ’em walking down the boardwalk.
And then the sheriff was
coming down here saying,
“We’re gonna clean up the beach,”
When LAPD couldn’t do it,
but you passed a law
where LAPD was hands off.
Prop 47, like I was saying.
– For those that don’t know,
Prop 47 in California is…
– Is it is where that you can
all theft under $950 is a misdemeanor.
– Okay.
– So that means you go to a store,
snatch a bunch of clothes and run off,
and if it’s under $950.
– We could do it right now.
– You can do it right now.
– Go grab the Playboy sweatshirts,
some other stuff.
– Run down the street,
the police can grab me.
He’ll follow me, get the police involved.
I’ll be out by the time
they finish the paperwork.
– And that’s that.
– And you the thief
will be out by the time of…
– They finish the paperwork.
– What do you mean you’re out?
– That means that…
– Actually, they bring you
into the jail or what?
– They can arrest you for theft,
but you will be out with a ticket.
– No consequences?
– No consequences.
And if you’re homeless,
and you’re doing this
and they give you a ticket,
what the hell you care?
Like a lot of these guys
get open container tickets.
I mean, if you look up the tickets
that’s been written on Venice
Beach, and they’re unpaid,
because first of all, I’m a transit.
I’m going to give you a fake name,
because you don’t
necessarily have to have ID.
They just give you a name
and they give you a
ticket and they’re gone.
– Okay, so that
disincentivizes the policemen
from actually, catching
the person because why,
why would you even bother if
they’re just gonna get out?
– It makes your job 10 times harder.
And then you gotta realize
with the camera’s going up,
there’s bad cops out there.
– Yeah.
– Let’s get real.
– [Peter] Sure.
– There’s bad cops, but it has-
– There are bad YouTubers,
me being one of ’em.
– No, no, you’re pretty
good, people like you, man.
– Some my videos suck,
but I’m not saying there’s bad everything.
– Well, there it is,
but in today’s society
where everybody’s pulling out
a camera before they help you,
the police get involved.
And if they say one wrong thing,
you might have been a cop for 15 years,
you might be next to a cop
that does something wrong,
all those cops are gonna get written up
under the same thing, and
you can lose your pension.
– Okay.
– You know, if you working-
– Yeah.
– 15 years as a cop
before it came like this,
and you went through all the trials
and tribulations of the street,
and then all of a sudden
it takes one video
and you lose that, so cops are like…
– Yeah, you’re gonna be hesitant.
– When you get out on a call, you like,
you gotta know how to act
or see who’s watching you,
because you might be
in danger of your life,
but no one sees that part.
(gentle guitar music)
You know, that’s what Venice
originally was popular for.
When I first got out here nine years ago,
man, it’d be artists, it’d
be vendors and things,
and people were just out.
Man, if you look at the videos from 2013,
it was packed out here
and people were having fun
and people were making money.
You know how hard it is to
hire someone out here now?
Kids do not wanna work.
– What’s with that?
– They want to be Insta-famous,
because all these Instagram
and little YouTubers and stuff,
they’re making grip.
But it’s like every kid say,
“Well, instead of working
hard to make some money,
I can just make me a couple of videos.”
– Yeah, yeah, but it
doesn’t work like that.
You have to grind like crazy before you’re
making money like this.
– But no one’s told
these kids that.
– It’s taken me years,
years.
– It’s no one’s told
these kids-
– [Peter] Work for free.
– that are 15, that it’s gonna take time
before you ever get these views
that you’re looking for.
– Right, do 100 videos,
long form videos for free.
You might hump at it for two years,
no money, no guarantee.
Most likely it’s not gonna go anywhere.
– All right, but see.
– [Peter] So that’s the risk.
– You’re doing this from
the other side of saying,
“This is what it took me to make it.”
– [Peter] Yeah.
– But no one is explaining
to these kids, all they thinking about
is views, views, views.
– [Peter] Okay, so to get
work is next to impossible.
– No, they’re not working,
they’re not working.
You can even look at how McDonald’s
willing to pay $20 an hour.
(helicopter droning)
– No Europeans are here right now.
– None.
– Right?
– None, but you don’t see Europeans.
You don’t see Asians either.
– Yeah, these are locals, mostly
LA locals right now, right?
– Well, they’re United States locals,
you know what I’m saying?
There’s not too many tourists.
Everybody’s scared, and then we had
the big smash and grab thing
that went on during the pandemic.
– That story is not being told so much.
It’s the small business owner having
to deal with this, right?
– It’s not,
we’re the last to be talking about it.
Are you hungry, you want a cup of coffee
or you wanna have an empanada?
– [Peter] Yeah, let’s do it,
let’s do it, bro, let’s do it.
– [OG] Watch out for these but****s,
they don’t do nothing.
Those are but****s people,
they’re always messing
with me, they never!
Watch out for my toe, buddy,
watch out for my toe, buddy!
– Darick, what are you filming?
– Hey man, this is Peter.
– [Peter] How you guys doing?
– This is Rudy.
This is cop “Sui”,
(Darick laughing)
these are two of the
coolest cops out here.
They’ve been out here for years.
Oh, oh, they can’t comment on that.
– How is it, guys, right now,
crime up, down, in the middle?
– I think it’s down at the beach
is not compared to like the
last two years, it was crazy.
– Yeah, and what’s the best
beat in the state of California?
– Venice Beach.
– There you go, baby.
God, whoa, somebody’s just hurting, Phil.
Oh, they’re going to an
accident, get to work!
– How you doing?
– [Peter] Good, how you doing, man?
– What’s this show, you doing a show?
– [Peter] Oh yeah, yeah.
– That’s cool.
– [Peter] Thank you, bro.
– Hey, this is Peter.
Everything empanada, that’s Rico.
Look at him, why don’t
you gimme some sh**?
Hey, who got the best
empanadas in the country?
– Rico’s Empanadas,
if you don’t like ’em, you don’t pay.
– If you don’t like, you don’t pay.
Hey, that’s a challenge.
– [Peter] Whoa, all right.
All right, I wanna do that.
– [OG] All right,
what kind you want?
Oh sh**, oh, what?
Every time they see a Black man.
– I know he’s got a warrant.
– You got on your walking shoes?
– May wanna check on them down that way.
There’s something going on.
– Really? What’s something,
what’s happening?
– There’s something going on.
No, just a guy pushing another
guy down on the ground.
– [Officer] Okay, we’re going over there.
– And some yelling, yeah.
– Hey, yeah, yeah.
– [Peter] Is it pretty bad?
– He looked a little…
Yeah.
It wasn’t as bad that
I was gonna call 911,
but I was like, if I see someone,
maybe I should just let ’em know.
– What’s happening, girl?
– [Peter] On a 1 to 10
Venice bad, where is it at?
– It was like a six.
– [Peter] Okay.
– Yeah.
– But in the last two years,
from two years ago to now?
– It was maybe a seven.
– It was maybe a seven.
– Yeah.
– How you doing, mama?
– I’m good, how are you doing?
– You know I love you.
– I know.
– Bro, I love your YouTube.
– [Peter] Thank you, bro,
thank you, how you doing?
– Hold on, you went see the Jews…
I remember, I see that.
– [Peter] Yeah.
– You take your first bite.
– Hold on.
– Thank you, guys.
– [OG] All right.
– Thank you.
– Take care.
– See you in Florida, man.
– [OG] Venice empanada with sauce.
– Okay.
– [OG] All right.
Your honest opinion.
– It’s very doughy, very doughy, soft.
Mmm mm.
– [OG] There you go.
All right, told you it was good.
– Tender chicken, some onions in there.
What else?
– It’s like its own ecosystem.
– [OG] There you go.
– There’s a whole living species in there.
– I don’t give out plugs,
but give it up, Rico’s Empanadas.
You can turn it off, I guess.
I don’t know how.
Is it good?
– It’s good.
– I like the seasoning.
– [Peter] You don’t want one?
– [OG] No, that’s for you, bro.
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Now, back to the video.
– We made more money during
the pandemic than we are now,
because they was getting free money.
Am I right?
When the pandemic, when they
had all the free checks,
they were spending money
like it was hot cakes.
– [Peter] So it’s slower now
than during the pandemic?
– What’s up?
– [Peter] Wow.
All right, thanks sir.
– So yeah, man, that was one of our best,
other than from two years prior.
That was one of the best years we had
is when they were getting the free money.
(upbeat rap music)
– They’re going for it.
Make some noise everybody.
That’s not easy.
(upbeat music)
We got Chico the Haitian sensation.
Hey, you get a free lap dance.
– That’s awesome.
– Now on a busy day, that
whole hill will be covered.
Oh-oh, they’re pulling up on the tent.
See now that’s what they used to do.
There you go.
They own a tent…
– That’s what happens.
Someone will set up a tent pretty quickly
and then they come over.
– And they need to come
over and remove ’em.
Tell ’em they can’t set up a tent here,
because it’s against the law.
If you look at the sign
that’s set up over there,
there’s no camping on beach property,
which is a state park.
– Okay, so how do you, where do they go?
Like what do you do to
say, get outta here?
– Well, you can’t set up,
you can break that tent down
and walk around with a tent all day.
No one’s in there.
But see, they can’t go into that tent.
– They can’t go into it?
– Because it’s, what they call it?
It’s a livable condition where you have
to have a warrant to go in there.
– You have to have a
warrant to go in there?
– Yeah, it’s like an apartment.
You know, police can’t go into the tent
that’s the rules.
You know, these are laws that are set up
where they couldn’t go in that tent,
because it’s a domain.
So they can’t actually
like open up the zipper
and go in there without a warrant.
– And there could be all
sorts of weird stuff going on.
– Oh, man.
But they used to not even
let that happen that door up.
Tent go up? Oh, you gotta move that.
Or they’ll have somebody come pick it up.
They don’t move it anymore.
– So what do you think they’re doing now?
They’re gonna take it down?
– Well, there’s nobody in there,
so they couldn’t tell ’em to move.
If nobody’s in their
tent, they gotta go away.
They’re not gonna stay here and
wait for a person to return.
– Okay, so they gotta go
away and come back later.
– And hope to see someone there.
– Only once someone’s here
can they do anything with the tent?
Wow, that makes it hard.
– Yeah, it does.
This used to be a 30
unit where this fence is.
– Oh, up there.
– A 30 unit apartment complex
that’s been out here for years.
What happened to it?
Someone in their tent was cooking meth.
– Oh, that’s nice.
– They burned the whole
building down, bro.
And it is not even only happening here.
If you can hear about
over there at the canals,
they burnt two five
multi-million dollar home down.
See how they setting up plants so
no one can put the tents
right there no more.
– Okay.
– But that’s happening
all over the city where…
– So, are tent’s coming in?
Or is it…
– Not as much,
’cause we cleaned it up.
– So you have to keep on it though?
– You have to keep on it.
– You gotta get ’em
before they even set up.
These guys, they been out here for years.
They’re more respectful.
They’re from Venice.
All those guys over
there, they’re from here.
So, they’ll clean their stuff up.
And it’s not about how they
set up, it’s where they set up.
The ones that set up in
front of people’s businesses,
they don’t care.
These guys, they keep
all their stuff in there.
They stay over there and when
they leave their stuff leave.
– They leave at night?
– Yeah, they mostly, they
leave before the nightfall.
Everybody’s coming out here,
because of the housing situation.
They’re giving away apartments right now.
You see where a lot of homeless are gone,
because they gave ’em a hotel over here
with two years free rent.
– Just if you’re homeless?
– If you’re homeless,
you go through a process.
– Okay.
– And they giving you a room for two years
before you can be placed
into permanent housing.
That’s the main thing about homelessness,
you can go right now
to the homeless shelter
and have a room.
You can have a shower,
you can have food if
you follow their rules.
– Okay, so anyone that’s sort of,
well, there’s a guy
out there on the beach.
Let’s just say for an example, right?
If someone pitches a tent, maybe not here,
maybe a couple streets in,
they actually have the opportunity
to get a place to stay here.
– Yeah.
– Everybody?
– Anybody, if you follow their rules.
Go through the shelter…
– Okay, but following their
rules means off drugs.
In at a certain time, right?
– Well, no,
it’s more so of in at a certain time.
Don’t bring drugs on the property.
– Okay.
– How hard is that to follow?
(dog barking and metal music playing)
– Dogs getting in on the jam.
– But see, now those are guys
that are more so like
artists and guitar players
and people with some type of talent.
– Sure.
– They’ll be gone.
They’re not gonna set up a tent.
– Yeah.
– They’re just out here
doing the Venice thing
where it’s freedom.
– ‘Cause Venice has always
been that quirky, expressive.
– Be what you want, be who you want,
and you get to express
yourself to the fullest.
This is one of Venice locals.
– Okay.
– All right.
– How you doing? Peter.
– Peter, how are you, man?
– What can we do about
the homeless situation in your opinion?
– Look, it got really
bad during the shutdown.
I mean, it was a f***** crazy show.
– Right.
– And it’s better than that.
(laughing)
– One day at a time.
One day at a time.
– But they’re working on it.
Karen Bass, man.
– She’s pretty good, I
will tell him about that.
– She’s actually doing something.
When I first got here, it was probably
like mid nineties, or something like that.
I think you had your more normal drunks.
– [Peter] Okay.
– People that you could
have a conversation with
at least some of the time
when they weren’t totally inebriated.
And you remember, Eddie?
– Yeah.
– That’s somebody you can live with.
(OG laughing)
– But today is…
– He was a nice guy.
He’d sing, sing some Doors songs.
He was too drunk some of the time.
Okay, but this is a new level.
This “Walking Dead” thing.
It’s a new.
– When did the “Walking Dead”
thing start would you say?
– Well, I think it’s a meth problem.
I think that meth is
melting people’s brains.
– [Peter] Fentanyl, right?
– That’s relatively new.
I think they’re putting that in everything
just ‘cause it’s super cheap
and they’re buying it
from China or whatever.
– [Peter] Yeah.
– And they’re just putting it
in things to get people high.
But meth as far as I
understand was a real problem.
And then there’s a newer, cheaper,
more destructive form of meth
going around in the last,
maybe five years or something.
– Five years.
– I don’t know.
– [Peter] So, it’s really
the last five years
you’ve seen that “Walking
Dead” vibe happening?
– Yeah, it’s gotten worse.
And they seem to just show up.
There’s a certain number
of them just showing up.
It’s always good to see you, bro.
– All right, homie.
– Respect, yeah.
– So you can tell who’s been around?
You know all these guys that
have been around here forever?
– Yeah.
– How long you been down here?
– Nine years.
– Nine years.
– And you got the title OG?
– Yeah.
– Manage to pull that one, huh?
– Well, yeah, it was like, you know,
I call it the old guy,
but it’s OG outta respect,
because I treat everybody equally.
You know, no matter what
color you are…
He’s a home homeboy.
Like he’s a homie and he respect me.
And I don’t like pick and choose people.
I treat everyone, even the
homeless, even the addicts,
because I’m a recovering addict myself.
– [Peter] Okay.
– So I treat everyone equally.
I know what they, what
they’re going through,
but it’s a way of going through it.
With all this help that
they’re offering out here,
it’s up to you to take it.
But you have to have a respect with it.
Seeing this every day is a reminder that
I’m only one drink or one joint away
from being homeless and acting crazy.
– So, having mental services
is huge to all this?
– Because you have to really…
– Treatment centers, mental service
– Mental service, mental
is more right now,
because it seems like everybody
in this generation that’s coming up,
oh, I got PTSD and da da.
They’re crying about, oh, I have issues.
You’re f***** 14, how can you have issues
or realize that you have issues
and you haven’t been through anything?
Big pharmaceutical companies
pushing out these drugs
and saying, well, oh.
All right, 10 years ago
did you hear about PTSD
other than for military people?
Now, everybody got it.
It’s like every child has it.
It’s like you were born with it,
it came out of nowhere.
I understand if you’ve been
through tragic conditions
and you’ve been through
a hard life like I have,
and you have done some things
that might give you that
or have been through things
that have given you that.
It’s like these kids haven’t
been through anything.
But all of a sudden I’m
labeled as, you know, why?
Come on!
All right, this is Prairie.
This is one of my Venice kids.
That’s why they call me OG,
because I adopted all of ’em.
I was the first one to
get on the skateboard.
– Now, she be thrashing.
– Fact.
– He’s just like the dad of the boardwalk.
Everyone knows him, he’s OG.
He’s always been there.
– As far as you coming up out here,
you’re born and raised, you’re “Venice”,
what do you think of
the homeless situation?
– I think it’s sad.
I mean, it’s gotten so much better though.
Like seriously, it used to be
all throughout like the beach,
everywhere, like literally everywhere.
It’s definitely gotten
so much better in my opinion.
But it’s still super bad.
Obviously, on roads
and stuff, it’s still like,
it smells so bad over there sometimes.
– [Peter] There’s some strong
scents in the alleyways, yeah.
– It’s horrible, yeah.
It’s bad, but you
can’t really control…
It’s Los Angeles.
– I think skating is the
best thing for the youth.
You know why?
Because it teaches you face
plants and consequences
and like eating sh**.
– 100%.
– Do you do a backside boneless?
That’s from the 80s?
– Oh yeah, that’s some old school stuff.
– That’s some old school sh**.
I could do that, but I don’t
wanna be that guy right now,
and f*** up my back.
– Well, she’ll take you over
there and give you a board,
you know what I’m saying?
(upbeat rap music)
– Is there a hierarchy here
or there’s like a respect
for the old school people
or the locals that grew up here?
Or how does it work?
– Well, everybody…
All right, so for me to
be out here nine years,
everybody knows me.
And like I say, I treat everyone equally.
Prairie’s protected,
because she’s in the skater,
she’s in the skater group.
– She’s protected, like no
one’s gonna mess with her?
– If a homeless person
was to mess with her
or grab her or something,
you would see 90%, 80% of
this beach take care of her.
– Okay, so people are watching
out for each other here.
– Yeah, well, like I said,
I’ll give a shout out to a foundation
called Helper Foundation,
which they are a community.
I mean a community group
where they patrol the area.
You might see all this craziness going on,
but you don’t see
tourists getting bothered.
It’s an unwritten rule where
you don’t mess with the tourists.
– And you can tell a tourist a mile away.
– Yeah, yeah, yeah.
– So, it’s okay to bring kids down here?
– It’s okay to bring kids down here.
And like I tell ’em, I say,
the only thing you watch
for it is the people
that are walking around
talking to themselves.
Because those are the
people with mental issues
and they’re, you know…
– Seen quite a few of those today.
– Yeah, and you don’t
know what they’ll do.
– Because they’re not in their right mind.
– Yeah.
– But as far as someone you know…
And since the prop 47 has
been kicked into place,
there has been people coming
from other places to mess with people.
So there has been, as
far as the unseen wars,
where people coming out
here to rob people or something
has been taken care of by the people
that are born and raised around here.
– So unseen wars, so a tourist,
there are many layers here, right?
– Right.
– So the tourist comes through,
they’re seeing this top surface layer.
They’ll never have to experience
or really understand that stuff.
But you said unseen, so
the people living here…
– And the gang bangers, you know.
– And the gang bangers.
– And the gang bangers that are,
there’s Mexican and Black gangs,
which don’t mess with tourists
and don’t let no one else mess with them.
They don’t want the bad
name to be brought on Venice
to ever do whatever they doing.
How long have you been here?
– A week.
– A week?
– Yes.
– And where are you from?
– Egypt.
– And what do you think-
– [Peter] Wow.
– of Venice Beach?
– It’s amazing.
(OG laughing)
– Honestly, I love the
diversity here in America.
It’s the best thing I love about America.
Especially, here in California.
– The diversity?
– Yeah, the diversity.
You see a lot of people, a lot of culture.
People are nice, I like it here.
Ooh!
That’s what I’m talking about.
Thank you baby.
You know we you do it?
– I got you.
– [Peter] That was awesome.
– [Peter] How are you doing?
– What do you think about Venice?
– It’s cool.
– It’s cool?
Where you from?
– Holding he spliff, she’s like…
– So you can skate stoned?
That’s unbelievable.
– Can you skate stoned?
– Oh, of course.
– [OG] Yeah, really?
– All day long.
– [OG] Can you do it now?
– Right now with a spliff? Yeah.
– [OG] With a spliff?
– You want me to hold that?
– [Peter] Ah, yeah.
– [OG] Venice skate park life.
(reggae music)
(reggae music continues)
And that was it.
That’s what I was talking about.
Good job, bro.
So this is the skate life.
– [Peter] This is great.
– Most of these kids
are straight and narrow
and this is their life.
They love it, they love it to death.
And they got their own area.
Nobody comes over here.
There’s no disrespect.
– This is church.
– This is church.
– I come here every Sunday.
– [OG] But they’re all family.
You know what I’m saying?
These kids have been
skating together for years.
– [Peter] What do you get out of skating?
– I don’t know.
It’s like what he said,
’cause I don’t have
much family like blood.
So, I come here and I’m kinda new.
I didn’t used to skate here.
I was always watching.
– [Peter] Okay.
– And I came here on Christmas,
’cause I had nothing else to do.
And I knew no one was gonna be here.
But there were people here though.
– [Peter] Yeah.
– But it was chill.
And I’ve dropped in for the first time
and I was like, this feels good.
– So you feel connected here?
– And skating is art,
it’s a way of expression.
Self expression.
– Like most famous people,
Tony Hawk comes out here and chills.
And when he comes out, it’s not like,
oh, look at Tony Hawk.
He’s sitting over there waiting
his turn and he does things.
Andy Anderson, he’s
another… He’s the most,
he’s the best street skater,
freestyle skater in the world.
He comes over to the shop.
He’s out here daily.
Now, this is new, within
the last couple years.
This is becoming popular.
The four wheel skate.
They built this little area.
This used to be for skaters too,
but they backed off and let ’em have it.
So, every day they come
out and do the four-wheel.
– [Peter] Oh, that’s great.
– Yeah.
But that used to
be all skaters park.
– [Peter] Old school.
– Yeah, it’s big now for real.
– Yeah, the vibe out
here is pretty awesome.
I gotta say, I love it.
I’ve come here since the 90s.
– Well, you know what it is.
– It’s like, there’s
nothing else like this.
– Put it like this.
Venice has had a hiccup in its existence,
but we’re gonna build,
we’re gonna be back,
we’re gonna stay here.
We’re not going anywhere.
It’s gonna be the same vibe.
And even with the mental situation,
the homeless situation, we’re
gonna build around that.
And we are still accepting.
You never seen any homeless
person like get dragged out.
Like get the f*** outta here,
you’re not welcome.
It’s like you gotta move from here.
You can still be out here.
If you’re not sleeping in
front of someone business
and you walking up and down these streets,
nobody’s gonna mess with you.
– Yeah.
– We’re not anti homeless.
It’s just in front of people businesses
and not caring about people
and doing stupid stuff
in front of people’s kids.
We don’t allow it,
But as far as you coming out here,
setting up after we close
and then be gone by the time we open,
you can do that all day.
– Yeah.
– Nobody say nothing.
Once the tourists come
back, you guys are welcome.
Come on out, check us out.
Venice is still live and thriving.
Come see OG.
I’m in the bottom of the V Hotel.
– Okay, that’s the one, right?
– Yeah, V Hotel, the biggest
building on the boulevard.
– Venice V Hotel, biggest
building, white building.
OG.
– Right at the bottom.
– Yeah, man.
– Most stylish guy.
– Not me, man.
See, this is unnecessary.
She’s a problem, but she’s new.
She’s not even a month old out here.
– Not even a month old.
– Not even a month old.
– She just knows that this
is a place she can go to.
– Right, but she don’t, she sometimes
get to the point where she’s dangerous.
So I don’t mess with her.
She knows not to come near my store.
You dropped your smile.
– [Woman] Thank you.
– There it is, she picked it up.
(both laughing)
– “You dropped your smile” line.
I’ve never heard that.
Hey, guys.
– We gotta support the local art.
– Beautiful.
– Things are like this.
All this is handmade.
– Beautiful
– Made by him daily.
These two guys…
They’re out here every day
working on their craft.
So you will see them right
by my store come out.
– [Peter] Okay.
– One of a kind pieces, man,
that they do by hand on the daily.
– [Peter] So you guys…
this is where you come to every time?
– [OG] How many years?
– Okay, so guys, OGs shop right here.
White building hard to miss.
– This man have been out here 25 years.
– [Peter] Wow.
– This is what he do.
– So, right across the
street we have this.
– These are true artists of Venice Beach.
These are the vendors that
people come out to see,
because they make things
by hand that you can’t get.
– It’s really beautiful.
– Every piece is different.
One of a kind stuff.
– So you can come to Venice,
get your memento, your souvenir.
and always remember it.
– Customize.
– Yeah.
– They might not make a dollar all week,
but they’re still out here.
– I like this one too.
– Oh yeah, that is to see the sun.
Close your eyes.
Look at the this, to see the eclipse.
But look at the….
– Oh, to see the eclipse?
– Look at the light.
– Oh, yeah, you can barely see it.
See that guys?
We have the light, and then…
This is for looking at the eclipse.
– Yeah.
– Thank you.
– So that’s your tour, Pete.
And man, it was a
pleasure seeing you man.
I’m loving that you came out
to check on me.
– Appreciate it.
Thank you.
– This is what we gotta do.
I appreciate the good work you’re doing
on getting the word out, man.
– Thank you.
– It’s not a problem.
– Appreciate it.
– You’re beacon of light, bro.
You out here, you passing messages.
You’re not discriminatory.
Well, you do it for anybody and everybody.
So continued success, bro.
You got my number.
Hit me up if you need anything?
– Thank you, bro, I appreciate it.
– I’ll see you, man.
My man, Pete.
Yes, we are real friends.
It’s not just about the interview.
We are friends and he’s a good man, man.
– Right back at you.
– I’ll see you next time.
Where you headed off to next?
– Hawaii.
– Hawaii?
– In a couple months.
– He ain’t invite OG to Hawaii, did he?
Love you brother.
Peace, good luck, man.
God bless, save travel.
Hawaii?!
– All right, guys, there you go.
Venice Beach 2023.
That’s the vibe and feel that I came into.
Everyone’s got different experiences.
It might be different on a different day,
but the overall is the tents
are gone, for the most part.
It feels better than two years ago.
And my last point is,
things change and quite
often quicker than we think
and the information often
follows much further behind.
So, as far as coming down to
Venice Beach as a tourist,
I would say it’s great.
I mean, it’s interesting, it’s fun.
Have the problems completely gone away
or will they ever completely go away?
Probably not.
And that’s sort of part
of the vibe of this place,
this quirky, beautiful, motley,
mixed up place in the world.
One and only, there’s
nothing else like it.
Venice Beach, all right, guys.
Thanks for coming along on that journey.
Until the next one.
(upbeat jazz music)