Haha.. yeah, Soylent is a real and thriving company, last I checked, anyways.
I, personally, have never come into contact with police or anyone for that matter hassling me about my vanlife activities. And it has been about 2 years.
The best parking situations I've found have been in Playa Vista where there are still lots of middle class residential areas with very little parking regulation -- many areas don't even have street sweeping.
Downtown has changed dramatically in the past 5 years or so. There are still some seedy elements to be found, but nowhere near as many as you might think.
Venice is difficult because of the tight parking and also just that generally seedy boardwalk. Cool to visit when you want to see some silliness, but just not a day-in day-out kind of place I want to be, in my opinion.