Unfortunately, Muscle Beach is a thing of the past. Two reasons for that:
1) every town in the country now has at least one well equipt gym. Long ago, Gold's Venice and World's were unique. They were much larger than you could find elsewhere and had the best equipment.
2) Venice has been gentrified. all the cheap apartments are gone. many have been torn down and replaced with multi-million dollar homes. what remains cost $1500 and up for tiny little apartments.
I suppose there could be a third reason, that Gold's Gym has been bought and sold so many times, that its now just another gym chain.
Long ago, guys moved to Venice because that's where the serious gym was and that's where other bodybuilders lived. They moved to Venice to live the bodybuilding lifestyle full time. Now, there are gyms just as big throughout southern California. And rent is cheaper elsewhere. So there is no longer a central location where bodybuilders live or hang out.
But southern California is still a great place to vacation.
This guy is totally correct. I'd still check-out Gold's Venice buts its glory days are long gone.
You guys are also a little jaded, COMPLETELY forgetting that newcomers won't make the comparisons you are. For anyone new to Venice without those perspectives of the old daze, it's still special; there's still nothing like it.
The biggest problems I see with Venice now are that none of the gyms are physically close to the beach, so less BBs filter down to the beach, the gyms have been franchised and all look the same, and the revised outdoor weight pit on Venice Beach is not as good as it was previously when it was on beach level, isn't frequented much by serious BBs.
Even with that, you still have a special eclecticism of Venice-bodybuilders, the boardwalk, beach, funky lifestyles, outdoor gym, the site of the original muscle beach from the 30s, the Gold's & World's, the old Gold's, Schatzi's, the Firehouse, etc. Definitely still a flavor of the old daze, except to guys who've been there, done that.
Still very much a unique place, nowhere else like it. Reminds me of my annual visits to Coney Island-not what it once was, but still special.
There are inexpensive, decent hotels just off the beach in Venice.
