A wide cement path along the Pacific sand, stretching from the Santa Monica Pier south to the Marina Del Ray boatway.
“If they really want to know America, they should go to Venice Beach,” says Becki O’Neifra, a former school teacher, at a Sherman Oaks coffee shop. She lists off the attractions there: Muscle Beach, cafés, roller-skate dancing, paddle tennis, and an over-the-top parade of bohemian humanity that includes mimes, musicians, comedians, artists, and jugglers.
“I want to see their faces when they watch a man juggle a running chain saw while eating an apple,” says Ms. O’Neifra.
