The unusual private company clearing Venice's encampments

Good morning. It’s Monday, July 27, and you can expect summer to continue unabated — a heat advisory is in effect until 8 p.m.

Developed as a resort and amusement park, then serving as a headquarters to an astonishing variety of iconic cultural products (beat poetry, skateboarding, bodybuilding, Snapchat), a neighborhood that was planned for almost complete demolition in the 1960s now regularly sees eight-digit home sales, a real estate revolution partly ushered in by Julia Roberts.

Hate it or love it — and most people seem to feel one way or the other — Venice is interesting.

I’ve been lightly obsessed with Venice for years, and when someone reached out to us with a story suggestion about the neighborhood, I shoved everyone else at L.A. Material out of the way to write it.

The story was about Ghost Town Consultants, a property management firm that has developed itself into an alternative response to homelessness in the neighborhood. If someone sets up an encampment or parks an RV on their block, many homeowners now call Ghost Town before they call the police. If someone is disturbing customers around their storefront or shopping center, a lot of business owners call Ghost Town, too. In one Instagram testimonial, a client says that she called Ghost Town when two of her bikes were stolen — and they got the bikes back.

I had never heard of this company, but the source told me the whole neighborhood was abuzz about them. Mainly about how they were more effective at getting people and encampments to relocate than the police, or any other government entity. Also with a rumor that some of the people who worked for the company were former members of Venice gangs.