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    • Scenes and Sightings

    A Western scene from Elysian Park

    A pair of urban cowboys took advantage of today’s bright and warm afternoon to ride their horses through the trails of Elysian Park.

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    L.A. Riots Remembered: How gangsters stepped in to protect an Echo Park shoe seller

    As violence, fires and looting spread across the city during the riots of 1992,  Yong Kim and his family, who owned the Crown Shoes store in Echo Park, prepared for the worst.  They closed their Sunset Boulevard store and rented a U-Haul truck to move their merchandise to safety. Meanwhile, one of Kim’s brothers struck [...]

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    Time for A Change: Underwear advice from Echo Park past

    In conducting research on the Washington Heights tract of Echo Park,  Rory Mitchell came across  a resident named Harry Ellington Brook, an Englishman and writer who lived  more than a century ago in a Victorian-style home on Elsinore Street near Alvarado Street.  Brook wrote what was apparently the L.A. Times’ first health column, “Care of [...]

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    Eagle Rock bank opens with window seats to comply with design rules

    The newly opened Eagle Rock branch of Chase Bank features pairs of comfy blue chairs set behind large new windows that look out upon the corner of Eagle Rock and Colorado Boulevard.  But it’s not clear when and if anyone will – or would want to – sit in those  chairs. That’s because the chairs [...]

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    Who is that masked Dodger?

    Buckets of blue paint, a skateboard and tarp were some of the signs of artists at work this weekend painting a new Dodger-themed mural on an Echo Park retaining wall on Sunset Boulevard at Sutherland Street.  Perhaps the upcoming change in team ownership inspired the new mural, which replaces an older piece (click on the [...]

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    Stock up on patience before entering the Super King parking lot

    When it comes to shopping for fresh produce and hard-to-find items, Joshua Siegel, the chef at  The Park restaurant in Echo Park, skips the farmers markets and heads directly to Super King, the Glassell Park supermarket stockpiled with all manner of Middle Eastern products and fresh produce.  But before you can get inside the San [...]

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    Silver Lake as salad bowl

    The first step in making a Silver Lake Salad requires that you actually step outside and stroll through the neighborhood.  That’s how Emily Ho and Gregory Han started when they went foraging for salad fixings – including nasturtiums, nopales, wild fennel and lemons- in the empty lots and along the stairways of Silver Lake.   They [...]

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    Echo Park stops for Al Pacino

    Motorists driving down Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park this morning might be forced to come to an abrupt stop for a few moments  as a movie starring Al Pacino and Christopher Walken is being shot at the Brite Spot restaurant. While Echo Park residents are accustomed to all manner of film, TV and video shoots, [...]

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    L.A. River roars to life

    Today’s storm turned the Los Angeles River into a torrent of brown water and white foam as tree branches, foam cups and an occasional brave bird rode the rapids as the water passed under the Fletcher Drive bridge in Elysian Valley. The river, judging by the debris left on the pathway at right, had receded [...]

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    A view of Good Friday from the top of Lincoln Heights

    Artree Maharajh took the above shot of the city sprawl and downtown skyline from the grassy hills above Lincoln High school in a part of Lincoln Heights known as Happy Valley. “Beautiful day today on Good Friday,” said  Maharajh . “Went up to the top up a side trail and had to take a few [...]

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    Bulldozers mow down Echo Park gas station gallery

    The former Echo Park gas station that was turned into  an unofficial street art gallery was bulldozed this week.  The bulldozer and wrecking crew arrived on Tuesday and the station at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Portia Street had been scraped to the ground by Thursday. What’s going to replace the former Meghna station [...]

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    A foolish addition to Silver Lake’s Polka Dot Plaza

    Looks like April Fool’s Day falls on April 2 this year.  How else to explain the rendering above that arrived in The Eastsider’s inbox today with an announcement of the approval of Phase Two of Sunset Triangle Plaza – aka Polka Dot Plaza – in Silver Lake. The proposal from an outfit called Studio LKAB  [...]

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    Echo Park’s taco lovers can’t wait for the weekend and Bellevue Steakhouse to arrive

    A few feet away from the Echo Park Avenue exit off the 101 Freeway, the aroma of grilled carna asada and pungent chorizo filled the Friday night air near a blue canopy propped up against a chain link fence that runs along Bellevue Avenue. The roar of the freeway coming from the other side of [...]

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    Another day, another story on Echo Park Avenue

    Echo Park residents who return home tonight via Echo Park Avenue will find that that construction crews were busy today adding  a second floor to the condominiums now under way at Echo Park and Delta avenues.  The 36 on Echo development still has another floor to go before topping out.  How high can you go [...]

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    Echo Park gentrification heads for HBO

    The topic of Echo Park gentrification, which has been played up in indy movies, newspaper stories and novels, is now going to take the form of an HBO drama based on the book “The Madonnas of Echo Park.” Deadline Hollywood reports that HBO has put the series – written by playwright Julia Cho and produced [...]

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    Victorian Rain Gear

    Let’s hope the blue tarp kept Sunday’s heavy rains out of this Lincoln Heights Victorian on Sichel Street. The storm made many of us aware of leaks – new and old – that had been overlooked during our relatively dry rainy season.

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