Tonight: Echo Curio exhibit and benefit

You may have heard already that pretty soon, the Echo Curio will be closing down for good. The owners posted the following on the Echo Curio blog just a couple of days ago:

Echo Curio has become my life for the past three years… and it has been the life of Justin, Tim and Heather for longer… I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect place to continue their eclectic egalitarian experiment and i couldn’t have imagined the response we got from you kind people.

It is with a heavy heart and a tired soul that I and Justin say good-bye to the long nights, endless emails, constant phone calls, neverending conversations and non-stop tap dancing around egos and feelings… We are now ready to have our days and nights back for awhile and to adjust our approach.

But don’t worry, tonight will be the free opening reception for a new exhibit called “Picture Con Secuencia: A Show of Exquisite Corpses.” The exhibit will go through November 29th.

The opening is free, tonight (Friday, November 12th) and starts at 8:00 pm.

DJ sets from KXLU DJ Molly

Featuring a (not so) silent auction to benefit Echo Curio

Missed Connections cassette presented by No Girls Allowed Records

Featuring music by the following artists (and members of): Moses Campbell, XBXRX, kit, No Babies. Charlyne Yi, Michael Nhat, Magick Orchids, Lola Loshkey, Big Whup, Pizza!, Heller Keller, Sugar Frosted Light Bulbs, Tusk, Peter Pants and more!

New video and animation collaborations from: walt!, Eri Hawkins, Sean Solomon, Chloe Mandel, Steven Sanchez, champoyhate, Sam Yurick, Joan Zamora, Andrew Lush, Dave Sirus, Jordan Santos, Joe Holliday, Michael Reyder, Julie Orlick, Rachel Cole, Craig Miller, Anthony Anzalone, Steven Andrew Garcia, Carla Orendorff, Vim Crony, Lillie West, Austin Wolf-Sothern

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Flashback Fridays: Once a Community Garden…

Lately I’ve been delving into the history of some of these Echo Park locations that have development “drama” revolving around them these days. Last week we wrote about the history of Barlow Hospital as it develops plans to upgrade hospital facilities by selling land for who-knows-what. This week we’ve got the Sunset Flats, planned for what was the former community garden, on our mind. So today we reflect on how that garden came to be, how the community came together to keep it thriving for years, and more importantly, what happened to it?

Date unknown - looks very 1990s. Flickr photo via Glen Dake

Flickr photo via Glen Dake

The garden was started in the late 199os as part of an effort to use land that wasn’t being used (deemed a “nuisance” property), but was privately owned, and really helped empower and improve the neighborhood. Located at 2223 Sunset Blvd, where now you’ll see a lot of overgrown weeds and possibly still some edible plants, they sold honey, grew and sold flowers, fruits and vegetables. It was literally the heart and sweat of many long-time Echo Park residents, including, we’ve heard, our friend Jesus Sanchez of The Eastsider LA.

The plight of the garden began around 2004, where our research begins to pick up the chatter that the land owner needed to sell the property. This is when things get a little complicated and messy, and is an issue that I am continuing to explore in interviews with residents and community leaders. Apparently the community got together and started raising money to purchase the land, and things were looking really promising in June of 2004 – the owner was willing to sell the land, and all they needed was a grant to finalize things. Sometime after that, things went south, and the manager of the garden had apparently been taking that money raised to purchase the land, stringing along the landowner and everyone else along. The Echo Park Community Garden had been bamboozled.

That’s the long story short. Without money to buy the property, the land was sold and there was little hope for the future of the garden. A 2004 issue of EPIAn Ways describes the frustration of being locked out of the garden for months:

The current landlord bought the land two years ago and has no idea the importance this community places on the garden. He seems to be unaware of what existed before the garden formed and therefore sees little value to keeping the garden as a tenant. The Echo Park Community Garden has been a collaborative effort between hundreds of families, individuals as well as social service agencies, neighborhood groups and government. It has also served as an environmental, educational and nutritional resource for the neighborhood families and schools.

Read more

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Eco Echo Park home tour this weekend!

After a two year haitus, the Historic Echo Park Home Tours returns this weekend!

In case you missed it, here’s a quick run-down from the Echo Park Historical Society:

This year’s Historic Echo Park Home Tour highlights 10 homes and gardens that feature the lifestyles of the ecologically minded. This includes properties utilizing gray water systems, solar power, natural light and circulation as ways to reduce dependency on public utilities as well gardens that include elements of urban farming, native plants, drought-tolerant landscaping and no dig gardening. And, yes, chicken coops.

The home tour has gotten some great coverage this year, including a segment on KTLA Morning News. The Los Angeles Times also published an excellent story highlighting the garden of Rhett Beavers, who discovered his 3,000 square foot garden behind his 1927 Echo Park home to be  the remnants of a communal orchard. That garden is one of several highlighted in this year’s Historical Society tour.

Tickets can be purchased on the day of the tour (Sunday, November 14) beginning at 11:00 am. The $20 general admission tickets will be sold at at Williams Hall, 2000 Stadium Way, or buy them online in advance and save $5. EPHS Members can buy tickets on the day of the event for $15.

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Saturday: Echo Park Library Book Sale

Flickr photo via Nickels_Photography

Sip and nibble on some complementary coffee and donuts while you shop for inexpensive books at the Echo Park Library Book Sale tomorrow, Saturday, November 13.

Books range from $0.15-.50, with specialty books under $5.00.

You can also support the library by becoming a member for only $10 per year!

Book donations are always welcome, please drop them off at the Echo Park Library Wednesdays from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, Tuesday-Thursday from 12:00 noon – 9:00 pm, Friday through Sunday from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm.

Check it out at the GEPENC Office and Community Center on 1572 Sunset Boulevard (behind the Bank of America) from 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm.

For more info, email jose_sigala@yahoo.com

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City Council considering public smoking ban: Would Echo Park notice?

Flickr photo via Heal the Bay

The Daily News reported yesterday that LA City Council approved a plan to study anti-smoking laws that could further restrict public smoking in some public places. The idea is to focus on public spaces like beaches, multi-family buildings and other public gathering spaces.

This isn’t necessarily new news, but it got me thinking about Echo Park. I would assume that if they were to tighten restrictions in public gathering spaces, Echo Park Lake could be one of those. In 2009, 6,000 cigarette butts were cleaned up around Echo Park Lake alone, so maybe this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. (Although, let’s be honest, is this really a role our local government can and should be taking?)

The city of Calabasas is well-known for banning public smoking, and Mayor Barry Groveman definitely weighed in his support for the study, telling the Daily News: “What we are trying to do is come up with a common measure to protect people from smoke…. What we are trying to do is eliminate places in the city – farmer markets, government buildings, areas with common meeting places – where people could be affected by second-hand smoke.”

But Echo Park is kind of hipster-ville (or so I’ve been told), and the amount of smokers standing outside of the Echo and other venues along Sunset have got to bother those non-smokers sensitive to the second-hand smoke. In a study conducted by the County of Los Angeles Public Health released in June 2010, at 14% LA has among the lowest smoking rates of any metropolitan areas in the US. However, there are also a lot of disparities within LA, and while coastal communities like Malibu have a pretty low percentage, both CD 13 and CD1 (Echo Park lies in both) rank fairly high in the number of smokers according to the study.

CD 13 has 16.1% of the population are smokers, the district ranking 106 out of 127 (see above graph). Perhaps what we need to do is look at some of these high-ranking areas of Los Angeles (rather than focus on beaches) and see what can be done to help reduce the amount of smokers and second-hand smoke. Check out the colorful map below:

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Weekend at the Lake: Rehab tour and a history lesson

Flickr photo by Juan Navarro

Saturday morning at Echo Park Lake will be buzzing: There’s an Echo Park Lake Rehabilitation tour led by the city, and a history lesson hosted by the Echo Park Time Bank. It’s possible that they’ll overlap, so you might have to pick just one:

Echo Park Lake Rehabilitation Tour
Saturday, November 13 from 9:30-10:30 am
Meet on the corner of Park Avenue and Echo Park Avenue at 9:20 am

Echo Park and the History of L.A. Expansion
Saturday, November 13th, 2010 at 10:00 am at Echo Park Lake.
A discussion with Time Bank member Michael Jacob Rochlin along with Art Goldberg will discuss how Echo Park fits into the overall pattern of expansion in Los Angeles.
Meet at the brown concrete picnic tables along Park Ave.
Call 323-661-2793 for more info.

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While you were sleeping: Weekend shootings keep Rampart busy

This went under the radar for us, but police need your tips so we thought we’d pass it along anyways.

Last Saturday night just before 2:00 am, Rampart officers responded to a call about a shooting along the 400 block of North Westlake Avenue and found a man with a gunshot wound in his leg (he told them it came from a car driving by). The man was taken to the hospital where he was treated.

Minutes later, another shooting on the radio at Glendale Boulevard and Park Avenue. Officers found an abandoned tan colored Mercury van on the southeast corner. Then, minutes after that, another shooting victim was reported to be at a hospital on the 1700 blog of West Temple Street. Unfortunately, that person died.

More from the LAPD Blog:

Read more

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Spitfire Girl + Bobbie Anniversary Party

Echo Park boutiques Spitfire Girl and Bobbie, located along Sunset Blvd. along the westernish side of Echo Park, are celebrating their one year anniversary this week with some fun raffles and celebrations. While the raffle started Monday, you still have time to get a chance to win  prizes when you spend $50 – prizes are listed in the flyer above.

Then on November 13, you’ll find out if you win! But don’t worry if you don’t – expect some food trucks like Gastro Organic Food Truck and Cool Haus Ice Cream Truck to cure your food cravings. There’s also talk of booze….

Happy anniversary!

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64-Unit Sunset Flats to replace site of old community garden

It seems all the Echo Park news these days can be summed up in just one controversial word: Development. We’ve got a 70+ unit senior housing center going up on Glendale Blvd. and Park Avenue, a battle with Barlow Hospital over selling land for a potential 888-unit complex, a rotting structure left behind by developers at Chicken Corner, and a 64-unit complex planned for Sunset and Rosemont Avenue. Those plans plus a lot of promises, promises, promises, and if the Durbin Project on Chicken Corner is an example of how things will go in the future, Echo Park residents will have to start getting involved, well, yesterday.

Sunset Flats, the 64-unit complex planned for Sunset Blvd. and Rosemont Avenue, was (unfortunately) approved by the neighborhood council late last month despite opposition from residents. The site will be where the former Community Garden was located (remnants of the planting still exist) and will destroy 6 existing structures (11 units) in order to build. The whole structure well stretch along 2223-2235 Sunset Blvd, and back to the residential neighborhood of 2216-2218 Elsinore Street.

Architect Jay Vanos has been a regular at Neighborhood Council meetings (attending eight meetings in the past 2.5 years), but did not accept invitations from the Echo Park Improvement Association, which also regularly deals with land-use issues, to meet with other community members and address additional concerns.

Despite the destruction of 11 units of housing to build the complex, the project would include 10 units for low-income residents. The most recent design change proposed at a Neighborhood Council meeting included stepping back the tallest parts of the two buildings so that, on street level, the height of the project won’t overshadow the sidewalk and seem, well, too big. There is also now parking as part of the project, but with access along Elsinore Street.

Read more

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Machine Project’s Pop-Up Pie Shop

On the evening of Thursday, November 18, head over to the Machine Project for Untitled (Pie) 2010: A Pop-Up Pie shop benefitting the Los Angeles Food Bank. They will transform the center into a pie shop where, for $20, you get to purchase a pie kit from Fruit and Flour to assemble and bake at home. Also at the shop that night you’ll get to taste (for free) some of the pie flavors along with refreshments amidst the pop-up shop decor (designed by Hammer designer Julia Luke).

Echo Park-ian Sarah Williams is behind the Fruit and Flour take-n-bake/DIY pie kit biz. The kits include a jar of homemade filling (maple pumpkin, classic apple, or lovely lemon) and the pie crust. Apparently she just launched Fruit and Flower, selling pies at $30 including delivery in Los Angeles – and there are a few more flavors to choose from. Become a fan on her newly established Facebook page!

No need to RSVP. For more info email fruitandflour@gmail.com.

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Mooi needs some new investors to stay open

Flickr photo via Pat/EatingLA

Daily Dish (LA Times online) tells us today that Mooi in Echo Park, which just opened up last May, may have run into some investment issues. Owner Stephen Hauptfuhr has told the online publication that he’s looking for some new investors, as the raw-vegan venture’s current ones are parting ways after November.

We recently reported that the restaurant had cut back its hours pretty severely, opening only once per week for a prix fixe multi-course dinner service and catering for the holidays. This week’s menu is a six-course Asian prix fixe dinner collaboration with LifeFood Organic on Wednesday, and later this month will host a special Thanksgiving meal on November 19.

But after this month, the restaurant could close for good if it doesn’t find some new source of cash.

Keep an eye out on Mooi’s Facebook page, or email stephen@mooifood.com with questions or for reservations.

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Neighborhood Council to address CRES#14 in Wednesday’s meeting

On Wednesday, November 10, the Neighborhood Council Education Committee will be hosting a forum at Logan Street Elementary School about the Public School Choice issue. Parents (and even future parents!), teachers, and community members are invited to attend this free and public forum to discuss what Public School Choice means, and what lies ahead for CRES#14, the new school being built near the corner of Alvarado and Sunset Blvd.

They are teaming up with the Echo Park Education Coalition (a group, I admit, I am not yet familiar with) and have invited applicants for CRES#14 to talk about their plans and vision for the new school. Applicants invited to attend include: Echo Park Community Partner Design Team (LAUSD/UTLA), Gabriella Axelrod Education Foundation/Gabriella Charter, Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, Youth Policy Institute (YPI), Extera Public Schools, and Value Schools.

I have written about this issue recently, following a forum hosted by the Echo Park Improvement Association a couple of weeks ago. Camino Nuevo was in attendance and talked a little bit about their ideas, so hopefully they’ll send a rep to continue discussions tomorrow night about the school’s future.

For information about the event, please contact Lisa Baca, GEPENC CIO at 323-660-7234 or bacasigala@earthlink.net

Public School Choice forum, CRES#14
Wednesday, November 10
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Logan St Elementary School, 1711 Montana Street

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Benefit in Echo Park for Silver Lake nursery school

On Saturday, November 13, join the Neighborhood Nursery School for an art show fundraiser taking place in Echo Park at the Rec Center Studio in the Jensen’s Rec Center building.

Neighborhood Nursery School is a small non-profit preschool located in Silver Lake; it is a cooperative school, meaning it is owned and operated by parents of the students. They have put together the benefit, An Evening of Art, to help supplement the costs of operating the school.

Over 100 local artists have contributed to the art show, along with Echo Park restaurant Allston Yacht Club, which will donate a portion of your dinner bill to the school on Saturday. Just make sure to print out the flyer for your server!

Admission sounds like a great deal, actually: $20 gets you includes wine, beer, appetizers and music by DJ Mike Messex.

An Evening of Art to Benefit Neighborhood Nursery School
Saturday, November 13, 2010
5:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Rec Center Studio, 1161 Logan St.

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Echo Park artist’s exhibit at the CA Science Center

Photo courtesy of California Science Center

Echo Park artist Maja has created a special Dia de los Muertos art installation at the Mummies of the World Exhibition at the California Science Center. The installation celebrates the November holiday with a mix of traditional and modern art using natural and recycled products, as well as skulls, candy, and food. According to the press release, “visitors also had the opportunity to decorate the art installation with photos of departed loved-ones and leave heart-felt messages in the Libro de Recuerdos (Book of Memories).”

The exhibit will continue through November 28, during which visitors an still add to the altar.

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Echo Park’s Week in Music

For the week of Monday, November 8 through Sunday, November 14

Monday
Monday Night Residency: The Black Apples, Tijuana Panthers, Future Ghost, Dead Trees @ Echo
Sun Airway, Expo 70 @ Origami Vinyl

Tuesday
Nitzer Ebb, Tense, Rainbow Arabia, DJ Paul V @ Echoplex
Brian Wright, Ladies Gun Club @ Bootleg Theater

Wednesday
Dub Club @ Echoplex & Echo
Paul Inman’s Delivery @ Taix Lounge
Candy Claws (Fort Collins, Co), Chain Gang Of 1974, Elle King @ Bootleg Theater

Thursday
The Soft Pack, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Purling Hiss @ Echoplex
Sonny and the Sunsets, Tennis, The Belle Brigade @ Echo
Blaine Campbell and the California Sound @ Taix Lounge
Tim Kasher (Cursive), Darren Hanlon @ Bootleg Theater

Friday
“Repeat Offender” Hit + Run 5 Year Anniversary Party @ Echo
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Weekend, Sonny and the Sunsets @ Echoplex
Purling Hiss @ Origami Vinyl
Madame Pamita, Tom Rodwell @ Taix Lounge
Benefit for ASAPROSAR (helping the rural poor in EL Salvador): Red Cortez, Astra Heights, The Uplifters, Funeral Party. Flyer @ Dinner House M
Teitur @ Bootleg Theater

Saturday
Footlong Development & Keistar Productions Present Wonder-Full La5 – A Tribute to the Wonder of Stevie @ Echo & Echoplex
Traps, Ps @ Origami Vinyl
Moris Tepper, Gwendolyn @ Taix Lounge
Mini Mansions, Chico Sonido @ Bootleg Theater

Sunday
Nacional Records Road Trip with Banda De Turistas, Pacha Massive @ Echo (Early Show)
Margot and the NuClear So and So’s, Jookabox, Burnt Ones @ Echoplex
Woodsman, Gauntlet Hair @ Origami Vinyl

For more information on weekly musical events like club nights, see our community resource pages.Visit the venue website for more information on the cost and times of shows. This list may not represent all the musical events happening in Echo Park this week – feel free to add more events in the comment section. All events listed are subject to change at any time. New events announced for the week after this posting may not be included.

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