The streets of Echo Park on Baxter are infamous for being some of the steepest outside of San Francisco, but nobody told this limo driver.
Today the limo awaits a tow truck after being stuck at the apex of Baxter Street, which isn’t uncommon for this corner – a school bus attempted the climb a couple of years ago, and we’re sure there are more undocumented attempts.
You wouldn’t know by just looking at them, but the 100+ year old palm trees, a rare species of wild date, that make up “The Avenue of the Palms” on Stadium Way are dying.
Planted in 1895, the palms are now dying from a “combination of disease spread by using uncleaned chainsaws,” as well as old age.
The Citizen’s Committee to Save Elysian Park is addressing the issue, and will be discussing replanting the trees during their regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday.
Avenue of the Palms, 1950. Photo from the LAPL archives.
Bernard Inchauspe, Fernando Gomez, Jose Fragoso
Wednesday night, Taix employees, family and long-time patrons attended a special celebration featuring three of the restaurants long-time employees and the 50 years they’ve dedicated to the job.
The flyer for the event reads, “This is NOT a retirement party,” but it was a party indeed! We stopped by to say hello and congratulate the trio, which included Bernard Inchauspe (dining room waiter), Fernando Gomez (bartender), and Jose Fragoso (banquet waiter). They’ve seen the restaurant change so much over the years – which actually started out near downtown Los Angeles, serving family-style dinners, until moving to its existing location in Echo Park in the early 1960s.
Taix used to be one of those places we’d only go to if our roommate’s mother was in town, treating us to a fancy dinner at the window-less, old-school style restaurant. But now we’ve frequented Taix, usually once a month, to grab an Eagle Rock Solidarity from the tap and nosh on a basket of fries. A little flirting action with Bernard, and we’re set!
If you’ve never been, go! Taix hosts music events throughout the week in the lounge, and even stand-up comedy on Sunday night. They have great happy hour deals, and fabulous staff. And in case you’re wondering, it’s pronounced “tex.”
Related articles:
The Eastsider LA reports this morning that the $15 million winning lottery ticket purchased at our very own House of Spirits has been claimed by an Echo Park resident!
Victor Caube, a sushi chef, just learned on Monday he had the winning ticket when he stopped at the House of Spirits to buy another ticket. The long-time resident will be sharing his winnings a friend.
Congrats!
photo via Villainy General Store
It seems like yesterday that we were chowing down at Nuvia’s Restaurant & Pupuseria before heading to a show at the Echo Curio next door, but so much has changed on that little stretch of businesses along Sunset Boulevard at Laveta in Echo Park.
Villainy General Store, which took over the old Echo Curio space, posted this photo on its Facebook page today of the former Nuvia’s and then La Botana (which closed down in October 2011 all of a sudden). The caption says the former cheap eats place is being renovated for a new gastro pub owned by local Echo Parkians.
No word yet on who, what, and when, but we’ll let you know!
CD13 shown in grey, the red areas are "lost" to CD1 (Click map to download the full PDF)
New maps uploaded to the Los Angeles redistricting website show a much different redistricting plan for Echo Park’s CD13 and CD1 map lines than previous proposals. And, according to the LA Times, the redistricting commission approved the new maps last week, which means the proposal will head to the City Council fore review next month.
While a lot of the redistricting news has been focused around Koreatown, here in Echo Park there are some minor changes that might be a hot button issue for residents as well as the upcoming council district elections in 2013. GEPENC president Jose Sigala (also in the running for City Council in District 13) expressed on the Echo Elysian Neighborhood Council Forum his concern that the Echo Park Farmers’ Market will be no longer be in CD13, and is asking everyone to sign his online petition.
Whatever happens, it’s all about politics. It doesn’t look like Echo Park will be combined into one council district, and will continue to be divided into council district 13 (currently Eric Garcetti) and council district 1 (currently Ed P. Reyes).
Screenshot from echoparklake.com
Tonight is a meeting of the oversight committee and odor monitoring group of the Echo Park Lake rehabilitation project. All are invited to attend to get updates about the project, and share information on how you think things are going.
Echo Park Lake Rehab Meeting
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 6:30 pm
St. Paul’s Cathedral, located at 840 Echo Park Avenue
From the placeit.org website
SATURDAY, January 14, 2012
10:00 am – 12:30 pm
@ The Echo Country Outpost, 1770 Glendale Blvd. in Echo Park
Echo Park Improvement Association member and activist Josh Post, who organized the recent Glendale Boulevard community cleanup, has put together a great event this weekend that will help further the efforts to get fix up the historic Echo Park corridor for good.
Urban planner James Rojas is leading a workshop on, you guessed it, urban planning! Using props, blocks and salvaged items, workshop goers will create individual 3-D models reflecting how members of the community would like to see Glendale Boulevard used and changed. Ideas will be presented to the group and discussed, and results of the workshop will be shared with local government and organizations.
Rojas was just featured in the LA Times for his work on his project in Long Beach. The event is free, and everyone is welcome to come share ideas for change and have some fun!
RSVP is recommended. Email echopark@patch.com to rsvp or with questions.
Amish journey from homespun to hipster – LA Times
How Refuge salon and Form Academy owner Miriam Jones went from an Omish upbringing to Echo Park.
Capping an era of L.A. oil exploration – LA Times
This week the city started plugging an old oil well just south of Glendale Boulevard and Rockwood Street to make way for a 45-unit apartment complex. Just up the street, where the Echo Park Pool is now, was the first oil well in Los Angeles.
Robert DeLong’s electronic dance music residency, Monday nights at Los Globos – Examiner.com
If only we didn’t have to work on the weekdays! The Examiner.com gives out rave reviews for Echo Park resident Robert DeLong’s Monday night residency at Los Globos: “He is salvaging what is left of everything great about electronic music and creating something fresh and so immediately appealing that you can’t help but start moving to the music as soon as he starts playing.”
Planning board supports Elysian Heights coffee house plan to serve wine and beer – The Eastsider LA
Fix Coffee in Elysian Heights is one step closer to serving beer and wine after an appeal failed to convince the planning board to block the application. The coffee shop will still need to obtain a state beer and wine license from ABC.
Every ten years, the city takes a look at the borders of each district to ensure those commmunities are getting fair representation in the city. That’s the idea anyways – and that’s why we’re getting involved. There have been rumors about combining Echo Park into one council district instead of two – a very small but not forgotten portion of Echo Park is represented by CD1, which is Reyes’ district. The redistricting process could affect Echo Park, and it’s up to the members of the community to make sure any changes in the borders are in our best interest.
The commission in charge of redistricting is holding a series of public hearings where we can share our thoughts and opinions on the redistricting. As Echo Park residents, we should be attending both CD13 and CD1 meetings, which are on Saturday and Monday, respectively:
Council District 1
Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 11:00 am
St. Peter’s Italian Catholic Church
1039 N. Broadway 90012
Council District 13
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Los Angeles City College Theatre
855 N. Vermont Avenue 90029
Click here for the full schedule PDF, which includes all council districts and the meeting dates. Public comments can also be submitted ahead of time by downloading this PDF, and email the form to redistricting.lacity@lacity.org
You can also follow the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission on Facebook and Twitter.
h/t Cindy Marie Jenkins for keeping us informed!
We’ll see you tomorrow!
A lot has happened for Echo Park in 2011… Our personal lives got a bit busier – I got married and had a grand celebration, and have been spending all my free time this year involved in many civic activities. We’re still living in the same spot, for about 6.5 years now, doing laundry across the street from Masa, but we’re hitting up some new watering holes. And that’s the big news for our community – Echo Park became a destination for our libation of choice (if there’s no tequila): Beer! Redefining Echo Park as a beer destination are two new establishments, Mohawk Bend and Sunset Beer Company, along with a slew of new beer/wine permits at existing locations. Xoia and Fix Coffee are the most recent ones, and about to join in on the fun are Red Hill and Cookbook’s new restaurant on the eastern end.
Land-use issues defined a lot of our time spent on civic activities, including the proposed 74-unit complex at the former Echo Park Community Gardens, 7-11 vying for a spot on Glendale Boulevard, and lots of community cleanups. Next year there will be a lot of new places to dine at (Cookbook, Red Hill, a new pizza place, and probably more), and hopefully we’ll get some more food trucks coming through.
And in case you missed it all, here’s a few things to get you updated – our top three posts of 2011 (based on how many times you all visited).
What they found at the bottom of Echo Park Lake
We got the scoop on what (and how many) they officially found at the bottom of the lake after the lake draining and some dredging. So if you were taking bets, they found 20 trash cans, one toilet, and two guns (and no dead bodies, guys).
A modern Echo Park Lake draining in pictures
As much as we want our lake back, the two year rehabilitation project (which started in August 2011) started off with a slew of images from many Echo Park residents. We’ve even got our own webcam of the lake progress, courtesy of a couple of nearby residents and their camera. Unfortunately the article sparked some debate, for a reason we’re not sure about, the comments sparked debate about the whole eastside vs. not eastside, which we won’t touch with a ten foot pole.
Maria the Goose takes up new residency away from Echo Park Lake
The infamous Maria the Goose was moved away from the lake in March 2011 to her new pad at the Los Angeles Zoo. The impending Echo Park Lake rehab project was, at that time, scheduled for that spring (it didn’t end up starting until August). Her bestie, Dominic Elhrer, was on the zoo guest list and was allowed to visit. But of course, once she got to the zoo, the veterinarians discovered she was a HE – and aptly renamed the goose Mario. We’re still partial to Maria…
Last year we made some promises of “Echo Parkian” things to do in 2011. We still haven’t read the Madonnas of Echo Park, but we’ve been reading a lot more after joining a book club. We haven’t climbed all the stairs year either, but got really close during the pre-wedding intense workouts I was doing. We have been doing a lot more farmers’ market shopping, have supported local businesses, and even wrote a lot of articles. We did the most amazing thing ever as an Angeleno and saw the lunar eclipse and sunrise at Griffith Park – that’s going to be hard to top!
For 2012… well, we got a new camera this year, so we will be taking a LOT more photos of Echo Park to document its place in the digital history books. We hope to write more articles on the sister blog, Atwater Village Now. We’d still love to have some more writers contribute to the website, so if you’re looking for an excuse to get out there in Echo Park and write about something or someone, do it! There’s no better way to get to know your community better!
A lot of people keep asking about advertising on Echo Park Now, and I’ll just say it’s not looking like that’s going to happen any time soon, but you’ll be the first to know if we do!
And finally, we’d like to wish everyone a wonderful new year. May 2012 be the best year yet!
Happy New Year!
The Echo Park Improvement Association is holding itss regularly scheduled Neighborhood Issues Committee meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, December 21). The agenda includes a presentation by representatives from 7-11, who were also present at the last committee meeting. They’ll likely be addressing the same concerns by the neighborhood, including parking, the beer and wine permit, and traffic, among other issues.
With an approval by the neighborhood council, and the corporation’s willingness to work with neighborhood organizations means our magic ball predicts 7-11 will get the space. We’ll see what happens with the vote by the city after the start of the new year.
Also on the agenda are the developers from the Morton Village project, which has been left uncompleted for quite some time now.
Echo Park Improvement Association Neighborhood Issues Committee meeting
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Williams Hall, Barlow Hospital, 2000 Stadium Way
Agenda
We hate to admit this is only our second Echo Park Community Parade that we’ve been able to attend, but so far it’s our favorite!
There were over 60 entries in this year’s parade, themed “‘Tis the Season.” In addition to local schools, drill teams, cheer squads, and elected officials, there were a few Echo Park businesses and organizations participating in the parade lineup. Amongst those were The Echo Park Time Bank, Edendale Library Friends Society (ELFS), The Warehouse and The Classroom, Mi Alma, 826LA, and others. Maryanne Hayashi of the Central City Action Committee was accompanied by three generations of her family – her daughter, grand-daughter, and her two-year-old great grand-daughter!
Community members that have greatly contributed to our Echo park were give special recognition as ambassadors. Mitch O’Farrell from Eric Garcetti’s Office was honored as the Grand Marshal. Parade Ambassadors included Holly Calhoun of the Echo Park Farmers’ Market, the Echo Park Improvement Association, Masa of Echo Park Bakery & Café, and Albert Torres of Recreation & Parks.
And, as parade committee members told me today, everyone was a winner! All entries received a trophy for participating. It would have been hard to pick any winners, all the entries were fabulous!
Check out our photos below:
// ]]>
Major kudos goes to Jesus Sanchez of The Eastsider LA! It was announced yesterday he’s being honored by the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists as one of five “Distinguished Journalist” winners of the year. His work in the category of “Distinguished Work in New Media” earned him this top spot, and is among other fine honorees in different categories, including Lisa Bartley (ABC7 investigative producer), Bob Moon (radio’s Marketplace), Bob Pool (LA Times), and Howard Fine (LA Business Journal).
Sanchez’s background includes 25 years in the journalism business, and was one of the LA Times newsroom’s first online reporters. And of course, he lives in Echo Park!
All the award winners will receive their honors in the spring.
Click here to read more about the awards and its winners on LA Observed.
The old Phoenix Bakery on Echo Park Avenue and Montana has few remnants of the old bakery days left – just a sticker-covered “free parking for Phoenix Express” remains. Although the magnificent mural on the Montana side is still there, a fresh coat of a burnt-orange paint is an indication that things are moving along for the upcoming opening of the much anticipated restaurant, Red Hill.
LA Weekly has the grand opening pegged as early as next week, on Tuesday, December 13, 2011, which also happens to be owner Jason Michaud’s birthday. Jason is not only an Echo Park resident, he and his wife own vintage store Tosen in Echo Park, the restaurant Local in Silver Lake, and a new restaurant in downtown called Local Express.
When we spoke to Jason last January, Red Hill was primarily going to focus on American cuisine, and would be open for brunch, lunch and dinner, with a primary focus on dinner. They also applied for a beer and wine license this year, which received the support of the neighborhood council.
The name Red Hill refers to a part of Echo Park/Elysian Heights history much older than I – the area was known to be a secluded and safe hub for artists, radicals, socialists and free-thinkers of all sorts. Communists joined them in the 1920s during the first Red Scare (a lot came from Boyle Heights), earning Echo Park the nickname of Red Hill (as well as “Red Gulch”).
Red Hill is located at 1325 Echo Park Avenue. Follow them on Twitter.