The Sunday Swap Meet at Echo Park Lake has continued to thrive despite city efforts to bring the flea market to an end. Someone even installed illegal signs to scare off the vendors. None of that has worked. The most recent idea to stop the market was floated at last week’s Town Hall sponsored by the Echo Park Improvement Assn. (The Eastsider is a member). A “Take Back Our Park” event would have organized a community picnic on April 18 to fill up the parking spaces and parkland in the northwest corner of the park before the peddlers arrived with everything from racks of clothing to rolls of carpet. But, after a quick visit to the park and some study, residents estimated it would take about 60 cars to fill up the nearby streets and require lots of people – perhaps 200 – to attend the picnic. The whole scenario might have to be repeated several times to keep the vendors at bay. After some discussion, the Take Back Our Park proposal didn’t seem to get much traction and no event was scheduled.
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* Echo Park is not alone with it comes to problems with peddling. The Eastsider
Photo provided by Echo Park resident
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The lake is about to go through a pretty hefty renovation. Soon enough they will be gone due to the large amount construction work going on. Like Milton in Office Space, these vendors will be eventually pushed out with the lightest of hands. Until then, buy a used stapler.