The New York Times > Travel > Escapes > 36 Hours: Venice, Calif.

This is where I'll live if/when I move to Los Angeles.

The New York Times > Travel > Escapes > 36 Hours: Venice, Calif.: "ENICE is a rarity in Los Angeles, a neighborhood where you actually want to walk. In fact, assuming your flip-flops are sturdy, it's possible to spend a weekend in Venice without getting into a car. Since it was designed as a beachside resort in 1905 by Abbot Kinney, who became a real estate developer after he dropped out of the family tobacco business, the neighborhood has seemed removed from the rest of Los Angeles's flashy, auto-centric urban culture. Even in the early 1990's, it was authentically bohemian: a run-down beach community where real estate was cheap, skaters and surfers ruled the boardwalk, and hippies and artists populated dilapidated Craftsman bungalows. Times have changed. Although Venice still has an abundance of artists, writers, surfers and plain old eccentrics, it also attracts A-list celebrities (Julia Roberts bought property there in 2002), fine restaurants and chic boutiques. The popular annual garden tour (May 7) is increasingly a showcase for designer landscapers and prominent architects. On the lush residential streets near Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Frank Gehry is designing a home for himself, and the local designer Steven Ehrlich has already built one. But even with property values and celebrity cachet on the rise, Venice remains quirky and laid back, a place where you might see entire families on bikes or an artist walking to the shore with a canvas in one hand and a beach chair in the other. Feel free to leave the stilettos at home. "