All Renters Week long we'll be looking at some of the most happening rental neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Yesterday we checked out Echo Park. Up today: Venice.
Venice isn't quite the artist and surfer paradise it was in decades past, but despite having a Whole Foods and Google's SoCal hq, the neighborhood remains spiritually funky (it's kind of like your older hippie brother who made a lot of money in the dot com boom but still listens to Rusted Root on his expensive stereo system). It's also a favorite of architects and has several works by Frank Gehry and Steven Ehrlich, plus a recent crop of architectural houses on Appleton Way. Here's what renters can expect:
Rental units: Bungalows, small stucco apartment buildings, loft-type spaces.
Rent range: about $700 for a bachelor to $12,000 for a three bedroom apartment on the beach
Who lives there: Young families, surfers (of both the "suits on the weekdays" and "beach bum" varieties), homeless people, neo-hippies, artists, architects, Lindsay Lohan, Zach Galifianakis, Anjelica Huston.
Neighborhood highlights: Ocean Front Walk is Venice's 1,000 pound gorilla--besides the beach, it's got an array of odd and wonderful performers, killer basketball games, Muscle Beach, and plenty of places to buy slogan t-shirts and glass pipes. Venice also has the far bougier Abbot Kinney Boulevard, with shops, galleries, and trendy restaurants (the strip holds block party-esque First Fridays); its namesake canals, which were built in the early 1900s; the Venice Skate Park (skateboarding was born in Venice and neighboring Santa Monica); and murals, murals, murals, including the Venice Art Walls and the giant Jim Morrison on Speedway near Eighteenth Ave.
On Craigslist, sometimes mistaken for: Mar Vista, Playa del Rey
On Craigslist, sometimes referred to as: Santa Monica, Marina del Rey
If you want to spend a little more, try: Santa Monica
If you want to spend a little less, try: Mar Vista
Sample rentals:
-- A 400 square foot studio near Abbott Kinney with its own garage. Rent is $1,400.
-- A remodeled one bedroom in a courtyard building near the canals. Rent is $1,950.
-- A 1,300 square foot, one and a half bathroom loft by architect Tom Carson with private outdoor area. Rent is $3,850.
-- A two bedroom, one bathroom house near Lincoln with a two car garage, washer/dryer, and a yard. Rent is $3,000.
· A Renter's Guide to Echo Park [Curbed LA]
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