{"id":184487,"date":"2026-02-19T11:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T11:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/184487\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T11:49:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T11:49:24","slug":"letters-to-the-editor-venice-residents-voice-differences-over-controversial-housing-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/184487\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the Editor: Venice residents voice differences over controversial housing project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 18, 2026 6 AM PT <\/p>\n

To the editor: The Venice Dell project was first conceived in 2016<\/a> (\u201cIn Venice Beach, it\u2019s taken nearly a decade to not build low-income housing,\u201d<\/a> Feb. 15). The project would provide 120 units of housing for low-income and homeless people on a city-owned parking lot. The project was approved by the California Coastal Commission and twice by the Los Angeles City Council.<\/p>\n

Many of us in the community have voiced strong support numerous times. But City Atty. Hydee Feldstein-Soto and Councilmember Traci Park (starting before she was even elected) chose to viciously oppose and obstruct this much-needed housing.<\/p>\n

As the Venice Family Clinic\u2019s Venice Art Walk chair for 25 years, I am most appreciative of the new permanent housing units that will be set aside for low-income artists, because Venice artists are a great gift to our community and many have been forced out by gentrification.<\/p>\n

Since the project\u2019s proposal, the main issue decried by some (mentioned by columnist Robin Abcarian) was the \u201clook.\u201d A new architecture firm was engaged to address their concerns.<\/p>\n

As now designed<\/a>, the Venice Dell project is not higher than adjacent buildings and has a soft new look with wooden siding. The building now fits well into the Venice landscape.<\/p>\n

I would like to know if, with these adjustments, the real problem isn\u2019t really \u201cthe look,\u201d but some neighbors just don\u2019t want \u201cthose people\u201d to continue to live in this community.<\/p>\n

Sheila Goldberg, Venice<\/p>\n

..<\/p>\n

To the editor: It\u2019s not only local officials who oppose the Venice Dell project. Many, many Venice residents oppose it as well.<\/p>\n

Here are the problems: It will cost $1 million per unit, with 120 proposed units. It\u2019s in a tsunami zone (no getting around that). It will at least temporarily displace families, with a four-unit complex needing to be torn down<\/a>. And although the architect is famous, the project, with its brutalist style, doesn\u2019t fit into the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Venice, being an epicenter of the homeless problem, does need housing for the homeless. But this is not the answer.<\/p>\n

Mindy Taylor-Ross, Venice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 18, 2026 6 AM PT To the editor: The Venice Dell project was first conceived in 2016…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[87083,179,87082,25074,2072,4422,16932,48,52,51,1838,23834,47,50,49,56401,1506,3226,87080,84950,87081],"class_list":{"0":"post-184487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-adjacent-building","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-controversial-housing-project","11":"tag-difference","12":"tag-editor","13":"tag-homeless-people","14":"tag-hydee-feldstein-soto","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-headlines","17":"tag-la-news","18":"tag-letter","19":"tag-look","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-low-income-housing","24":"tag-project","25":"tag-unit","26":"tag-venice-artist","27":"tag-venice-dell-project","28":"tag-venice-resident"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}