Tag Archive for: echo park

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Echo Park Beautification with Garcetti’s Office

The first Echo Park Beautification was scheduled for late February, but all that rain interfered with the events.

This time the Beautification project will take place on Saturday, May 1, 8:45 am at the Echo Park Walgreens parking lot (1625 W. Sunset Blvd). Join Council President Eric Garcetti, members from the Positive Energy Group, Echo Park TAP, GEPENC, and volunteers from Kaiser Permanente and the Big Sunday Organization.

The morning will start out with refreshments and instructions, followed by a couple of hours of some beautification labor, all for the purpose of continuing to make Echo Park a little brighter.

Download the flyer here.

Please contact Field Deputy Alejandra Marroquin of the LA City Council at Alejandra.Marroquin@lacity.org, or call 323-957-4500 for more information.

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Sunday: Mishka Lunch Truck Day

Shop Echo Park Avenue and fill your belly with mobile food goodies on Sunday, April 25 in front of Mishka L.A. from 12 noon – 4:00 pm.

Dosa Truck (Indian sourdough crepes), Mandoline Grill (Vietnamese cuisine), and Lomo Arigato (Japanese cuisine) trucks will be feeding you for the day.

Mishka L.A. is located at 1547 Echo Park Ave.

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Echo Park Lake Walking Tour Tomorrow

The Echo Park Historical Society is hosting its Echo Park Lake Walking Tour tomorrow, Saturday, April 24 at 10:00 am.

According to the EPHS website, the tour will include “some of the neighborhood’s most prominent landmarks, such as Jensen’s Recreation Center, Angelus Temple and, of course, the lake. The tour takes about two hours to complete and includes several stairways. Building interiors are not included. Reservations required. The tours are free for EPHS members; we ask a $5 donation of all others.”

Make your reservation by calling (323) 860-8874, or e-mail your name, the number of people in your group, your phone number and the name and date of the tour.

The tour starts at the Echo Park Lake Boathouse, located at 751 Echo Park Ave.

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Friday Night In Echo Park

Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now, Ezra Furman and The Harpoons at The Echo:

9pm. $8. 18+

If you don’t know the gimmick yet, Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now is all about rewriting the biggest mistakes in pop history. Whether it’s telling Avril Lavigne to back off or correcting the likes of Bob Dylan on “Think Twice (It’s Not Alright)”, they’ve corrected some grave injustices in the popular musical landscape. But if you’re still not sure what’s going on, you can get a first-hand look when the band, lead by Art Brut’s Eddie Argos and The Blood Arm’s Dyan Valdes, tour the U.S. and Canada this April and May.

The tour kicks off April 23rd in Los Angeles, CA and darts all across the U.S. and into Toronto and Montreal before wrapping up on May 26th in Phoenix, AZ. In an interview with NME recently, Argos said he was excited to get out on the road, especially to get ahead of work on his day job band.

“I’m really looking forward to the tour,” Argos said. “Unfortunately Dave Newton, who played the European tour and SXSW shows, can’t make it. We have Ian Catskilkin from Art Brut instead, which will be useful for writing the next Art Brut album.” – Consequence of Sound

with resident DJs spinning the best in Brit / Indie / Soul / Twee / Madchester / Punk / Glam

Find out more at ClubUnderground.net.

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Earth Week: Green Shopping and Services in Echo Park

There are a bunch of business in Echo Park that offer eco-friendly goods and services. Here are just a few:

  • E.P.I.C (Echo Park Independent Co-op) sells locally-made fashions and one of it’s co-founders, Rhianon Jones, is a huge supporter of eco-fashion.
  • Warwick on Sunset is all about recycling household items and re-styling vintage clothing.
  • Tavin boutique offers vintage collectibles and new local eco-designs. And through the end of the month, they’re offering free shipping on all Etsy orders.
  • Feeding Birds Boutique is a vintage store in Echo Park that carries unique clothing (including organic tees), accessories and decorative objects.
  • This week at Vons, they’ll deliver your groceries for free if you buy five earth-friendly products online.
  • Masa uses lots of organic, local produce in their foods, and they’ve started to use eco-friendly packaging and doing away with plastic bags for take out (unless you’re desperate).
  • The Echo Park Time Bank conserves energy in a very unique way: by getting rid of the middle man and the use of currency.
  • Aisling Walsh is the Maid on a Moped. She’s got both an online local vintage store and she offers eco-friendly cleaning services.
  • The Echo Park Film Center has an eco-friendly option for film education – the Echo Park Film Mobile is an old school bus transformed into an eco-friendly mobile cinema and educational facility, providing free documentary film screenings and filmmaking workshops in non-traditional venues.
  • Delilah’s Bakery recycles all of their food waste through a Los Angeles-based company called Athens Waste Management. The company also supplies Delilah’s with its compostable packaging for take-away orders, and offers an oil waste collection service as well.
  • The Green Beacon Foundation, located in Elysian Heights, focuses on environmental educational, teaching you how to lead more sustainable lives through workshops and lectures. The next workshop called “Intro to Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy” is in May, visit the website for more info.
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Fire at Sunset and Douglas in Echo Park

From WeiNeverSleeps Tweetphoto

At around 4:00 pm today, a fire broke out in a median near the corner of Douglas and Sunset Blvd. The Eastsider LA is reporting that firefighters do not yet know what caused the fire.

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Tonight: Echo Park Hospitality Night

Join Warwick vintage store tonight for Echo Park Hospitality Night, starting at 8:00 pm. Warwick is launching a few new lines of vintage wear, including jewelry by Dark + Dawn and Birds of a Feather. In addition to the new lines, the store will feature art by Cody Comrie and music by Patrick Melcher.

Click here to view the Facebook event page.

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Earth Week: Recycling How-to’s in Echo Park

When I first moved to Echo Park a few years ago, one of my primary questions had to do with recycling in the neighborhood. I was concerned about some pretty basic stuff, like what to recycle in the blue bin, but I also wanted to make sure I wasn’t throwing away items that didn’t belong in either bin.

General Recycling in your blue bin:

  • Styrofoam: This was my biggest surprise about L.A. County recycling. The Styrofoam containers and cups you get to-go from a restaurant are recyclable – just rinse it out so it’s nice and clean and you’re good to go.
  • Clean, dry paper
  • Cardboard Boxes and Chipboard (even your frozen food boxes that aren’t heavily coated in wax.)
  • Flattened metals such as aluminum, tin, cans, etc. Rinse them out or clean them off. Empty paint and aerosol cans are also recyclable when you remove the caps.
  • Glass bottles and jars
  • Clean plastics 1 through 7
  • Plastic bags and film bags such as grocery bags and clean film plastic.
  • Miscellaneous plastics like coat hangers and even plastic swimming pools.

Click here to view the Bureau of Sanitation’s full list of do’s and dont’s for blue bin recycling.

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Earth Week: Echo Park Clean Up for Sunday

In celebration of Earth Day, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Cleanup Project is hosting an Echo Park Cleanup Day on Sunday, April 25 at 10:00 am.

Donuts and supplies will be provided, and anyone in the community is welcome to join. The group will be meeting at the Walgreens parking lot at 10:00 am.

Click here for information about the L.A. Neighborhood Cleanup Project and its cleanup efforts around the city.

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Earth Week: Echo Park Film Center Screening and more

In honor of Earth Day, the Echo Park Film Center will be presenting the film Earth by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko. Earth is a 1930 Soviet film about an insurrection by a community of farmers, following a hostile takeover by affluent landowners. “One of the undisputed masterpieces of the cinema, no single viewing of Earth will ever reveal all of its poetic brilliance… The story itself is secondary to the visually stunning and incredibly moving images that Dovzhenko creates.” Thursday, April 22 @ 8:00 pm

Also playing soon at the Echo Park Film Center:

Saturday, April 24 @ 8:00 pm – FLORESTINE COLLECTION FUNDRAISER
Helen Hill was an experimental filmmaker and film teacher who made many fun, inspiring, and original short films. At the time of her murder in New Orleans in January 2007, Helen was working on The Florestine Collection, a thirty-minute animation and live action documentary about 100 hand-sewn dresses she found in the trash on the side of the road. Her husband Paul Gailiunas decided to finish the movie as a 16 mm film and needs to raise funds for the last steps in the filmmaking process. Please join us to see a ten-minute preview of The Florestine Collection, as well as other short experimental films by Helen, and several of her filmmaking friends. Treats provided! Admission is $5.

Thursday, April 29 @ 8:00 pm – GIRLS N’ GHOULS
Feminism isn’t dead – it’s undead! EPFC, along with EdibleBrains Productions, presents an evening of female voices in zombie film, zombie music and zombie art. “The Dead Walk in Brooklyn” zombie film trilogy will be presented with live musical accompaniment by local Echo Park band PioneerShips. EdibleBrains is a bicoastal, female centric production company dedicated to pieces written and produced by women in the science fiction and horror genres for film, theater and multimedia art. Go here for more info.

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Traffic Collision in Echo Park

A traffic collision that occurred around noon today on Sunset Blvd and Lemyone in Echo Park has really backed up traffic – driving down Sunset we tracked the delayed cars to around Silver Lake Blvd. Quite a few Dodger fans were running late to the game as the tow trucks cleared out the vehicles about 40 minutes ago. Try an alternative route for a while, it looks like things are still a little slow on Sunset.

The Eastsider LA has reported that one of the vehicles ended up on the sidewalk, and “one nearby Echo Park restaurant owner said it appeared that a westbound vehicle ran a red light. The Eastsider is awaiting more info about the accident and any possible injuries from the LAPD Central Traffic Bureau.”

Be safe out there!

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Did You Turn in Your Census, Echo Park?

According to an LA Weekly article, the California Community Foundation has found that one of Los Angeles’ least-counted areas in the 2010 Census includes the Echo Park/Hollywood communities.

“For the first time in census history, we have access to information that can really help us focus our outreach efforts,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO of the foundation. The early data gives groups like the CCF and its partners an opportunity to give underrepresented communities a second chance to be included in the census, according to the LA Weekly article.

As of early April, the Hollywood/Echo Park communities have a 42.8% participation rate, compared to a national average of 67% and a countywide average of 64%.

Other under-counted areas include Koreatown, 110 Corridor in South L.A. Long Beach, South West area, the North Valley and Boyle Heights.

While we will have to wait a few months (the Census data is supposed to be released to the government on or before December 31, 2010) to see exactly what the data reflects, here are some interesting Echo Park facts from the 2000 Census, provided by the LA Times Mapping LA Neighborhoods Project:

  • The population of Echo Park from the 2000 Census was 40,455 (about average in comparison to the rest of the city’s neighborhoods), compared to an estimated 43,832 for 2008
  • Echo Park consists of 2.4 square miles, but with 16,867 people per square mile is among the highest densities in the city
  • Latinos make up a majority of the population with 64%, while 18.9% are Asian, 12.9% White, 2.3% Other, and 2.0% Black
  • $37,708 median household income (low in comparison to the rest of the city) with an average of 3.0 people per household (which is high).
  • 76.0% of households are renters (high in comparison to the rest of the city)

Click here to read more statistics about Echo Park in the year 2000 from the LA Times project.

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Flashback Fridays: Chavez Ravine (Part 1)

Photo of Chavez Ravine by Don Normark.

Ever heard of Chavez Ravine? A lot of people haven’t (even those who live right next to it) as it doesn’t really exist anymore. It was the neighborhood that the city of L.A. bulldozed in order to build Dodger’s Stadium. But that’s a whole other ball of wax, and a piece of history that will definitely be addressed in my next post. But I figured (what with baseball season beginning this week) it would be timely to write a Chavez Ravine-related post.

Julian Chavez was the man after which Chavez Ravine was named and the original “owner” of the land on which Dodger’s Stadium now sits. Chavez came to California from New Mexico in the 1830s. At the time, California was part of Mexico and was transitioning from being dominated by Spanish-owned missions to being divided into ranchos. During this period, one had only to petition the ayuntamiento (city council) and ask for a piece of land. In this way, Chavez acquired the 83 acres of land near downtown in 1844 that became known as Chavez Canyon.

His land was used by the county as the site of a pest farm/isolation hospital (I can only imagine that this would be a place that they sent people to die) during the 1850s and 1880s when there were local smallpox outbreaks. It was primarily used to house Chinese and Mexicans who suffered from the disease. A smallpox hospice was on the site of Dodger’s Stadium. Isn’t this interesting?!?!

In 1846, California passed from Mexican to American hands. Six years later, in 1852, Chavez was elected to the first L.A. County Board of Supervisors. He continued to serve the city in various roles until his death in 1879.

Stay tuned for next week’s installment of Flashback Fridays: Chavez Ravine!

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Is it another crackdown?

A resident posted on the Echo Elysian Neighborhood Council forum information this afternoon about the fruit cart vendor on Echo Park Avenue and Sunset Boulevard:

As we were driving down EP Ave. today, I was telling my son how excited I was that there was a fresh squeezed orange juice vendor on the corner of Sunset/EP. To my horror, we reached Sunset where police cars and Public Safety trucks were carting off the fruit vendors. As a public health nurse, I appreciate the health and safety concerns, but feel there should be a way to facilitate their presence. They really do provide a public good- people have access to fresh fruit with more selection than the bottled-in-plastic stuff you buy in the store. They are a part of what makes EP “old neighborhood,” and I think should be preserved. Does anyone know why they were carted off?

It may be the Health Department conducting a “crackdown” of some kind on the food vendors in Echo Park. We’ll keep you updated if more information becomes available.

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Grilled Cheese Sampler at AYC is Cheesylicious

AYC's Grilled Cheese Sampler

Guanabana with gin

Last Tuesday night was Allston Yacht Club’s first Grilled Cheese Night in honor of National Grilled Cheese Month, and we think they’ve got the right idea serving up a four grilled cheese sampler to gear up for the Grilled Cheese Invitational on April 24.

The happy hour drink of the evening was called something along the lines of a fruity gin concoction, consisting of guanabana nectar, gin and lime with a campari float. It was a really refreshing drink after walking around Echo Park earlier in the evening.

As far as the sampler went, I wasn’t surprised that it was delicious (most of the menu items at AYC are well-prepared). The samplers went like this: White cheddar cheese with green chili pepper, goat cheese with basil pesto, Swiss cheese with balsamic roasted onions, and feta cheese with olive tapenade and roma tomatoes, all served on a soft, buttery french baguette. My favorite was the feta with tapenade, and I was most surprised by the cheddar with green chili peppers (I don’t normally enjoy green chili peppers, but the balance between cheese and chili was just right). Overall, the experience was delightful, and the service excellent as always.

Don’t miss out – the next Grilled Cheese Night is on Tuesday, April 20. They’ve also revived some new happy hour specials: from 5:30 – 7:00 pm, house wine, imported beers and selected cocktails are $4, and four rotating snack selections for $4 each.

Allston Yacht Club is located 1320 Echo Park Ave.

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