Suzanne Thompson, Cofounder of Venice Arts Council and Chair of Endangered Art Fund

Neighborhood: Venice

Job: Cofounder of Venice Arts Council and Chair of Endangered Art Fund

What are the top issues facing Los Angeles, and why?

Jobs, affordable housing, public space available to the public. Just in Venice, one of the hardest things in getting people together and organizing or trying to even celebrate is finding a venue that’s free to gather. A lot of public spaces close, and there aren’t that many that are big enough. 

What should Mayor Garcetti should do to address your top priorities?

The first thing [I want] is to improve the recent mural ordinance that was passed, because we want to make sure that Venice can also have murals on single-family residences. Councilman Bonin couldn’t support it because Brentwood, Palisades, and Mar Vista didn’t want murals on single-family residences. As you can see, murals are all over in Venice, so I hope we can work out some sort of overlay zone, a mural district. 

Another thing would be [to create more] affordable housing, because we’re losing the spirit of what happens when artists come—it’s a place where they can afford to live and do their work. It becomes a cool, hip place to live, and rent jumps up. It’s interesting how gentrification [affects things].

Also, I met somebody working with the city of Inglewood, and probably the number one problem is jobs. If everyone was working, they wouldn’t be in trouble as much or doing criminal activities.

If you want to stop the war on poverty...you need to start going layer by layer when it comes to employment and housing. It’s hard to have a job if you don’t have a place to live. Health care is an issue, too. San Francisco has health care for the people of San Francisco, why the hell can’t L.A. do that? Being the entertainment capital of the world, there’s so much money here, people don’t know what to do with it. 

Did you vote in the May election? Who did you support?

Absolutely—Eric Garcetti. Absolutely Mike Feuer and Mike Bonin.

I want to go back to the gentrification you spoke of—do you think it ultimately detracts from the artist culture that L.A. is so known for attracting and fostering? Does it cause a problem?

Absolutely, because if you’re coming to a farm to see the animals, and people start living on the farm and the animals have to leave, where’s the farm? If you’re coming to an artist community but no artists can live here, where’s the artist community? It’s a facade.

Abbot Kinney has been featured in Details magazine—I think as the number one shopping street in America. I live off Rose, which is becoming Abbot Kinney. It impacts the community. We have a lovely studio; the mixed use space is a good thing, but where are your customers parking for these classes? They’re taking our spaces—we live in old places without garages and have to park on the street, so it’s tough.

There’s lots of construction going on in Venice because of the gentrification. People are tearing down affordable places, building up dream homes and living in them or renting them out to producers maybe six months out of the year, and that changes your community. And I believe in a mixed community—that’s why I’ve lived in Venice for 30 years. [Gentrification has] really accelerated in the last five to 10 years...[now it's time to] help the people that need help.

Reach Staff Reporter Cassie Paton here; follow her on Twitter.