"The confrontation took place just inside the front entrance of the dream house in Venice that Jack Hoffmann had been painstakingly renovating for three years. A homeless man, strong from bodybuilding, whipped out a knife and thrust it twice into Hoffmann's chest."
Uhm, ouch. And so begins the LA Times' story on Jack Hoffman, owner of real estate firm Venice Properties, who still loves the area despite his near death experience in July 2005. He's so tough he asked workers to leave his blood up on the wall where he was stabbed. And he's so tough he thinks people who complain about Venice going upscale are singing "an old song" and that gentrification is just "the nature of a capitalistic system." Creepy picture of Hoffman--hidden in shadow---accompanies article.
· The price of loving Venice [LA Times]