Comments by "Scott Franco" (@scottfranco1962) on "The Lost Canals of Los Angeles: How Venice Beach went Wrong" video.

  1. I grew up in the area in the 1970's. It was in full on decay, with trashed canals besides virtual slums. The city of LA helped the area's decline quite a bit with rent control. One of the leftovers of the Venice era was at Venice high school, which was a large mural of Venice inside the main building. It made a nice backdrop to the daily knife fights in the cafeteria. Oh well. Venice looks better now, or it DID, before the homeless encampments along the beach. My stepfather got rich by buying houses there and flipping them later when Venice finally turned around. Another segway about Marina Del Rey (the marina of kings!) was that it was built with the main sea access canal leading straight out to the ocean. This led to sailboats having to tack back and forth in the canal to get out to sea and being screamed at, or screaming at, the power boaters who went straight down the canal. Basically the designers of Marina Del Rey may have been kings, but they sure weren't sailors. Marina del rey. We lived there for 30 years. My fathers ashes went into the water off the harbor. Good times.
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  2. Yes, there are signs in Venice (the Italian version) warning not to bathe in the water.
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