Sad news of two recent deaths of longtime Echo Park activist.

Julie Rosen, artist and founding member of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park succumb to cancer last week. Julie moved to San Francisco last year to be near her children due to her failing health. Her last among her many deeds for the Citizens Committee was spearheading the drive to install the new children’s play area at Stadium Way and Scott Avenue and another play area on Casanova Terrace on the east side of the Pasadena Freeway. (more…)

Echo Park is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, northwest of downtown. It is located east and southeast of Silver Lake, south of the Elysian Valley, north of Westlake / Mac Arthur Park, west and northwest of Chinatown and southwest of Elysian Park, Echo Park addition to the adjacent neighborhoods are Angelino Heights, Colton Hill, Edendale, Elysian Heights , Temple-Beaudry and Sunset Heights. The Dodger Stadium is located within its borders.  (more…)

Elysian Park is the city’s oldest public park and, at 575-acres, the second largest after Griffith Park. It is home to numerous historic sites, including the Los Angeles Police Academy and Barlow Hospital, that are linked by miles of walking trails.

In 1769, Gaspar de Portola and Father Juan Crespi camper on the river bank opposite Buena Vista Hill near the North Broadway Bridge entrance to Elysian Park. Yang Na-Indian villagers from the creeks of Solano Canyon and the current location of the Los Angeles Police Academy greet the Spaniards with native refreshments.  (more…)

As EPHS marks the 110 th anniversary of Echo Park Lake , We also honor the 40 th anniversary of a sister organization: The Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park. CCSEP was founded by a group of local activists, which was led by Grace E. Simons, who - perhaps more than any other individual - played a role in protecting Elysian Park from the best-laid plans of developers and in providing a template for INFORMS activism that many of us to this day.

Under Simons’ watch CCSEP successfully Fought off encroachments such as oil fields, an airport, a convention center, condominiums and numerous other construction efforts that would have chipped away masses of the park. At about 550 acres, Elysian Park is unique in offering a real experience of the outdoors to hundreds of thousands of hikers, soccer players, bird-watchers, picnic-ers, Wanderers, dogs and the occasional horse. In its present, hard-won form, the park offers solitude, community and beauty to the entire surrounding area. Simons’ most significant loss was in a battle to halt the expansion of the police academy.

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Address:
Echo Park
Los Angeles, CA

Echo Park is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, northwest of downtown. It is located east and southeast of Silver Lake, south of the Elysian Valley, north of Westlake / Mac Arthur Park, west and northwest of Chinatown and southwest of Elysian Park, Echo Park addition to the adjacent neighborhoods are Angelino Heights, Colton Hill, Edendale, Elysian Heights , Temple-Beaudry and Sunset Heights. The Dodger Stadium is located within its borders. 

The community was named after a park with a beautiful lake, including recreational lake with boathouse and fishing opportunities. In Echo Park is also the largest planting of Lotus Asia outside. They also find an annual Lotus Festival, which is in the area is very popular and famous.

There are also a Cuban festival on the anniversary of the Cuban poet and patriot Jose Marti, which is also a statue in the park.
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Sunday, 23 September 2007

Today was the Picnic by the German club in Los Angeles Elysian Park in LA.Immediately after getting up I was in my third cheesecake, but this time with almost all German ingredients made. I personally found him not quite as tasty - but it has been completely eaten up! I also have a tortellini salad made.Towards 1:45 pm, we are losgefahren and were also about 2:30 pm in the park we found the marked space at once and drove a little further.There were car enthusiasts with their rigged cars assembled. Insanity, what car we got to see. And the guys were quite worth seeing - from the purely physical, we would at least 200 years in prison then.On the right Picknikplatz arrived - the park is very large - were all brought food to the tables made available. Sam, the organizer, then also ignited the barbecue and the “great feast” could begin. But actually it was less about eating than about new people and old friends to meet. Frank and Susanne were Nina and Malte it (by Frank, we have learned from this association) and also met Mikaela soon. Witzig was then that Frank, Susanne (Ostfriesland) and Mikaela (Friesland) after their acquaintance stated that they have common acquaintances in Germany. So small is the world!

The Consulate General of Ecuador in Los Angeles, registered a Ecuadorians living in Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and Utah, they wish to vote in the upcoming elections in Ecuador, during the big family picnic of the Club Ambato Los Angeles held on Sunday March 26th at the Elysian Park (near the School of Police at the side of Dodger Stadium in Los), Stadium Way on the street.

To register Ecuadorans ballot must submit their passport or Ecuadorian. Is free and only Ecuadorian consulate staff is authorized to make this constitutional right for citizens who wish to exercise the privilege to vote and elect the President and Vice President of Ecuador in the next elections on October 15, 2006.

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 In 1769, Gaspar de Portola and Father Juan Crespi camped on the river bank opposite Buena Vista Hill, as shown by California Registered Historical landmark Number 655 (1958) at the North Broadway Bridge entrance to Elysian Park Indian villagers from Yang-Na and the creeks of Solano Canyon and the Police Academy draw, greeted the Spaniards with native refreshments.  
   
 In 1781, the Pueblo of Los Angeles was officially established by Spanish California Governor Felipe de Neve with the Royal Grant of 4 square Spanish leagues (translated into 28 square miles or about 17,000 acres) of Pueblo Lands. Of this public land grant, the approximately 575-acre Elysian Park is the last remaining large piece. All else has been auctioned off or given away. Los Angeles even had to buy back the site of the present City Hall.   (more…)

Founded 1965
Los Angeles’ First Park  

The oldest park in Los Angeles is 112 this year. It remains a park in perpetual peril. Bargain hunting, land-grabbers gaze over the green, rolling open space north of Civic Center and dream of putting this “free” land to some “useful” purpose.  
   
 Elysian Park Needs Saving  
 Before the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park was formed, in 1965, the Pasadena Freeway had been permitted to split the park, and big-league baseball was lured to Los Angeles by an officially consolidated, unencumbered site, including parts of Chavez Ravine and Elysian Park. When downtown business presented a plan to take the Avenue of the Palms for the Los Angeles Convention Center, the community organized the Citizens Committee with Grace E. Simons as its first president and successfully stopped that development. This Citizens Committee has done its homework and survived over thirty years of voluntary community action. Elysian Park is still here and growing.  
   
 Elysian Park Celebrated   
    
 For All People   
 The principal objective of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park is to organize public support to preserve Elysian Park lands as public open space; to develop this environmental oasis for the recreational enjoyment of all the people of the Los Angeles region. The greatest danger to park survival is combined public indifference and special interest pressures to take park land for non-park purposes. All of the Citizens Committee’s volunteer energies are aimed at arousing public and official awareness of the value of saving the last of these Pueblo Lands set aside two centuries ago. This remaining fraction of the original 4 square league grant constitutes Los Angeles’ central city environmental and historical treasure, Elysian Park.  
   
 Citizens Committee Action Program  
 All the Committee’s revenues are derived exclusively from membership dues and contributions. There is no paid staff; no administrative overhead. Donated funds produce a newsletter and special bulletins mailed to keep committee members and supporters informed of matters affecting Elysian Park and park preservation. When necessary, the Committee has gone to court to obtain compliance with state environmental and park protection law. Particularly, the Committee has spent time and money to preserve Section 170 (b) ( 3) of the Los Angeles City Charter which reads: “All lands heretofore or hereafter set apart or dedicated as a public park shall forever remain to the use of the public inviolate;…(Emphasis added.)”  
   
 Reforestation  
 Trees are regularly purchased and planted in Elysian Park by members and friends as loving memorials to the living and dead. This activity is fostered in cooperation with other organizations to promote the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission reforestation program. Park personnel maintain these special gifts and replace them as necessary.  
   
 Recreational Sports  
 Neighborhood recreational events are encouraged by the Citizens Committee and co-sponsored with many groups and individuals who use and love the park. The Chinatown IOK Run and the Los Angeles Beautiful Arbor Day festivities are good examples.  
   
 Community Planning for Elysian Park  
 Execution of the 1971 Elysian Park Master Plan has received consistent support from the Citizens Committee. In 1983 the Grace E. Simons Lodge, Elysian Park, was dedicated to the first president of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park. The Lodge is a significant phase of execution of the Elysian Park Master Plan.  
   
 Text by Judith Jamison  
   
 Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park
 1403 Macbeth Street 
 Echo Park, CA 90026 
 213.481.0815 

The next Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park meeting on Wednesday, June 7 will focus on the future of Barlow Respiratory Hospital located within Elysian Park.

Attorney Phyl Van Ammers will discuss her research regarding the history of the site and any future potential uses of the hospital grounds.

Please join with other interested individuals to discussing our concerns and potential responses to any proposed development at this historic site and establish a working group that will work to affect the final disposition of this City of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument (HCM-504).

Wednesday, June 7 @ 7PM
Williams Hall, Barlow Hospital
Elysian Park