The Lost Canals of Venice, Los Angeles

Today we will be looking into the history behind the lost canals of Venice California and the mega project known as "Venice of America".

[eldo]

Wow, this video is excellent. Concise, clear, and well-researched with tons of great supporting pics and video footage, both historic and modern. I’m super impressed with your work and will make sure to recommend your channel to others. Thanks so much for giving us an education on this super interesting bit of local history!

[mitchellbarnow]

Alexander, all of your video documentaries are fantastic, professionally made with the perfect musical scores and expertly narrated! Thank you so much for this channel and how fortunate I am that YouTube recommended your channel to me.

[_k]

Thank You for another well researched and well written (and directed, filmed, etc...) video of another historical place within L.A. .

Having grown up just about two miles from Venice and as an adult in my late 20s, my then girlfriend and I lived on Abbott Kinney Blvd just one building in from Washington Blvd. Back then the street wasn't Abbott Kinney yet it was named Washington, so we lived on the corner of Washington and Washington. It also was considered Marina Del Rey not Venice. Mostly because Venice had such a bad reputation for being a crime filled, gang run, dirty, place for runaways and drug users and dealers. While living there the City changed the name of the street to Abbott Kinney. It was a street lined with old houses some apartments, some condos, small industrial and commercial buildings that were mostly empty and run down. Brendelli's Brig in those days (1990 and back to the '60s) was a seedy local bar with a pool table and was the perfect place to get into a fight or watch a fight breakout over whose quarters were whose on the pool table for next game. You really didn't want to go in there unless you were a real local. Nowadays, Brendelli's has valet parking and it's a hip trendy place to have an overpriced drink. All of Abbott Kinney has been transformed and renovated to become the trendy street for boutiques and restaurants and hipster bars, kinda the way Melrose is or used to be. It's definitely a huge change from when I lived on that street. Where did the hookers and drug dealers go? LOL

I know I suggested a subject for a video for you to make last time and I'm going to suggest another. Actually the last suggestion could be part of the new suggestion. I believe I recommended a video on the Centinela Adobe Rancho house which has a great history dating back to pre LA as a city, and one of the largest ranchos in the Basin, you could do a video of it all by itself or do the history of Westchester and it's very unknown story of the perfect post war housing boom and its Leave It To Beaver or Ozzy and Harriet All American neighborhood that most people, even those who are from Los Angeles never even heard of or know where it is. Westchester and Playa Del Rey have an amazing history of automobile racing, airplane races and the home of LAX as well as LMU, and other interesting aspects of a part of Los Angeles

[rosey_josh]

Great video. Love your work thank you!!

[keithcrampton]

I WAS JUST KIDDING AROUND ALEX BECAUSE
YOU ARE TRULY ONE OF THE BEST NARRATORS AND
YOU SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF ME!! AND
MY WIFE LOVES YOUR VOICE!!

[BradThePitts]

Very interesting video. Although too much of the original Venice was destroyed for all the wrong reasons, Venice today is STILL spectacular, and next to Disneyland, it is the #2 most popular tourist attraction for International tourists. It also has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. I can only imagine what it would be like if many of the original canals still existed!

[Carvello]

Hey dude, your vids are really awesome. So much depth. Have you ever covered the world trades fairs of the 20s & 30s? Were they real buildings and why were they just all destroyed? Seems really odd.

[Blueskys]

They paved paradise, put up a parking lot 😢

[rppope]

Now with all the cars on the road i bet they wish it was all lagons again to keep people away

[nuthinasitseems]

This story could be told in a completely different way; a tabbaco baron buys a once thriving wetlands, obliterates it with a wet dream, ..

[keithcrampton]

MAY I BE HONEST WITH YOU ALEX? IF MY WIFE WANTS YOU? SHE WILL HAVE YOU BECAUSE
SHE ALWAYS SEEMS TO KNOW HOW TO "GET HER WAY!!"
SO BEWARE ALEX!! MY WIFE IS "VERY ATTRACTIVE!!"

[prophetseven]

Are we legally allowed to Fly a Drone over city like that!?!