Venice Neighborhoods

Venice Beach

Venice Beach is understood to include the beach, the promenade that runs parallel to the beach (often refered to as Ocean Front Walk), Muscle Beach, the handball courts, the paddle tennis courts, Skate Dancing plaza, the numerous beach volleyball courts, the bike trail and the businesses and residences that have their addresses on Ocean Front Walk.

Along the southern portion of the beach, at the end of Washington Boulevard, is the Venice Fishing Pier. A 1,310-foot (400 m) concrete structure, it first opened in 1964, but was closed in 1983 due to El Niño storm damage, only reopening in the mid-1990s. On December 21, 2005, the pier again suffered damage when waves from an unusually big northern swell caused the part of the pier upon which the restrooms was located to fall into the ocean. It reopened in May of 2006.

Downtown Venice

The areas along Abbot Kinney, Grand Boulevard, and Main Street form the traditional downtown of Venice. During the 1920s and 1930s, the area's nightlife was quite active, with thousands of Angelenos arriving every night by streetcar. (Before he burst onto the national scene, Benny Goodman had a brief residence as a bandleader in Venice.) Nightlife boomed again in the late 1960s as the area became a center of hippie culture. Since the late 1990s, downtown Venice has been especially popular, with many bars, nightclubs, art galleries, and edgy apparel shops occupying both its older brick and Art Deco storefronts and hyper-modern glass facades.

The Canals

"Venice of America" was founded by millionaire Abbot Kinney in the late 19th century, and was designed to recreate Venice, Italy. To create a sense of realism, Kinney dug sixteen miles of canals, draining the marshes in the area and making them habitable.

Today the Venice Canals, which lie just inland from the beach and stretch from Washington Boulevard in the south to Venice Boulevard in the north, are now a quaint, upscale neighborhood. The picturesque area, once populated by artists and Bohemians, boasts many restored, rebuilt, or remodeled homes, and is now home to a more affluent crowd.

Oakwood/East Venice

Oakwood and East Venice are located to the east of the Downtown and Canal areas, extending to (and slightly past) Lincoln Boulevard. The area consists almost entirely of small homes and apartments, and includes Venice High School, Penmar Park, and the Penmar Golf Course (bordering Santa Monica.)

Oakwood/East Venice is the most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhood in Venice. Though the area was known for gang violence in the past, it has become greatly gentrified in the past ten years.