epian ways february & march 2010

8/14/2019 EPIAn ways February & March 2010

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February 2010 / March 2010

Echo Park Improvement Association Meets at 7 p.m. the 1st Thursday of each Month

in Williams Hall at Barlow Hospital 2000 Stadium Way in Elysian Park

If youve gone by Echo ParkLake on a Sunday over the last sev-eral months, you could not havemissed it: a giant flea marketcompletely takes over the northand northeast sides of the lake,displacing any possibility of usinghuge sections of the park for nor-mal use like a quiet stroll or a pic-nic.

The quality of goods being soldcan best be attested to by the factthat a huge amount of what is notsold at the end of each Sunday, isleft for Recreation & Parks staff topick up and put into the trash. Thevendors have no permission to sell,

and the congregation of vendorshas no permit to use the park. Thevendors have reportedly moved toEcho Park Lake from illegal fleamarkets that had been closeddown in other areas in the city.They come from many differentareas of LA County for the freeflea market and the operativeword here is FREE.

Understandably, many peoplein the neighborhood are upset thatthis flea market has been goingalong and growing. Communityrepresentatives have been workingwith the local council offices whohave assembled a task force with

(Continued on page 2)

UNPERMITTED FLEA MARKET AT ECHO PARK LAKE

Andrew Garsten, Chair: Neighborhood Issues Committee

The Griffith Park AdultCommunity Club is hostingtheir annual CommunityCelebration on Saturday,March 6, 2010 from 11 amto 4:30 pm to raise funds tosupport activities at theGriffith Park AdultCommunity Center (GPACC),located at 3203 RiversideDrive, South of Los FelizBlvd. Food and drinks pluslive music for dancing willbe featured at FriendshipAuditorium which is next toGPACC. On the parking lotthere will be tents withcommunity resources and inGPACC there will be artwork of local artists in the

community, handmade andWhite Elephant items aswell as a book sale. A silentauction will take place andthere will be a raffle prizesdonated by localbusinesses.

Griffith Park AdultCommunity Center,operated by LA Departmentof Recreation and Parksopened its doors January31, 2008. At the end of2009, GPAC Club had 869


Join Us for OurCommunityCelebration


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NEWSLETTER CREDITS

EDITORS:STEVEN ARTHUR & LYNN BARBE

ADVERTISING:

DARREN HUBERT

PRINTING:

Thanks to Feeding Birds Boutique and the owners DaisyAlexandra Sylbert-Torres and her husband David Torres

Copyright by Echo Park Improvement Association 2009

Ad Rates for the EPIAn ways

full page - $210half page - $1051/4 page - $60

business card size - $40All prices are per issue.

Multi-issue discount available.Email for questions - [email protected].

representatives from LAPD, Office of Public Safety,the City Attorneys Neighborhood Prosecutor, PublicWorks Enforcement Division and Recreation & Parks- the people from these departments that have directresponsibility for Echo Park Lake.

So Why Cant The City Simply Close It Down? In order to understand the problem, we need to

go to Venice Beach yes, Venice Beach. For a longlong time, people have been selling stuff at VeniceBeach, particularly on the weekends. There are fourtypes of vendor at Venice: the guys that own or renta store, the guys that rent a table at an official vend-ing area, the people who set up anywhere they wantand sell stuff, and the free speech vendors churches and political organizations. Sometime ago,the City set up an area at Venice for 1st Amend-ment protected vending for nonprofits, churches andpoliticos in what came to be known as the FreeSpeech Zone. Of course, one mans free speech isanother mans means of making a living, whichmeans that the City botched up keeping commercialvendors out, and the FSZ was overrun with plain oldvendors. Not content to simply try to go back to theoriginal intent, a few years ago the City of Los Ange-les decided to offer permits by lottery for the FSZ.

The City, of course, still did not know how to dis-

criminate between free speech and commerce, sosome free speech vendors got bumped, and the Citygot sued. The court has been sympathetic. As thecase has wended its way through the system, Sec-tion 42.15 in the Citys municipal code that prohibitscommercial selling in public places has been setaside as being overly broad. As a result of all this,

the City of Los Angeles can no longer enforce ANY-WHERE the prohibition of commercial selling in pub-lic places. Yes, we have problems at Echo Park Lake,but there are problems now all over the city.

The city employees on the task force are frus-trated. They completely understand the concerns ofthe community, but so far the best thing they havebeen able to come up with is to have a public safetypresence at the Sunday flea market, and removevending from the paved sidewalks. At the latest TaskForce meeting, several new suggestions were madethat are being investigated. These include:

Fence the north and east side of the lake, whichwill need to be fenced when the Proposition OLake Rehabilitation Project begins in 2011.Restrict parking around the lake to 2 hours be-tween 7am to 7pm, 7 days a week.Install video surveillance, both to make the lakesafer, and also discourage illicit activity.Use the Park Permit process, which allows per-mitted congregations in designated areas, butprohibits non-permitted congregations from tak-ing over parts of a park.Organize the local community to take out ParkPermits to displace the flea market, and othermeasures to take the park back for normal parkuse.The City departments are right now investigating

each of these ideas. The EPIA has been a participantin the City Task Force meetings. If you have otherthoughts or ideas, or you are interested in participat-ing in possible community organizing, please con-tact the EPIA by email or phone and let us know, orplease attend our Neighborhood Issues Committeemeetings (see the Calendar).

(Continued from page 1)UNPERMITTED FLEA MARKET


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THIS SPACE ISWAITING forYOUR AD

Contact EPIA (323) 882-4835 oremail [email protected] for info

Hollywood Production SoundAudio Services & Equipment Rental for the Industry

In Echo Park since 1998 Motion PictureBroadcast

hpsound.com New Media213 250 5550 Theater

Music

members. The club works closely with MontySutherlin, Facility Director, to provide qualityprogramming dedicated to the 50+ population inthe neighborhoods of Atwater, Echo Park, ElysianValley, Los Feliz, East Hollywood, Franklin Hills,and Silver Lake.

The Center includes a library, a computer lab,a nutrition program, and even a room with physicalexercise equipment. Classes are taught byteachers from the LA Department of Recreation &Parks and LAUSD Program for Older Adults. Inaddition, over 20 volunteers are involved in leadingor teaching classes and activities.

For more information, call GPACC at (323) 644-5579 and ask to be on a mailing list to get asample of the monthly newsletter. Club dues are$10/year and cover a monthly newsletter mailedto your home.

(Continued from page 1)Celebration

(323)


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SaturdaySpecialTypical

HaitianFood

Mon Sat11 am 7 pmSundays

Group of 10or more byReservation

Wood Burning Rotisserie309 N. Glendale Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90026www.tigeorgeschicken.comEmail: [email protected]

We Roastour ownHAITIANCoffee

We Pour our ownHAITIANCoffee -Try some!


5/12


New Restaurants / Beer and Wine bars: Nooky Phams Vietnamese - 1801 Sunset at Lemoyne Open date TBD; Mooi Raw-Vegan - in the Jensensbuilding at the corner of Sunset and Logan Open dateTBD; Bedrock Caf at Allesandro and Glendale Opendate TBD; 1642 is expected to open late Feb. to earlyMarch. The wine bar located at 1642 Temple near Un-ion.; El Camino is expected to feature an extensive CAbeer menu with comfort and vegan food options. To belocated in the old Studio 1 Theater on Sunset (workingwith city for CUP).

Support our new local businesses: Blue Collar Dog Supplies located at 1533 Echo ParkAve.; Spitfire Girl located at 2203 Sunset gift cards,gift boutique shop; Tavin 1543 Echo Park Ave vintagecloths and gifts; Echo Country Outpost shop gallery at1930 Echo Park Ave.

Active projects (no new updates): Parking structure at Glendale Blvd. under the Sunset

Bridge, being built for the Angelus Temple. Current use isf o r c h u r c h o n l y 5 4 4 s p a c e s ;Residential/Retail Development - Commercial constructionon Alvarado at Sunset on the south east side Residentialover street level retail. 20 live/work apartments; Condo Con- version in progress : Restoration of brick 1920s apart-

ment building to condos in Angelino Heights lo-cated at 1168 W. Bellevue Ave. Previ-ously a 84 unit apartment building be-

ing converted to 55 condominiums.;Senior Housing Development : Seniorhousing project across the street fromAngelus Temple along Park Ave. andwraps around to Glendale. 70+ units.Three existing buildings are available atno charge to someone who is capable of moving them. Thedeveloper is providing funding to help relocate.

Barlow Hospital remodel update : Barlow Hospital located at 2000 Stadium Way is in dis-cussions with community groups on the best approachto bring their hospital up to required federal buildingcodes and have minimal impact on the park. Currentplans from Hospital are to sell the rights to build 888units with over 1,000,000sq.ft. For this to work theyneed to get their desired price. Residential Real Estatemarket conditions will determine the projects success..

Residential/Retail development update :2225 Sunset Blvd. the site of the old EP CommunityGarden has plans in process with the city to develop 64residential units with commercial at the street. This has


Echo Park New Hot Spots and Development Updatesby Darren Hubert

This old house in Angelino Heights is being preparedfor its Extreme makeover. It will take longer than theTV show, but the house will eventually be restored to itsVictorian era glory.

The two storey house at 714 Kensington Road wasbought in October 2009 by longtime Angelino Heightsresidents Murray Burns and Planaria Price. They havealready restored dozens of faded Victorian houses on thestreets of Angelino Heights. The couple expects it willtake a year to fully restore the Italianate home andgarden. And, of course, that chain link fence around thefront yard will be one of the first things to go, says

Planaria.Built in the late nineteenth century as a single family

home, the house was turned into a duplex within a shorttime, possibly as a result of a financial downturn. Manyother changes were made to the original design. Aswork has begun the new owners have discovered that thelarge bay window in the side dining room was originallyon the front of the house. They plan to reverse thewindow exchange as part of their plan to turn the houseback into a single family home. Sunny, open balconies

will replace outworn covered porches on the front andback walls.

There will be months of hard work, but eventually thisugly duckling will turn into another Angelino Heightsswan!

NEW LIFE FOR AN OLD HOUSEby Susan Borden


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Event Date Location Comments EPIA Meetings 1 st Thursday, 7:00 pm

Mar 4, Apr 1

Williams Hall at Barlow

Hospital, 2000Stadium Way inElysian Park

Email EPIA to get monthly

reminders of meetings and tobe on email list.

EPIA SteeringCommittee Meetings

2nd Monday, 7:15 pmFeb 8, Mar 8

Call (323) 882-4835for location

Take an active part in EPIA.Join the Steering Committee

Community Safety Meeting(EPSA)

2nd Thursday, 2:00 p.m.Feb 11, Mar 11

Edendale BranchLibraryCommunity room 2011 W. Sunset Blvd.

Hosted by Echo Park SecurityAssociation. Call 323-860-9914 for meeting location.

Citizens Committee toSave Elysian Park

1 st Wednesday, 7:00 pmMar 3, Apr 7

Williams Hall at BarlowHospital, 2000Stadium Way inElysian Park

Call 213-666-9651 for meeting location

Echo Park Chamber of Commerce

3 rd Thursday, 7:00 pm andevery Wednesday 1:30 pm

Taix Restaurant. Call 213-630-3032 for further information.

Greater Echo ParkElysian NeighborhoodCouncil Meeting

4 th Tuesday, 7 pm Feb 23, Mar 23

St. Paul Cathedral Center Great Hall840 Echo Park AveLos Angeles, CA 90026

Call (213) 413-3196 for info or visit www.GEPENC.org

Edendale LibraryFriends Society

>=> ELFS


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[email protected]

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


8/12


E CHO P ARK L IBRARY E DENDALE L IBRARY

World Wide Web Address http://www.lapl.org 24 Hour Renewal: 888-577-LAPL

Library Address

Edendale Branch Library2011 W. Sunset BoulevardLos Angeles, CA 90026Phone (213) 207-3000FAX (213) 207-3097

Library Address

Echo Park Branch Library1410 W. Temple StreetLos Angeles CA 90026Phone 213.250.7808

Library HoursMondays 10:00 am 8:00 pmTuesdays 12 noon 8:00 pmWednesdays 10:00 am 8:00 pmThursdays 12 noon 8:00 pmFridays 10:00 am 6:00 pmSaturdays 10:00 am 6:00 pmSundays CLOSED

GREAT BACKYARD BIRD

COUNT

Sunday, February 14, 2010 Echo Park Lake Boathouse, 9:00 a.m.

Discover thebirds in your backyard,schoolyard or park. Its fun, itsfree and it helpsthe birds. All

ages and skillswelcome.

Whether you arebrand new tobirding or anexpert, your count counts!

Your checklist will contribute valuable informationfor science and conservation.

Join the Echo Park Lake bird team --Sunday, Feb. 14., 9:00 a.m. Meet at the Boathouse (EchoPark Ave. and Laguna Ave.) About 2 hours.For more information, contact Judy Raskin at

[email protected] or call (323) 663-6767. TheGBBC runs four days, February 12-15. To participate onother days or at home, get more information atwww.birdcount.org .

EDENDALE LIBRARY FRIENDSOFFERS FREE TICKETS TO DISNEYLAND

Edendale Library Friends Society (ELFS) ispartnered with Disneyland for the

Give a Day Get a Disney Day promotion.Volunteers who donate time to the ELFS will get a

free ticket to Disneyland. Offer is limited so SIGN UP while tickets last!

Go to www.DisneyParks.com And Register Now!

Click on the box that says

GIVE A DAY GET A DISNEY DAY

Click the box that saysGIVE AND GET IN 3 SIMPLE STEPS

Type in ZIP CODE 90026 and pull down

EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY

Scroll down to find which Edendale opportunity

appeals to you

Click on MORE DETAILS

Fill out the form to identify yourself

ELFS will get back to you. Preferential dates booked for ELFS Members

See you at Disneyland!!
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.birdcount.org/http://www.birdcount.org/http://www.disneyparks.com/http://www.disneyparks.com/http://www.disneyparks.com/http://www.birdcount.org/mailto:[email protected]


9/12


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MAKE YOUR OWN ELECTRICITY

by Judy Raskin

The Echo Park Lake team counted 36species at Echo Park Lake during the annual2009 Christmas Bird Count, plus an addi-tional one during count week, to set a newrecord for bird species at the lake at onetime. The 21 person team another new high

needed about 2-1/2 hours on a clear day toachieve the count, which totaled 1025 indi-vidual birds.

Although the total of birds was not a newhigh, it was significantly higher than 2008stotal of 542. This year saw the addition oftwo species that had never been at the lakebefore, the Spotted Sandpiper whose usualhabitat is muddy areas of streams and sea-shores and the California Towhee. For thefifth year in a row, Rosss goose was heretoo.

Local residents who took part includedJeff Horton, Langdon Faust, Mary Brooks,Thea Wang, Marie Vester, Mary Lumkin,Jenifer Palmer-Lacy, Gloria Gwynne and JudyRaskin. Miguel Luna of Angelino Heights, di-rector of Urban Semillas, supervised a groupof students from the Compton area.

A few hours later, Raskin and JocelynMcFaul reconnoitered Vista Hermosa Park.This was the second year for this park. Firsttimers at VH were thebushtit, California Tow-hee and the white-crowned sparrow. Thisyears total was 14 spe-cies and 39 individuals.Last year, 2008, thecount was 12 and 49.

BIRDERS REJOICE AT NEW HIGH COUNTS36 Species at Echo Park Lake

14 at Vista Hermosa Park
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10/12


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Echo Park Hot Spotsbeen an ongoing project for manyyears at this point. The project isat the corner of Rosemont and

Sunset that presents traffic ac-cess issues. The solution thedeveloper has offered is to bringin all residential traffic from theElsinore St side. They own onelot that will connect with the Sun-set property.

If you have a question or com-ments about a development pro-ject please contact EPIANeighborhood Issues Committee.They can be reached at [email protected] and the com-mittee meets the third Wednes-day of every month at 7:00pmBarlow Hospital located at 2000Stadium Way @ Williams Hall.You can also go online and posty o u r c o m m e n t s a t t h eE P I A N I C f o r u m a th t t p : / / : g r o u p s . y a h o o . c o m /group/EPIA_NIC/ .

(Continued from page 5)
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11/12


CCAC what is new with us you all are probablysaying? Well thanks to everyone who helped makeour holiday rummage sale a huge success.Maryanne and the kids sorted, priced and soldmuch wanted items to the neighbor and others whopassed by the fire station. Thanks to all who helpedme post the information about the rummage saleover the internet. We had people lined up outsidebefore we opened the doors. We had to schedulethe rummage sale before the holidays so the kidscould plan for the first week of January. We haveabout 35 kids who come every day so it takes quitea bit of money to take them somewhere. Miguel,Sams brother, helped us during the holidays so wecould take two vans.

Thanks, Miguel!

Starting at the beginning of December, wepainted faces for Councilman Ed Reyes party inElysian Park. It rained but we still painted faces.About the second week of December we paintedfaces at another location for the Councilman. And ofcourse we had our entry for the Echo Park Holidayparade. Thanks to Christine Peters for her help in

obtaining the outfits for our elves.The kids wanted to see Avatar so off they wentand came back to tell me how great it was. George,one of the kids, came into my office after themovies wearing glasses. He told me they were new.Shortly after he came in the other kids arrived withglasses. I guess the 3D glasses are hard plasticframes now. Honestly the glasses looked real. Theweather was so warm it was off to the Zoo. The kidstold me that they saw Sam inside a cage but thenrealized it was a monkey. On one of their days offbefore New Years, David Bermudez arranged a tripto the Rose Bowl to participate in cutting theflowers for the floats. Then the kids got on the GoldLine and were picked up in Chinatown. We orderedpizza that week and it was eaten in one sweep. OnFriday the kids went to Long Beach to the Aquariumof the Pacific. Again it was a beautiful day so afterthe aquarium everyone went to Shoreline Village.Cannot remember which day it was but the kids gotto go ice skating at LA LIVE. Just looking around LA

LIVE is an experience; imagine skating and being apart of the LIVE.

So now the holidays are over and it is back toschool. The kids have been a little quiet this weekas they sit down to do homework as soon as arriveat the center. We are trying to put away all theexcess rummage but somehow the pile just keepsgetting bigger and bigger. We will probably not haveanother one till the kids are out for Spring break.That just gives us longer to get more valuable itemsto sell. If anyone has not been to one of our sales,try to make it this year. You will be pleasantlysurprised.

By the way, a few days ago I heard someonemaking noise outside my office early in themorning. I kept getting up and looking but no onewas to be seen. I told the kids and several of themare in agreement that it was Captain Rollo sendingme a message. Dont know what the message is butmaybe it will come later.

Central City Action by Gloria


12/12


Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the position of EPIA.

We need your helpThis year we had donations from printers, other community

groups and residents that has allowed us to continue toproduct our newsletter. Due to the cost of printing we run adeficit with each newsletter produced. This is not somethingthat the EPIA can sustain for a long period of time ifdonations stop coming in. Therefore we are attempting toraise funds for continued support of the newsletter.

Thank you in advance for your Support.

Donation Amount:_______________________________________ All contributions are appreciated equally

For Newsletter OnlyFor any EPIA community project or event

Send your Tax Deductible Check Payable to:Echo Park Improvement Association (EPIA)

PO Box 261021, Los Angeles, CA 90026

The New route for the LA Marathon begins atDodger Stadium. The Stadium to the Sea routetakes participants and their supporters throughsome of Los Angeles' iconic and familiar-the-world-over city and county sights and neighbor-hoods, including El Pueblo, City Hall, and Cathe-dral of Our Lady of the Angels in Downtown;Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood & Vine,and the Sunset Strip in Hollywood; Rodeo Drivein Beverly Hills; and from Century City throughthe Westside to the finish at the shore of the Pa-cific at Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean.

Consideration of altering the route came frompassionate groups of people who yearned to seethe race from the perspective of not only the par-ticipants but to global spectators watching ontelevision. The new route showcases the land-scape and landmarks we're known for. One run-ner published an Op-Ed in the Times noting thatthe race was "visually deadening." Her suggestedroute: "To take in some of the city's more memo-rable sights, runners could start at Dodger Sta-

dium, go through Chinatown, then up SunsetBoulevard to Hollywood, on to Beverly Hills andWestwood, and finishing at the beach in SantaMonica." Well whadda ya know?

The 2010 LA Marathon takes place on Sun-day March 21, 2010.

LA Marathon New RouteStadium to the Sea

by Darren Hubert

FREE JOB FAIR

JOB & Information Fair
http://laist.com/2009/06/08/running_bored_could_the_la_marathon.phphttp://laist.com/2009/06/08/running_bored_could_the_la_marathon.phphttp://laist.com/2009/06/08/running_bored_could_the_la_marathon.php

epian ways february & march 2010

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