Echo Park

I have been a resident of Echo Park since 1973 when my parents moved us there. I have subsequently moved away but have come back to live in the family house after my parents passed away. The neighborhood has seen a big change in both demographics and housing prices. Back iin the 80s you never saw people walking on Echo Park Ave. ( my house is on the main street), Now you see young couples walking their dogs or their kids at all times of the day and night. The locals never really bothered those who lived there but there were lots of gunshots in the back alley at night. Also, there was always tagging on blank walls or garage doors. I have not seen a tagged wall with the ExP on anything in quite a while. There was definitely a feel of being in the"hood". I don't think it was ever like areas in Boyle Heights or other well known East LA hispanic neighborhoods. ( no knock on them, just using as a example). I remember friends saying oh you live in Echo Park? like it was dangerous to come visit, But now say Echo Park and people say oh cool place to live.

There is definitely a huge revival of artists and hip young crowd who have moved in. I do not go to music venues any longer but the Echo attracts some good bands. But th e first time I really noticed the change was when I saw a valet service at a new restaurant. lol Who would of ever imagined Echo Park having a valet service. With the neighborhood gentrification, comes the rise in rent for a lot of the shops who have been there. El Batey a small grocery store who had been there for many many years finally closed it doors. It went through the rough years when the local gang would hang out across the street where the new Chevron is now. The neighborhood has become a very safe one to live, walk and it is evident with the foot traffic at night. People who have purchased the craftsman homes have remodeled and updated the gardens giving the neighborhood curb appeal and less of a urban feel.

And those who have not taken a walk in the hills of Echo Park should walk the various stairs which leads to some great views and beautiful hideaway homes. Also there are a couple streets that rival any in the Bay Area in terms of steepness. Take a left on Baxter off of Echo Park Ave. and you'll end up on one of the steepest streets in Los Angeles, and its not just one but a drop and another one to climb. It's a roller coaster in someone's front yard. Ewing also has that steep rise and drop. And if you take Echo Park Ave straight to the end, it will wind back down to some side streets going to Riverside Drive. But just before you get there, there is a house which has a tram going up to it. You will find some very beautiful hideaway houses in the hills but the con to that is it gets a little congested in the tiny street with cars on both sides parked. But patience and the right timing and a drive through the lovely hills of the neighborhood would be a nice sight.

I don't think anyone has mention Elysian Park and proximity to Chavez Ravine home of our Dodgers team. To me it is still one of the best ball parks in the country. Its view of the Los Angeles downtown skyline on a warm summer night is a sight to behold and the stadium is still well kept. Echo Park is no longer an annex of Silverlake as I have heard it being referred to but we have our own sign proudly displaying the name Echo Park.

I should have mentioned Echo Park as part of “Hipster Heaven,” the set of neighborhoods in this section of LA that has a high percentage of the skinny-jeaned, vintage shirt wearing crowd. It definitely has its share of hyper-cool nightspots, like El Prado, a wine-bar that is more like a neighborhood watering hole (mostly locals) and The Short Stop, which is more dive bar than sports bar, drawing a lot of leather jackets and scruffy looking types. (There are also the dive bars, The Gold Room and Little Cocktails, just to name a couple.) If you are into dancing, The Echo or Bootie LA are the places to go.

Its easy to take Echo Park for granted because it has been an artists’ enclave for so long that we just come to expect it. But for a while it stopped being known for its dive bars and for being home to Eagles singer Don Henley, poet Charles Bukowski and movie makers, and came to be known for gangs and shootings. That was Echo Park in the late 80’s and 90’s—a place you heard about on the local news nightly. Its calmed down now and is returning to its true Bohemian self, with a great ethnic mix and lots of old and young hipster artist types mixing it up. It’s a great messy environment perfect for the postmodern punks of today.

As far as living there, the hilly area of Echo Park is very cute. It has leafy sloped streets and tiny Ranch and Mission-Bungalow hybrid style homes with well kept gardens. Everything in this area is micro-sized, little homes, little lots, little cars—its kind of like a munchkin village—which is part of what is so appealing about it. The homes all seem to be well-kept with attractive lime greens and pastels—as if the city planner had Georgia O’Keefe’s palate. The farther you move up into the hills, the narrower the streets and the more attractive and diverse the architectural styles of the homes become. You still get ranch houses and the tiled roofs of Spanish styles, but now as you stare past the bushy hedges, you can see the pointy tips of Tudors and even occasional Victorians sticking up from behind these privacy barriers.

Even if you go down near the flats, you will still find lots of these cute little houses—many of the them pre-WWII bungalows. The area has been the site of a number of period movies for this reason. (Actually, before the film industry moved to Hollywood it was based here. Lots of silent pictures were filmed in the area—Laurel and Hardy, even Gilligan’s Island.)

Echo Park Lake is the heart of the neighborhood. Its beautiful waterspouts and palm tree filled island, make for one of the most picturesque frames for the LA skyline. It also has a great play area occasionally frequented by celebrities in a family way.

There are definitely some downsides to this neighborhood, however. One is the crime. It is not so much that it is high—if you look at most ratings, the neighborhood is actually about average for LA, but the dense living situation means that you are just much more aware of it than in other areas. There are nightly car alarms and if you are light sleeper, you will be woken by the sounds of the helicopters buzzing by overhead. In terms of violent crime, it slightly on the upper end of average with about four murders per year, about one for every 10,000 residents—most having to do with the gang problems that you get in the area.

This is also far from ideal family living. Not only do you worry about the gang and drug elements in the area, but the schools are also sub par. Belmont and the main middle school that serve the area are ranked at the very bottom of most objective measures, earning the lowest possible 1/10 API rating, and having missed more than a dozen government bench marks year after year. Even the elementary schools rank low in the area. Put simply, you don’t want to try to raise kids here—move to nearby Glassell Park with all the other former twentysomething hipsters when they get in a family way.

All in all, this is one of the really great neighborhoods in LA—not perfect for everybody, but ideal if you are a twenty something free-spirit.

Echo Park is an extremely culturally, ethnically, sexually diverse area which includes a small African-American enclave, a large Latin community as well as a prominent Asian population. It is known, among other things, to be home to some great Mexican and Latin American eateries, taco trucks, bakeries and markets.

Echo Park is known for it's culture, diversity, and sexual diverse nature. This area has a very strong community of minorities. It is a great place to raise a family, as the community and friendship is very apparent throughout the area.
Although in the past Echo Park has created the reputation for being a very artsy community. However, it now is more known for it's hip-hop and young artistic culture. Despite the changes in the area over the year, it still remains one of the most strong, family oriented neighborhoods in the LA area.

Echo Park is home to many annual festivals and celebrations, such as the Lotus Festival. there are various film festivals, and art exhibits.

If you're looking for culture, a familial atmosphere, and diversity - Echo Park is the place.