Why Did the City of Los Angeles Ban Massage Therapy at Venice Beach?

In early December, 2011, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved an ordinance restricting certain forms of commerce on the west side of the Venice Beach boardwalk. According to Venice.Patch.com (1), supporters of the ordinance said a lack of regulation had led to an unsafe and even violent atmosphere among the commercial vendors at Ocean Front Walk, and the ordinance bans vendors there who sell clothes, sunglasses, incense, and jewelry, among other items. The ordinance also prohibits massage therapy, banning Los Angeles massage therapists from practicing at a top tourist attraction.

While the Venice.Patch.com article discusses issues of free speech and the impact this ordinance will have on local merchants, it does not explain why massage therapy was banned along with the other commercial enterprises. One of the reasons mentioned in support of the ban, a lack of regulation among the vendors on Ocean Front Walk, does not apply to massage therapists, thousands of whom are regulated and certified by the state of California, according to the California Massage Therapy Council (2).

The ordinance is designed to ensure that people have views of the ocean from the boardwalk. This too shouldn’t apply to massage therapists, as most massage therapy done in public is chair massage, and anyone who has seen a chair massage therapist work (at an office or even in a Whole Foods) knows that chair massage therapists require very little space to set up. Indeed, they can be inconspicuous and professional, even in a confined and busy environment.

Ultimately the ban will take away employment opportunities from Los Angeles massage therapists and relaxation opportunities from the 16 million tourists who annually visit Venice Beach. More troubling, this new ordinance is similar to one passed in Chicago in 2010 – which I wrote about earlier on Voices.Yahoo.com (3) – that restricted new massage businesses to areas of the city zoned for bars, used car lots, and industrial corridors.

These ordinances are so distressing because they group massage therapy with other businesses that are seen as unseemly (used car lots) or kitschy (t-shirt vendors). In fact, massage therapy is a premium, billion-dollar industry, which is regulated by the majority of states to ensure proper training and professionalism.

“We are concerned about how these pieces of legislation portray the massage therapy industry,” said Alana Eve Burman, president of JoyLife Therapeutics Los Angeles. “This law and similar examples throughout the US seem stuck in an old way of thinking that associates massage with illicit activities. Massage therapy today is a regulated and highly ethical therapeutic profession. Laws of this type contribute to a false perception that we as a profession have been working to eliminate for decades.”

Indeed, the effective ban on Los Angeles chair massage at the west end of Venice Beach is lamentable not only because of the premium service that will be lost, but also because it furthers an inaccurate perception, that massage therapy is an industry that is low-end, unsightly, and a nuisance. Anyone with experience with massage therapy can tell you that the profession is, in fact, exactly the opposite.

SOURCES:

(1) Paul Chavez, “UPDATE: L.A. City Council Unanimously Approves Venice Boardwalk Ordinance”, Venice Patch

(2) “California Massage Therapy Council”, California Massage Therapy Council

(3) Brandon Thomas, “Chicago Massage Therapists Unable to Thwart Misguided Massage Therapy Regulation – Yahoo! Voices – Voices.Yahoo.com”, Associated Content from Yahoo!


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