Echo Park
Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known for its trendy local businesses, as well as its popularity with artists, musicians and creatives. The neighborhood is centered on the eponymous Echo Park Lake.
History
Edendale
Established in 1892, and long before Hollywood became synonymous with the commercial film industry of the United States, the area of Echo Park known as Edendale was the center of filmmaking on the West Coast.By the 1910s, several film studios were operating on Allesandro Avenue along the Echo Park-Silverlake border, including the Selig Polyscope Company, Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, the Pathe West Coast Film Studio, and others.
Silent film stars who worked in the Edendale studios included
Fatty Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd,
Mabel Normand and Gloria Swanson. Charlie Chaplin's first film was made at Keystone Studios, as well as the very first feature-length comedy, which starred Chaplin and Normand.
The first pie-in-the-face scene was filmed at what later became the Mack Sennett Studios on Glendale Boulevard near Effie Street. The complex, which is now part of a storage facility, dates from 1909 and includes one of the area's first permanent sound stages, the factories where movies are made. The former studio, 1712 Glendale Boulevard, is City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 256.
Echo Park Lake
was established in 1868, as a drinking water reservoir, filled with water from a ditch that connects to the Los Angeles River in Los Feliz to the reservoir. In 1891, the four owners of the surrounding area gave up of land around the reservoir to the city so that it could be used as a park. The city began work landscaping the park in October 1892. City parks superintendent Joseph Henry Tomlinson chose the name because of echoes he heard during the construction of Echo Park Lake in 1892. By 1895, the park and accompanying boathouse were completed. By the late 1910s, motion picture companies on Allesandro Street, now Glendale Boulevard, had been using the park as a filming location.Echo Park Lake was identified as an impaired body of water in 2006, and the city allocated $64.7 million to fund its cleanup and revitalization. In the summer of 2011, the lake was closed off and drained when the rehabilitation project began. The lake reopened on June 5, 2013, after a $45 million renovation.
Starting in November 2019, a growing population of homeless people began moving into the lake grounds. The encampment included nearly 200 homeless tents, and four homeless individuals died at the park in 2020. On March 25, 2021, the park was closed for renovations and cleared of the homeless encampments. While closure notices were posted throughout the park days before the sweep, over 200 protesters clashed with LAPD, who arrested 179 protesters. The encampment and ensuing incident became a major flashpoint in LA's homelessness crisis.
Of the 183 homeless individuals living at Echo Park Lake, only 17 had successfully transitioned into permanent housing as of 2022. In February 2023, councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez announced plans to remove the fence that encircles the lake. The plans became divisive within the community, many of whom have advocated for the fence to remain, amid the ongoing homelessness crisis.
The fence surrounding the lake was removed May 30, 2023 by the city.
Transportation
Glendale Freeway termination
The Glendale Freeway was originally planned and constructed in 1959 to connect with the Hollywood Freeway through the neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Echo Park, but terminates roughly northeast of its intended terminus at the Hollywood Freeway due to opposition from residents living in, and developers building on, a hill that is now a private gated community called Hathaway Estates.In 1962, as a result of this local community opposition, the full build-out plan was rescinded and construction was terminated at the present SR-2 terminus near Glendale Boulevard and Duane Street. Since then, commuter traffic exiting and entering on to SR-2 has passed through the community, primarily along Glendale Boulevard and Alvarado Street, which has contributed to congestion. Since that plan was scrapped, the freeway has been somewhat isolated from the remainder of the Los Angeles freeway system. There have been proposals to turn the freeway stub into a sort of public park.
Pacific Electric Railway
The Pacific Electric Railway, better known as the Red Cars, used to run through Echo Park along the center of Glendale Boulevard. The citywide system of electric trolleys began with the dawn of the 20th century, ultimately spinning a web of rail that linked cities in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. It was the largest and most advanced public transit system in the world at the time.The Red Car system was sold to Metropolitan Coach Lines, whose executive, Jesse Haugh, had connections to a public transportation company funded by General Motors and other auto-related industries. The Red Cars faded out of service not long afterwards, with the Los Angeles-Glendale-Burbank Line that traveled through Echo Park officially ending service on June 19, 1955.
Gangs
Echo Park was once infamous as a hot spot for gang activity. This was true in the 1980s and 1990s, but in the early 2010s as the neighborhood began gentrifying, rents started to skyrocket, and a controversial gang injunction forced gang members to move outside their turf, instances of gang violence waned.In 2013, a Los Angeles judge signed off on a permanent gang injunction aimed at six rival gangs in the Echo Park area, creating what authorities call a "safety zone" for the area. The injunction targets the members of six gangs, namely Echo Park Locos, the Crazys, the Big Top Locos, the Diamond Street Locos, Frogtown Rifa, and Head Hunters. The perimeter for the safety zone is roughly bound by the Los Angeles River to the north, the 110 Freeway to the east, Beverly Boulevard to south and Glendale Boulevard to the west. It includes Echo Park Lake and Dodger Stadium.
The injunction, a civil order, prohibits two or more listed gang members from associating in any way in public or in common areas like courtyards. It also allows for stricter penalties if any listed gang member is caught with drugs, alcohol, guns or vandalizing property.
Geography
Echo Park has many rolling hills and valleys with a few flat areas like Echo Park Lake. Its main commercial corridors are Sunset and Glendale boulevards.Location
According to the Los Angeles Times "Mapping L.A." project, Echo Park is in Central Los Angeles, between Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles. It is situated near the 101, the 2, and the 5 freeways. Echo Park is flanked by Elysian Valley to the north and northeast, Elysian Park to the east, Chinatown and Downtown to the southeast, Westlake to the southwest and west, and Silver Lake to the northwest.Boundaries are the Golden State Freeway–Glendale Freeway interchange at the north apex, Riverside Drive on the northeast, Elysian Park neighborhood on the east, Stadium Way and Beaudry Avenue on the southeast, the south apex being Beaudry Avenue and West Second Street and the west limit being an irregular line consisting of Second Street and Beverly Boulevard, then moving upward north along Benton Way and the Glendale Freeway.
Climate
Being in the central part of Los Angeles, Echo Park experiences a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. Temperatures here are almost identical to that of Downtown Los Angeles.Districts
Within Echo Park are the following:Angelino Heights
Angelino Heights is most notable for its Victorian era residences, although these are few in number. It lies at an elevation of.Elysian Heights
Since the 1910s, Elysian Heights, along with Edendale, has been home to many of the counter-culture, political radicals, artists, writers, architects and filmmakers. The children of many progressives attended school there during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.Population
2000
The 2000 U.S. census counted 40,455 residents in the neighborhood—an average of 16,868 people per square mile, one of the highest densities in Los Angeles and among the highest densities for the county. In 2008 the city estimated that the population had increased to 43,832. The median age for residents was 30, about the same as the city norm.Echo Park was considered moderately diverse ethnically. The breakdown was Hispanic and Latino Americans, 64%; Asian Americans, 18.8%; Non-Hispanic Whites, 12.9%; African Americans, 2%; and others, 2.3%. Mexico and El Salvador were the most common places of birth for the 53% of the residents who were born abroad, a figure that was considered high compared to the city as a whole.
2008
In 2008, the median household income in U.S. dollars was $37,708, a low figure for Los Angeles, and a high percentage of households earned $20,000 or less. The average household size of three people was about the same as the rest of the city. Renters occupied 76% of the housing units, and house- or apartment owners the rest.The percentages of never-married men and women, 46.8% and 38.3%, respectively, were among the county's highest. The 2000 census found 5,325 families headed by single parents, a high rate for both the city and the county. There were 1,034 military veterans in 2000, or 3.5%, a low figure for Los Angeles.