Echo Park is home to a thriving diverse community of artists and working class families and had to work twice as other communities to create, maintain and defend their great community. La comunidad es extraordinariamente dinámica con incontables grupos étnicos de todos los niveles económicos. Today, Echo Park is not only home to the annual Lotus Festival, the Cuban Festival and historic Filipinotown but also has places to eat 4-star alongside spectacular burrito posts. The area has well-kept homes style craftsmanship and modern architecture, in addition to excellent schools, parks and libraries. (more…)

This newsletter has already highlighted the most dramatic changes name from Echo Park’s past: Sunset Boulevard was previously known as Reservoir Street, while Glendale served as Lake Shore Boulevard south of Sunset Avenue and Allessandro Street just north of it.  (more…)

A home designed and built the late architectural photographer Maynard L. Parker will be one of the featured properties at this year’s Historic Echo Park Home Tour on Sunday, Nov. 12.   The year’s theme, “The Bohemian Havens of Elysian Heights” reflects the tour’s focus on the northern edge of the neighborhood, where secluded canyons and steep hillsides have served as refuge and inspiration to generations of artists. (more…)

Images from the “ANTI-Hero” Series Photo-Manipulations By Carlos Batts

Fototeka Gallery will present during the month of February “Love Hurts,” a solo exhibit of the recent works of photo-collage artist Carlos Batts. The artist’s photo-manipulations, lush and brimming with imagery and texture and a wide range of emotion, are hand-produced, using traditional collage-making techniques, mixing painting, photography and film. Batts, who is African-American, draws upon a multi-layered set of influences, from early African art and Cubism to the work of the African-American artist Romaire Bearden as well as from comic books, horror movies and porn. (more…)

The Silver Lake area is located just five miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles and just east of Griffith Park. The district gets its name from the Department of Water and Power’s Silver Lake Reservoir, which was named after Herman Silver, a member of Los Angeles’ first Board of Water commissioners.    (more…)

The last decades of the 19th century were years of upheaval in Los Angeles–cultural transition, phenomenal urban growth, economic change. Griffith’s gift was an early volley in the crusade of municipal reform known as Progressivism: a movement addressing the needs of the average individual, and targeting political corruption. Los Angeles was one of the first cities to adopt the concepts of initiative, referendum, and recall into its City Charter (1907). It was home to the nation’s first Department of Playgrounds. (more…)

At the end of the 19th century, when Los Angeles was still a small town, one man, Griffith Jenkins Griffith, envisioned a city of a million or more people, people who needed”… a place of recreation and rest for the masses, a resort for the rank and file…” As a Christmas gift in December 1896, he deeded five square miles of rancho lands to the City of Los Angeles, to be used for a public park in his name. (more…)

The Silverlake Chamber of Commerce is a voluntary action agency designed to meet both business and community needs. They believe that if the community does well and prospers, businesses in that community will also prosper. Among other things it is a civic clearinghouse, a public relations counselor, a human relations promotion medium. they are interested in total community development which matches community needs with community resources. The Chamber seeks to work harmoniously with its membership and other responsible constituencies in the community as an organization with a special role of leadership in their area. (more…)

Echo Park Community Parade Committee is a small group of volunteers dedicated to the presentation of a parade worthy of this culturally rich neighborhood. The Committee wishes to thank the following companies for their sponsorship and / or Adoption leave Magic - The Echo Park Community Parade. California State Assembly member Kevin Leon
Downtown Action Committee
El Centro del Pueblo
Echo Park Animal Alliance
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The Department of Neighborhood Empowerment will be hosting the first Congress of Neighborhoods on August 3rd. Learn more here (PDF).