The Venice Beach boardwalk has a split personality. On the east side, merchants in stalls and shops pay rent, wages and taxes for the privilege of selling sunglasses, flip-flops, T-shirts and incense.
On the west side, pretty much anything goes -- and nobody pays a dime to set up shop or put on a show.
Take Shabba, the Robot Man, who one recent afternoon sported feathery white angel wings and flexed his oiled chest and biceps as he posed with grinning tourists.
Or Louis Garza, the self-styled Mayor of Venice, who early on Saturday mornings can be seen in dark pants, vest and fedora, holding aloft a golf club as he trots alongside runners training for the marathon.
Or George French, 72, also known as Mad George, the Wizard of Venice, whose Gandalfian locks and beard flutter in the breeze as he zooms along in his wheelchair to where Horizon Avenue meets the boardwalk. He has read palms on the boardwalk for 26 years, 19 of them at that same spot.
These days, however, French fears for his bare-bones existence.
The Los Angeles City Council plans to vote Wednesday on an ordinance that would require the painters, free speakers, musicians and others who peddle their talents and wares on the west side of the boardwalk to buy a $25 lifetime permit and participate in a monthly lottery that would determine who would get space, and where.
"It would suck the life out of Venice," said Rishikavi "Ra" Raghudas, a goateed yoga teacher, Tarot card reader, astrologer and -- this being Los Angeles -- screenwriter. "This may be the freest place in America. Nobody wants to see artists in captivity."
Opponents of the ordinance contend that it is an unnecessary intrusion on 1st Amendment rights in what is a designated free-speech zone known worldwide for its eclectic denizens, freewheeling performers and unfettered public expression.
City officials counter that the ordinance aims to improve a situation that has gotten out of hand. Their goal, they say, is to cut down on the complaints from disgruntled residents and merchants who say the west side has deteriorated into a swap meet where vendors show up as early as 4 a.m. during summer months and fight, often noisily, for space.
Even among some of the west-side vendors, verbal disputes and physical altercations have prompted a few individuals to seek restraining orders against their al fresco neighbors.
