Urban planners in Los Angeles has handled issues of accessibility and gentrification, historic preservation and pedestrian safety, walking, while the growth and development of Echo Park. APA has selected Echo Park for its stunning topography located in the hills above the city, its historic architecture, pedestrian streets and stairways, and engaged residents who, through the years have made great efforts to protect and preserve their community.

Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, explained, “for generations people have come to Echo Park, have raised their families, dynamic companies began, and returned as received from the neighborhood and the city. Today, children, parents and grandparents from diverse backgrounds and cultures come together in Echo Park, which makes this community an outstanding example of the great neighborhoods that are located throughout Los Angeles. “

“We are excited to choose Echo Park as one of the Best Neighborhoods in the year,” said Paul Farmer, APA Executive Director, FAICP. “This neighborhood has a long history of civic activism that has inspired not only public debate but has committed and motivated residents to help keep Echo Park a great place to live,” he said.

Best Places APA are neighborhoods where people want to be, not just go visit, but live and work every day.

Still, it Boggle the mind to see just how many streets were renamed at the start of the 20th century. For example, Echo Park Avenue used to be known as Echo Park Road, and before that it was Mecca Street!

Smaller sections of streets were also transformed. Lemoyne Street was known as Olympian north of Effie Street, but went by the name of Edgar south of Effie all the way down to Grafton. Not far away, Lake Shore Avenue Avalon as it passed from north to Cerro Gordo – was originally known as Tropico.

In fact, maps of northern-most Echo Park from around 1900 are Awash in unfamiliar names: Husted, Taylor and Waverly Streets became Ewing, Avalon Terrace and Avon, respectively.

Still, some of the changes fit like a glove. Cerro Gordo, which is translated into Spanish in fat hill, used to go by the unromantic name of much more Morcom Avenue. Somehow, that name seems to befit a faceless corporation, not a winding hillside road.

The self-guided tour will feature 10 properties ranging from nearly century old bungalows to mid-century cottages to Spanish colonial compounds. Most of these dwellings continue to serve as home to individuals involved in artistic fields, including dance, tile making and the entertainment industry.

One of the properties featured on the tour was built by Maynard L. Parker, a prolific photographs whose images were a frequent sight in home décor pages of the Los Angeles Times and other national publications from the 1940s through the early 1970s. Parker’s photos, which are housed at the Huntington Library, ranged from typical Southern California tract homes to interiors designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The 1940s era home was built out of garage kits that Parker, an Elysian Heights resident who died in 1976, customized with mid-century finishes and styling.

Tour Tickets & Details

The self-guided tour will be held on Sunday, November 12 from 11 am to 4 pm. The tour starts at Williams Hall, 2000 Stadium Way near Dodger Stadium. Tour visitors will pick up tickets, a program and map at Williams Hall before touring the homes in any order they want.

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.

What emerges is an abstract, complex style, grafting peculiar shapes and forms across a seemingly liquid surface — one that uses light and color to push the envelope of photography in a non-digital way. Twenty-six years old, Batts has worked in the fields of erotica and fashion, often using the imagery of bondage and sexual fetish, pushing it into the realm of aesthetics. The artist takes subject matter that is inherently out of context, removes it once gain, and places it in a new context of light and texture and the human search for connection. The resulting works bring emotion and dimension to a range of subject matter associated with the lack of it.

Collage works in “Love Hurts” include “Anti-Hero,” which explores a terrain of loneliness.  A series of images — nudes, a man’s face, foliage that resembles fire, bodies that call to mind flames, bones and desiccated plant-life, written words, washes of color — are placed somewhat uneasily side-by-side, in three rows; they share space and ask questions. “Queen Misery” shows a young woman, in heavy makeup and a crown; she is in motion, the image out of focus.  Superimposed is the image of a woman’s upper torso, her breasts and neck covered in heavy chains; this image is still and taken at further distance. Washes of color not literally related to the scene, and the intrusion of shape from the edges of the composition, provide a context that opens “Queen Misery” to their eyes and minds. Batts is credited with the acclaimed series “Hammer Will Fall”; “This Is Why I Hate Myself”; and “Anti-Hero: Alter Egos and Tales of the Superlibido.”

His work has been exhibited in gallery shows in the artist’s native Baltimore, New York City, Michigan, Los Angeles and San Diego. It has been featured in magazines such as DC/Vertigo Comics, Rap Pages and Taboo and on CD covers for bands that include The Dwarves, Radical Noise, Jakkpot, Iron Boss, Fury of Five, Daybreak, Thrall and numerous others.

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.    The Department of Water and Power established these reservoirs in the early 1900s as part of the city-wide system of water storage & delivery that today has only 10 open reservoirs remaining.

Griffith Park was host to much of this progressive spirit. In 1900, the City constructed in the Park the first municipally-operated golf course in the nation, called Riverside. In the next decades, the concept of golf for the ordinary citizen spread throughout the U.S., and throughout Griffith Park itself, as other major courses, such as Wilson and Harding, were constructed. Today, the Park retains four municipal courses. In contrast to Leisure was Rehabilitation. Griffith Park, which had long been the site of alfalfa farms, became the laboratory for a favorite issue of the Progressives: prison reform. Inmates from the City Jail in Lincoln Heights were transported to the “Prison Farm” in the Park to earn their keep by farming alfalfa while benefitting physically and mentally from the hard work and fresh air. Meanwhile, the respite of the 19th century Ostrich Farm was brought to life again by an animal menagerie in the Park Center area, below Bee Rock, known as the Griffith Park Zoo.

Griffith Park is the largest urban municipal park in the nation. It boasts an impressive roster of special facilities, amenities, and recreational opportunities that, by conservative estimates, are enjoyed by upwards of 10 million visitors annually. This visitor base is drawn from both tourists and from the City of Los Angeles and surrounding communities themselves, which is one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world. As they approach the 100th anniversary of this grand gesture of philanthropy, the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, the City Council, the Recreation and Parks Commission, and the staff of the Department of Recreation and Parks, have joined in planning a Griffith Park Centennial that will honor the gift, the giver, and the preceding 100 years in the life of their city. Please join us in this celebration. Come visit the Park and participate in their year round events.

They seek to be progressive and innovative. They want to attract the greatest number of individuals and businesses into membership, thereby creating a pool of resources from which can be drawn ideas, energy and finances for the betterment of their community. They also exist to promote their area so many are encouraged to shop, dine and become familiar with the many resources and attractions of the Silverlake community. They wish to support programs to assist and inform businesses and residents of issues that include crime prevention, city ordinances, small business management issues as well as organize a network of professional and business contacts in Silverlake.

In the parade scene costs real money. Individuals, companies and organizations in our community are encouraged to support our parade by advertising in the Parade Program. A minumum of 2,500 programs are distributed along the parade route.