Tag Archive for: echo park

May Day in Echo Park, 100 years ago

Provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA.

Today is yet another May Day in Echo Park, and so we bring your attention to a post we published one year ago that brings you back 100 years in the neighborhood. Here goes:

Today is May Day, and 1910 in Echo Park saw 3,000 gatherers at the Echo Park Playground where they crowned Miss Ethel Pruett Queen of May.

“Three thousand men, women and children were present. As many came back for the evening’s part of the program. It was one of the most notable affairs that has ever been recorded in the history of Los Angeles, where children have taken apart.”

The Playground mentioned in this L.A. Herald article refers to a park that used to stretch from Bellevue Avenue south to Temple street, now bisected by the 101 Freeway.

From the Echo Park Historical Society website: “Huge May Day celebrations occupied the outdoor playground, and by 1912 the playground had thousands patrons in a single year, some of whom arrived from downtown on the Pacific Electric streetcar that moved up Glendale Boulevard (then known as Lake Shore).”

Thanks to LAHistory Twitter page for the link to this fun, historic newspaper article!

Huge May Day celebrations occupied the outdoor playground, and by 1912 the playground had thousands patrons in a single year, some of whom arrived from downtown on the Pacific Electric streetcar that moved up Glendale Boulevard (then known as Lake Shore).
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An LA Times video of our awesome neck of the woods

The LA Times takes a close look at some of our favorite Los Angeles neighborhoods (including, of course, Echo Park!) in a video titled, “My LA: Four locals tell all about Echo Park, Griffith Park, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake.”

Included in the video is Shannon Losorelli, store coordinator at 826LA’s Echo Park Time Travel Mart.

FYI, the video ends with a list of places mentioned in the video, including Masa. The restaurant’s website is listed incorrectly – make sure to go to masaofechopark.com if you’re interested…!

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Stay local for Valentine’s Day in Echo Park

‘Tis the season of lurrrrve. Shop and eat and love locally this year for Valentines Day, coming up soon on Monday, February 14! Here’s your Echo Park guide:

  • Feeding Birds Boutique always has great stuff and often sales this time of year (and they just celebrated their second anniversary!)
  • Ohana Flowers (1727 Sunset Blvd., near the corner of Sunset and Lemoyne) are usually open 24 hours around Valentine’s Day for all you who didn’t plan ahead.
  • City Sip will be hosting a Valentine’s Day special: Complimentary bottle of bubbly when you spend $60, and $35 per person for their prixe fixe menu (artisanal cheese and charcuterie platter, caprese or mixed green salad, gourmet panini of your choice, OMG Brownie with peanut butter mousse, or red velvet cake with chocolate grenache frosting). Call 213-483-9463 or email us at Info@citysipla.com for reservations.
  • The Park is closed in Mondays, and thus will be closed for Valentine’s Day. But they encourage those celebrating V Day on Tuesday to come in and try out Prixe Fixe Tuesdays – $15 for a three course meal. Tuesday’s special is shrimp cooked in romesco sauce with wilted spinach and roasted potatoes, and banana chocolate chip upside down cake for dessert. They also started taking 1/2 off bottles of wine on Thursdays! Tempting…
  • If your sweetie likes flan, pick up some delicious treats from the Flan King at the Echo Park Farmers’ Market on Fridays. You can also call 323-960-0770 to place a local order and for delivery.
  • Pick up some organic, locally-made macarons at Delilah Bakery. They are made by new Echo Park residents Bernard and Claire Becker. Yum!
  • Masa is also hosting your Valentine’s dinner from 5:00 pm until 11:00 pm. $45 per couple gets you: Two glasses of champagne, chilled and grilled shrimp with red pepper heart appetizer, manchego salad, heart-shaped Chicago deep dish pizza, and chocolate creme brulee for dessert.
  • From 5:00 pm until 11:00 pm, Taix is serving up main courses for $35 a pop. The menu includes some delicious courses, like slow roasted prime rib au jus, farmhouse chicken breast, and much, much more. Call (213) 484-1265 for reservations and visit the website for the full menu.

Keep checking back, we’ll add more as we come across it!

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Spotlight on Echo Park: Stories Bookstore

Stories Books & Cafe here in Echo Park got a great shout-out in the LA Times online today. The article features the cute bookstore as the “Bookstore of the Week.”

We love Stories for the $5 Mac ‘n Cheese Mondays, the free wi-fi, and its close proximity to a coin laundro-mat as well as 826LA.

Why do you go (or not…) to Stories?

Click here for the full story at LATimes.com

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Outdoor seating available at Echo Park’s “Hot Dog Lady”

Some call them Danger Dogs, others (like me) avoid it all together, and even more Angelenos stumble in an altered state of mind out the doors of a bar late at night and are greeted by glorious smells of none other than bacon-wrapped hot dogs.

Others write poems about their favorite bacon-wrapped hot dog stand near the Short Stop on the “reviews” section of the … Hot Dog Lady Yelp page??

Yes, Hot Dog Lady has a Yelp page. According to the website’s business info, the stand offers plenty of outdoor seating (the curb), is not good for kids, and is super affordable (but she doesn’t accept credit cards, in case you’re wondering). And the service is excellent. “There’s nothing like binge drinking at Little Joy Shortstop or Gold Room (or my house, conveniently located around the corner) and then mumbling ‘dos mas por favor, con todo’ to my sweet sweet love, The Hot Dog Lady.  Ay, mi amor….” writes one reviewer.

How Hot Dog Lady got a Yelp page, or if she even knows about it, is a mystery. But she’s got 4.5 stars, and hot dog that’s pretty good.

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Echo Parkian things to do in 2011

Flickr photo by Echo_29

Everyone has a series of New Year’s Resolutions – weight loss, healthier eating habits, quitting smoking, saying “I love you” more often. Ours aren’t that different, but we really want to get out and do more locally. That brings us to our Echo Park resolutions, perhaps you’ll join in:

Read The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse

The author grew up in the neighborhood and witnessed a much different Echo Park in the ’70s and ’80s. Everyone says it’s amazing. It’s on Oprah’s list, so it’s on ours.

Support local produce and sign up for the CSA

Community Supported Agriculture is a subscription service for locally grown produce. CSA came to Echo Park in fall 2010, but moved to nearby Silver Lake Natural Foods Market when Mooi, where CSA was delivering to, cut back its hours. Or you can also just shop at the Friday Farmers’ Market in Echo Park (closed today for the holiday but coming back January 7).

Climb all the stairs in Charles Flemings’ book

“Secret Stairs” is a great guide for finding hidden stairways in Echo Park and beyond. Of the six Echo Park stairway loops he offers up in the book, the toughest one looks to be Walk #15 : Avalon-Baxter Loop. With almost 700 steps and a difficulty level of 4.5 (that’s out of 5!), we will have to work our way up to this one.

Spend more time at Echo Park Lake

The lake rehab project is bittersweet – it needs to be cleaned and updated (though we wish they’d keep the historic qualities of the lake), but the two years it will take to clean things up will be horrible. Starting in April, they will dredge the lake and rebuild, so we don’t have long to enjoy its beauty, and it will never be the same.

Go to Stories more often

Stories in Echo Park is a really cool bookstore – free wi-fi, $5 mac-n-cheese Mondays, and a great atmosphere, I’ve really got to start spending more time there.

Publish more articles

With a full-time job and a wedding coming up, things are getting pretty crazy around here! But if you’re interested in joining in on the fun, send us an email with your information and what sort of stuff you’d like to write about. We’d love to bring more contributors in to Echo Park Now in 2011!

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Holiday lights in Echo Park

Echo Park decorations. Flickr photo via Alex de Cordoba

At the Atwater Village Tree Lighting ceremony last week, I got to thinking, why doesn’t Echo Park have one? While we do have a wonderful holiday parade (coming up this weekend!), I think we can certainly add a little more… extreme flashing colored lights to the mix.

Echo Park residents: send us a photo of your house decorations, your neighbor’s decorations, or your favorite one you’ve seen so far. Since Echo Park does such a great job with these holiday decorations, we want to highlight these efforts that make it feel so much more like the holidays (because 72 degree weather isn’t exactly Christmas-like).

Send your photos to:

info@echoparknow.com

In JPG format (up to 3MB in size)

Tell me your name and the address or street the photo is from (the address will not be published, we just want to make sure it’s in Echo Park)

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Echo Park reacts to LA Times’ hipster hysteria (hipsteria?)

The LA Times published an article last Friday about how Echo Park is now a “hipster destination,” and it seems to have caused a bit of a knee-jerk reaction amongst Echo Parkians and Angelinos. It must be a case of hipsteria?

For one thing, the article, titled “Echo Park evolves into hipster destination,” implies this is a new thing and that we’ve lost its Latino roots to this mainstream subculture. “Once a largely working-class Latino neighborhood,” the author writes, “Echo Park is now home to one of L.A.’s most densely packed night-life corridors, with more than 15 popular bars, clubs and restaurants drawing crowds each weekend and often on weeknights too.”

Instead of being a new thing, this actually has been happening for quite some time now, and is also really just another cycle in Echo Park’s evolution (okay, I’m actually starting to hate that word). Call it gentrification – another scary word – but this is a discussion that has been going on in Echo Park and other older Los Angeles communities for a long, long time.

Twitter mentions exploded after the article was published, this is just a sampling

One commenter on the LA Times article writes: “Actually, the headline should read, ‘Echo Park DEVOLVES into hipster destination’. I can’t say I’m enthusiastic about hipsters OR racists. Isn’t there a way to spiff up a neighborhood without invoking either one?”

The word “hipster” causes a knee-jerk reaction in itself, especially for long-time residents who have seen Echo Park “evolve.” The skinny jeans, worn out vintage boots, rollie fingers, American Apparel sweater, iPod-wearing, super trendy, possibly with a trust fund kind of hipster. The subculture has definitely been attracted to Echo Park, where artists and activists have for a long time been a part of the community. But are is the hipster presence really that bad?

And on another note, why give the so-called hipsters all the credit for improving the community? One commenter on the LA Times article writes (sarcastically, we hope), “So next time you see me walking down echo park ave… you remember that it was us hipsters that made this neighborhood decent enough to walk with your children at night.”

Well, considering I don’t see “you” at the community meetings with the neighborhood council, Echo Park Improvement Association discussions, Echo Park trash cleanups, CCAC graffiti removals, working with the LAPD, or actively involved in the community in general, I won’t give all the hipsters all the credit for making Echo Park safer for businesses. But I also won’t necessarily shame the hipster style or lifestyle for that matter, I just think that credit should be given where’s it’s due, and not to a temporary subculture that happens to be “in” right now.

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Video: “I think my neighborhood is gentrified”

We received a great email from a fellow Echo Parkian and songwriter who put together a reaction (in her words, “hastily”) to an LA Times “hipster” article, which we also wrote about yesterday and about the gentrification of Echo Park in general. We were absolutely tickled by her song and thought we’d share the fun with you all:

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Menu Monday: French cooking at Cookbook

Cookbook
1549 Echo Park Avenue
Open daily from 8:00 am – 8:00 pm
Website

We’ll be spending the next few weeks with French cookbooks. First off:

AROUND MY FRENCH TABLE by Dorrie Greenspan
from December 6-12, 2010

Savory cheese & chive bread
Garbure (bean, cabbage & duck soup)
Carrot-ginger soup
Cube shaved Brussels sprouts salad
Quinoa, fruit & nut salad
Spiced, butter-glazed carrots
French lentils with sherry-mustard vinaigrette
Chicken b’stilla
Moroccan spiced lamb meatballs
Wagyu beef with horseradish aioli & caramelized onions on baguette
Braised leeks, sheep’s milk cheese & romesco on focaccia
Egg salad on brioche

and

PERSIMMON PUDDING!!

Gifts for the holidays at Cookbook:
Organic bay laurel wreaths
Chamba black clay cookware
New Hampshire Bowl & Board walnut salad bowls
Fog Linen Work tea towels & napkins
Letter cut-outs by Jason Bacasa
June Taylor jams
Be the Bee raw lavender honey
Mast Brothers chocolate
Black cherry panetone
Cookbooks
Gift certificates
and more!

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Your Sunday videos from Echo Park

This first Echo Park video to cure your Sunday blues (another week starts tomorrow… sigh) comes from Pamela Wilson of L.A. Unleashed on the LA Times website. A backyard hummingbird, which you’d normally see vigorously flying around, chilled out long enough for her to snap some video: “For more than 7 minutes, I videotaped the tiny creature, watching it bounce and sway, and I started to hear soul music in my head. After it finally flew away, with the footage in my computer, I added just the right Al Green song, ‘I Feel Good,’ and it’s just like he’s dancing to the music.”

Check out the final product below:


(h/t The Eastsider LA for the link!)

In things weird and strange, The Eastsider LA posted a short video taken by someone yesterday at Echo Park Lake who captured a few seconds of someone navigating the waters on not a boat, but an air mattress:

Good luck to that guy! He’s probably still trying to get back to shore.

UPDATE:

Here’s the guy who did it: Marc Horowitz of The Advice of Strangers website. One of his website fans suggest he try boating on the lake on an air mattress. Here’s his video:

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Where did you vote? LA Times’ strange polling places

Photo credit: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters, via LA Times

The LA Times online included the Echo Park Pool polling place in today’s article, “Eight fascinating California polling places.” Other strange polling places in the article include a McDonalds, a car dealership, and a very cluttered Silver Lake furniture store.

Last night we went to the Echo Park Senior Housing facility on Morton – where did you go?

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Neighborhood Council may vote on 888-unit complex in Echo Park

Concerned with the development in Echo Park? Remember the 4-story complex on Echo Park Avenue and Avalon? Fighting the 64-unit development on Sunset at Elsinore?

This one might make those look like small potatoes.

On Wednesday, November 3, the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council Planning, Public Works, Parks and Land Use Committee will hold a special meet to discuss Barlow Hospital‘s plans to update the facilities in order to comply with California seismic codes (retrofitting the buildings so things don’t go bad during an earthquake). Since the hospital was built in 1927 and damaged in 1994 during the Northridge earthquake, the plan is to replace the primary hospital facilities with new structures in order to keep up to code.

Sounds like a great idea, right? Barlow is an important part of the community and we don’t want to see it go away. Unfortunately the original proposal doesn’t just include a new hospital and even some shops, but also calls for the sale or leasing of part of Barlow’s 19-acre land to build a 1 million-square-foot, 888-unit apartment complex (according to an Eastsider LA article, the largest-ever residential project in the Eastside) in order to fund the new hospital structures.

In February, Barlow Hospital mailed out a survey to Echo Park residents, which asked questions like “Please rate your level of support for Barlow Respiratory Hospitals plans to rebuild? High, Medium, or Low.” (The “helllllll NO” option was mysteriously missing.) Also missing from the brochure was a mention of plans to build the 888-unit residential complex – this spurring community concern and discussion that Barlow wasn’t exactly doing the right kind of outreach to the community.

We are aware that the Echo Park Improvement Association has been involved with Barlow Hospital representatives to develop new ways to raise funding for lower-impact alternatives, and also that Council District 1 has opposed this project in the past (we have not yet heard back from a rep for details). We are hoping the Neighborhood Council won’t support a large residential structure at Barlow, and will instead encourage it to seek other sources of funding for the hospital rebuilding.

Share your opinion at the meeting tomorrow at St. Paul Cathedral Center (Grand Hall), located at 840 N. Echo Park Avenue at 7:00 pm.

You can download the Neighborhood Council meeting agenda by clicking here, or reading the excerpt describing the project and the meeting after the jump.

UPDATE:

Planning Deputy Susan Wong of CD1 told us that Councilman Reyes does not support the residential complex:

The Councilman supports Barlow Hospital in its effort to rebuild the hospital. Our office has been working with Barlow to look at different sources of funding for the hospital only. With that said, he does not support the proposed 888 unit development at the site.  The proposed project is too dense and incompatible with the surrounding land uses.

Read more

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Halloween Events around Echo Park

Friday:

Echo Park Farmers’ Market Pumpkin contest

Starting at 3:00 pm when the market opens, children will have two hours to decorate pumpkins for a Pumpkin Decorating Contest! Judging starts at 5:00 pm – The Eastsider LA‘s Jesus Sanchez will be a judge.

Monster Mash Masquerade & Costume Contest at Echo Country Outpost

9:00 pm – 2:00 am. Music, dancing, drinks, and more. $5 cover; all proceeds benefit Brimmer Street Theater Co. and their upcoming season
1930 Echo Park Avenue.

Saturday:

Vista Hermosa Natural Park Fall Festival

Dunk for apples, make your holiday mask, or compete in a pumpkin rolling race, it’s all part of getting into the fall spirit. We’ll finish off the day with a roaring campfire just for fun. Meet at the Grotto Amphitheater.

12:00 pm – 3:00 pm
100 N. Toluca Street.
Meet at the Grotto Amphitheater.

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Sunday:

LAB (Local Artisans Bazaar) at Fix Coffee:

From 1:00 – 6:00 pm: Some amazing new vendors have joined in and African Cowboy will be playing from 3-5:00 pm. Bring the kids and dogs for some Halloween day time fun and photo ops! Raffle tickets for sale will help Elysian Heights Elementary School pay for a music teacher, which they are still searching for. The prizes are gift certificates from many local and generous business and vendors. labazaar.blogspot.com

LAB just got voted “Best Li’l Artisan Market” by LA Weekly’s Best of L.A. 2010!

Trick-or-Treat with Stories Books, 826LA and Allston Yacht Club:

4:00 pm at 826LA/Time Travel Mart: Join bestselling author Karen Essex (Dracula in Love,  Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend, Stealing Athena), actress/director/bestselling author Amber Benson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Drones, Chance) and friends for a performance of the short play “Asylum” from Karen Essex’s Dracula in Love. Also, get any Halloween costume pieces like mustaches, etc. at the Travel Mart!

5:00 pm at Stories: Music, dead authors, pumpkins, cookies and surprises.

6:00 pm at AYC: Food and cocktails!

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Halloween Beer and Zombie (Book) Pairing at City Sip

5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, $35 per person

7 Killer Beers, 7 cheeses, and Ben Tripp will be reading a few passages to make you want to drink… and possibly eat some offal meats for those who eat flesh! RSVP to Alex@citysipla.com or call (213) 483- 9463. Read more.

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Echo Park Film Center

7:30 pm – 10:00 pm: Haunted Films in Haunted Places with the Echo Park Film Mobile. Follow the Film Mobile on Twitter for screening locations (@EPFCFilmmobile).

Friday, Saturday AND Sunday!

Friday from 5:00 pm – 11:30pm, Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 pm – 11:30 pm: Halloween Carnival fundraiser for the Rampart LAPD Station Youth Programs. Located on Vermont between Santa Monica and Monroe. For bulk ride tickets or volunteer info, call Officer Covington at (213) 484-3072.

Did we forget anything? Share more info about this weekend’s Halloween events in the comments section below!

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon to run through Echo Park

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles 1/2 Marathon is scheduled for Sunday, October 24, expect some road closures and delays as the marathon runs through communities including Echo Park. The race will start in Griffith Park, cross the Hyperion Bridge, go through Silver Lake down Sunset Boulevard, alongside Echo Park Lake, and end at LA Live in Downtown.

Expect some road closures along the 13-mile course, or just avoid leaving your house altogether except to check out the race along Sunset Blvd. and Echo Park Avenue. Our neighborhood council (GEPENC) will be hosting a water station along Echo Park Avenue (probably near the community center on the corner of Sunset) as well.

We met some of the guys from Rock ‘n’ Roll 1/2 Marathon a few nights ago at the Echo Park Improvement Association meeting, and it seems like everything will go smoothly under their direction (they’ve done this before – this race was formerly called the City of Angels Half Marathon). There will also be quite a few entertainment stages along the course, including live music every mile, and a post-race concert.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles 1/2 Marathon
Sunday, October 24 starting at 7:30 am
Go to the Rock ‘n’ Roll website for more details.
Click here to view a full map of the course.

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