Tag Archive for: echo park

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Your Echo Park Weekend Guide

There’s a lot going on this weekend, and we thought it best to give it all to you in one concise post. Here goes:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Click here to check out The Eastsider LA weekend edition for other events going on in Silver Lake, Highland Park and other neighboring communities.

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Upcoming Events at the Echo Park Film Center

Friday, May 21 at 7:30 pm – CONSTANTINE’S SWORD (PRESENTED BY THE UNION OF PROGRESSIVE IRANIANS) Join us for a night of food, conversation and activism. Our friends and neighbors the Union of Progressive Iranians bring you this powerful film. CONSTANTINE’S SWORD, by Oscar-nominated documentarian Oren Jacoby, is an astonishing exploration of the dark side of Christianity, following acclaimed author and former priest James Carroll on a journey of remembrance and reckoning. DINNER PROVIDED. $5 admission.

Thursday, May 27 at 8:00 pm – VOICES OF LATIN AMERICA: THE OTHER CONQUEST/LA OTRA CONQUISTA Join us for a special evening celebrating the poetry and power of independent Latin American cinema with a screening of “The Other Conquest,” a 2000 Mexican feature film written and directed by Salvador Carrasco. This beautifully visual film tells the story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico from the perspective of the indigenous Aztec people, using original locations such as the pyramid of Tenayuca in Mexico City and the archaeological site of Xochicalco to bring authenticity and history to the filmmaking process. FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!

Friday, May 28 at 7:45 pm – CINEMA SPEAKEASY PRESENTS ART BY CHANCE: The Largest Public Art Event Ever! For this festival, you don’t need to buy a ticket or go to a movie theater! Movies just pop into your lives in subways, buses, airports, shopping malls, trains, sports centers, art galleries, museums, plains, campuses, cafes and bars! Internationally selected and “TIME” themed creative short films catch you unexpectedly while traveling in the subway, waiting at the airport, shopping or just strolling around. ART BY CHANCE is taking place May 7 though June 4 in over 100 cities worldwide. Go here for more info. Bring: Your happy self and a noisemaking machine. We will be creating our own soundtrack to these silent short films!

Saturday, May 29 at 8:00 pm – WESTERN NOIR & MORE: MUSIC BY FUNERAL CLUB & TIPPY CANOE
Come on down for a shimmering night of music and images from Funeral Club (Bakersfield), Tippy Canoe (Oakland) and The Here & Now (Echo Park). Go here for more info.

Information provided by the Echo Park Film Center website.

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Cuban Music Festival in Echo Park

The 16th Annual Cuban Music Festival is taking place on Sunday, May 23, from 12:00 noon – 7:00 pm at the Echo Park Lake.

Performers include: Rumbankete, The Echo Park Project, Susie Hansen Latin Band, and DJ Saoco.

The event is free! As usual in the park, there will be plenty of international food, crafts, and clothing on sale.

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City May Eliminate Non-Profit Lease Program

A proposal by the Mayor’s Chief Administrative Officer is on the agenda for the City Council meeting on Wednesday, May 26, and will, if approved, eliminate the $1 per year lease subsidies for nonprofit organizations in city-owned buildings. Community organizations all across Los Angeles will be affected if approved by the City Council, just one of many disappointing cuts in light of the city’s fiscal crisis.

Here in Echo Park, the Central City Action Committee is particularly concerned about this program. The organization has taken up residence at the old fire station on the corner of Edgware and Bellevue for the last 10 years. Should the $1 per year subsidies be cut, there is growing concern over the future of the CCAC as all its grant money goes to graffiti removal, and youth jobs and programs in Echo Park and surrounding neighborhoods. In addition, CCAC director MaryAnne Hayashi is concerned that there have been no studies to help determine the negative impact on the communities that this proposal will have.

The CCAC is an important organization in Echo Park (and other neighborhoods of course) not only because of the graffiti removal, but also because of the youth programs it offers to the community. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, the CCAC was honored at Dodger Stadium with a “2010 Good Neighbor Award” baseball bat, The Eastsider LA reported, for its contributions to the youth community.

We need to support organizations like the CCAC and tell the city to support our important non-profits. The original vote was supposed to take place on Wednesday, May 19, but was pushed back another week even though the cut is supposed to take effect on July 1 (which doesn’t give the CCAC much time to prepare). Here’s what you can do to help:

  • Call or email your City Council rep, click here for a list of phone numbers. Tell them to oppose the proposal.
  • Attend the meeting and give public testimony in opposition to the proposal. The meeting is on Wednesday, May 26 at City Hall, Room 340,  200 North Spring St. Los Angeles, CA 90012 (for times, keep an eye out for the meeting agenda, but will probably occur between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm).
  • Arts For LA is another non-profit that is campaigning against this proposal. They have provide some detailed information and great suggestions on how to write your letters and word your phone calls to get the point across. Click here.

To follow what’s going on with this issue, you can actually subscribe via RSS feed and get updates when something happens. You can click here or go to the City Clerk website and search for file number 08-2762.

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Which Echo Park Dispensaries Will Close?

Earlier this month, the City of Los Angeles ordered 439 medical marijuana dispensaries to close by June 7, and it looks like all of those facilities in Echo Park are amongst those. According to the LA Times, the following Echo Park dispensaries may disappear in the next couple of weeks:

Divine Healing, A Nonprofit Corporation: 2501 W. Sunset Bl
Green Mile Medical Herbs: 2501 Sunset Bl, #D
Holistic Care Collective: 1302 W. Sunset Bl 90026
Innovative Health Care Collective Inc.: 3515 Sunset Bl
Natural Choice Healing Center Inc.: 2811 W. Sunset Blvd.
Sunset Discount Providers: 1498 Sunset Bl
Sunset Organic Center: 2210 Sunset Bl
Temple Herbal Collective: 2530 Temple St
The Alternate Root: 1547 Sunset Bl
West Coast Collective Inc.: 1284 W. Sunset Bl

(Click here for the PDF source of the above addresses)

LA Times map dispensaries closing down

Read the full LA Times article here, and check out the full interactive map here (there seem to be a couple of discrepancies with some addresses, so pay close attention).

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The Edendale Library Friends Society (ELFS)

Many Echo Park residents are not aware of the existence of the Edendale Library Friends Society (ELFS) which is why I decided to take a pen and a pad to their weekly meeting the other day and find out more about them. I was amazed by how much they have done over the past few years to support both the Edendale Library and the Echo Park community.

The ELFS were founded in 2004 by Joelle and Judy when the Edendale branch of the LAPL opened. Since then, they’ve put an estimated $13,000 per year into the Edendale Library in the form of books, periodicals, DVDs, equipment and supplies and special programs. A lot of the library’s resources would not exist without their efforts. They get money from memberships, the Elysian Park Neighborhood Council and their weekly used book sales.

The weekly used book sale happens at the Edendale Library every Wednesday from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. The ELFS also help to run classes at the library for kids and adults. They are currently planning a mixer to be held sometime in the middle of June, in the hopes of getting individuals and local business owners to join. Their goal is not to raise money for themselves but to raise money for library and awareness of the kind of resources it offers.

Go to their Facebook page to learn more about them and their upcoming events. We’ve included some photos below of their postcard/letter writing campaign to save L.A.’s libraries from reduced hours and budget cuts.

Read more

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Saturday: Lucretia Stairway Cleanup in Echo Park

Set your alarm early tomorrow morning (Saturday, May 15) and help fellow community members clean up the neglected Lucretia Stairway (h/t Eastsider LA), located on Lucretia Avenue between Delta and Grafton (click here for map). Bring your coffee, some supplies and meet at 8:00 am on the corner of Grafton and Lucretia.

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Flashback Fridays – The Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Sutherland

It’s probably caught your eye at some point while strolling around the neighborhood: a golden rooftop situated near the top of that one hill, elusive, not visible from just anywhere. Well, I hate to spoil the mystery for you, but it’s the St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and it’s located at 1456 Sutherland Street. Sutherland is one of the steeper streets in Echo Park, but I recommend walking up it in order to see this fine piece of religious architecture. Or you can just sneak a peak at it from that grassy area at the top of Douglas and Quintero (see photo above).

Echo Park seems like an odd place for a Ukrainian Orthodox church to be located until you realize that Echo Park has always been a haven for outsiders, free-thinkers, artists, bohemians and even refugees from other countries. Below is some of the text from a Los Angeles Times* article that I found from December 16, 1957 commemorating the dedication of the church.

On an Echo Park district hill in a converted mansion yesterday people jammed tightly into a 20 x 20 foot room and stood for two hours. The ceremonies were performed in the little St. Andrew’s Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at 1456 Sutherland St. Its membership includes only 85 families.

This one had escaped from Siberia through China. That one and his wife had fled to the West. The next one had seen his parents shot. This teen-ager had been baptized in the Ukraine at the risk of his parents’ lives. Still another was the last member of a large family – the only one to live through both Communist and Nazi persecution. The church was started principally with refugee members seven years ago in a rented hall. Four years ago the congregation bought the outdated mansion for $20,000, and since then has rebuilt it into a church.

The church’s website also contains lots of information on Ukrainian culture and history. I recommend checking it out if you’re interested in world history. I had never heard of the Holodomor before.

*All Los Angeles Times newspapers from 1881 to 1986 have been scanned and are searchable, viewable and printable from any computer at the LA Public Library!

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FERMENT [cheese] at Machine Project this Sunday – SOLD OUT!

Image via Machine Project website

This Sunday, May 16 @ 3:00 pm, Machine Project and Sue Conley and Chris Kallmyer present FERMENT [cheese].

Sue Conley, cheese-maker and founder of the Cowgirl Creamery and sound artist Chris Kallmyer have developed a multi-media collaboration based on their mutual love of cheese and the fermented arts.

At this event, Sue will speak on art of cheese making, the sustainable qualities of artisan and farmstead agriculture, and share tastes of fresh milk, young curd, and aged Mt Tam. During the lecture/tasting/concert, Chris will provide music to eat cheese to: Incorporating field recordings of John Taverna’s Dairy and the Cowgirl’s facilities with trumpet, harmonium, and cowbells.

Go here for more info and to buy tickets. Cost is $5.

This workshop is now sold out. But you can email them at machine@machineproject.com to get put on the waiting list.

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Upcoming Shows at Taix 321 Lounge

Thursday, May 13 @ 1o:30 pm –  RACHEL IN THE WEEDS (RESIDENCY)

Friday, May 14 @ 10:30 pm – MATHER LOUTH AND RADIO NOIR and CHARMKIN REBELLION @11:30 pm

Saturday, May 15 @ 10:30 pm – KINGSIZEMAYBE and @ 11:30 pm JOHNZO WEST

Wednesday, May 19 @ 10:30 pm EDEN EDEN and VIM @ 11:30 pm

Located inside Taix Restaurant (1911 Sunset Blvd.). No cover. 21+

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Curbed LA Voters Rename the “Not Eastside”

As we wrote a couple of weeks ago, Curbed LA reignited the “Eastside” debate and decided to refer to everything east of Western and west of the Los Angeles River as something other than the “Eastside.” Well, they put it to an online vote, and here are the results:

Curbed LA votes tallied

Missing from the vote was the option to keep it the Eastside, or a “none of the above” option. A few readers on the original Curbed LA post did bring this up, one commenter writing, “I thought it was called ‘The Eastside’ while East LA was … well east of the LA River…”

Frankly, none of those names seem appealing nor will it settle any debate (Middle Earth?). However, Curbed LA seems to be following through as a recent post announces that “North Central is both geographically and culturally descriptive” for the area. So it seems from now on, Curbed LA will be referring to Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz, etc. as “North Central,” but don’t expect others to follow (The Eastsider LA renamed “North Central LA”? I don’t think so!). We’ll see how long it sticks for Curbed LA.

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Echo Park Lake Swap Meet Update

A new round of discussions about the swap meet at the Echo Park lake is taking place on the Echo Elysian Neighborhood Council Forum, starting with a resident who drove by the Park at nearly 2:00 am last Saturday night and noticed the “whole north end of the park was already ringed with blankets.” After some discussion, Alejandra Marroquin from Garcetti’s office chimed in with an update, writing:

Read more

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Fire Hydrant taken out at Glendale and Scott

Photo via The Eastsider LA

Oops! A car took out a fire hydrant at the Chevron station on the corner of Scott and Glendale Blvd. The Eastsider LA reports the accident happened before 12 noon, but no word on what caused the accident.

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Weeds got you down? Durbin Project Overgrowth

We received an email the other day from an Echo Park resident about his frustrations with the human-sized weeds growing along Echo Park Avenue’s Durbin project. The weeds, he writes, are “DRIVING ME CRAZY!” So much, that he’s willing to borrow your weed eater and take care of it himself.

Unfortunately, it seems the only progress that’s being made are the weeds. There haven’t been any recent updates on the status of the Durbin project, located along Echo Park Avenue and Delta Street. For those of you who are new to the area or this issue, a Mount Washington-based developer sold the property to the Angeles Group in late 2006. The ground breaking ceremony was held in 2008, and the project supposed to be completed in April 2009. Since the financial crisis, the property is now owned by OneWest Bank, and so far there’s no word on any plans to finish or clean up the project.

Durbin project rendering

One Echo Park resident commented on a recent Eastsider LA article about the property, saying they had emailed the Angeles Group, and the response they got from the group’s Adam O’Neill is as follows:

I absolutely understand your frustration. This property is totally in the hands of OneWest Bank. I am forwarding your email to them right now. OneWest made a sweetheart deal with the government and we have tried to work this out with the bank and have been unsuccessful as they have little motivation. Their incentive is not to work it out. It is terrible what the bank has done and we truly have tried to do everything in our power but our efforts have fallen on deaf ears. The local council office has been involved and are working through their channels to get the bank to take some action.

What can we do about the weeds, debris, and buckling fencing? First off, please email Eric Garcetti’s office and ask them to put pressure on OneWest Bank to clean things up. You can also join the community for an Echo Park cleanup, to be held the first Saturday of every month, meeting in the Walgreens parking lot (more information to come soon!).

Community volunteers and leaders are working to get the Durbin project cleaned up and finished up. If you would like to go an extra step and help out, come to an Echo Park Improvement Association meeting, a Chamber of Commerce meeting, or join other community meetings to see what you can do. Click here for our calendar to learn when these meetings are happening.

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Sunday: Mother’s Day 2010 in Echo Park

There are a few specials going on in Echo Park for Mother’s Day tomorrow:

CitySip: A complimentary glass of bubbly for Moms

Tavin: 10% off store-wide through Saturday, May 8. View flyer

Mohawk General Store: 20% off all clothes and shoes through Sunday, May 9. View flyer

Police Academy Restaurant: Serving Mothers Day Brunch, including Roasted Steam Ship Round, Frittata, Pancakes, Hash Browns, links, eggs, muffins, fruit salad, carrot cake, brownies, and more. $25 per person from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Call for reservations: (323) 221.5222 x227.

Masa: A complimentary glass of bubbly for Moms

The Park: Complimentary cranberry biscuits for all Moms during brunch. Today’s special includes Lemon Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes for $7.50.

Did we miss anything? Let us know!

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