Echo Park, Los Angeles

For other uses, see Echo Park.

Echo Park
Neighborhood of Los Angeles
Echo Park, with the Downtown Los Angeles skyline in the background
Echo Park Location within Central Los Angeles
Coordinates:

Echo Park is a densely populated neighborhood of 43,000+ residents in Central Los Angeles. It has one high school and eight other schools. It has been home to many notable people and is centered on the lake of the same name.

Geography

Location

Echo Park is flanked by Elysian Valley to the north and northeast, Elysian Park to the east, Chinatown and Downtown to the southeast, Westlake to the southwest and west, and Silver Lake to the northwest.

Boundaries are the Golden State Freeway–Glendale Freeway interchange at the north apex, Riverside Drive on the northeast, Elysian Park on the east, Stadium Way and Beaudry Avenue on the southeast, the south apex being Beaudry Avenue and West Second Street and the west limit being an irregular line consisting of Second Street and Beverly Blvd, then moving upward north along Benton Way and the Glendale Freeway.

Districts

Within Echo Park are the following:

Angelino Heights

Main article: Angelino Heights, Los Angeles

Angelino Heights is most notable for its Victorian era residences, although these are few in number. It lies at an elevation of 502 feet (153 meters).

Elysian Heights

Main article: Elysian Heights, Los Angeles

Since the teens, Elysian Heights, along with Edendale, has been home to many of the counter-culture, political radicals, artists, writers, architects and filmmakers. The children of many progressives attended school there during the 1930s, '40s and '50s.

Historic Filipinotown

Main article: Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles

Historic Filipinotown makes up the southwest portion of Echo Park. It was created by a resolution proposed by then-City Councilmember Eric Garcetti on August 2, 2002. The district is bounded by the Hoover Street on the west to Glendale Boulevard on the east, Temple Street on the north and Beverly Boulevard on the south.

Victor Heights

Victor Heights lies between Chinatown, Los Angeles, and the central part of Echo Park, off Sunset Boulevard near the Pasadena Freeway below Elysian Park. One of its streets is the hilly Figueroa Terrace, where in 1992 a resident named Betty Oyama lived and helped popularized a name for Victor Heights as the "Forgotten Edge," because, as she said, the Police Department couldn't figure out where Victor Heights was exactly. In a feature story about Oyama's successful fight to form a Neighborhood Watch, a Los Angeles Times reporter said of Victor Heights that it was "a mix of new and old housing styles and [of] residents who span the socioeconomic and ethnic spectrums. New condominium complexes stand next to 1920s-era bungalow houses and old apartment buildings."

In 2009 Victor Heights and its hilly streets were described as "a collection of stuccoed apartments and faded bungalows, a place with a lot of old-timers." With its dramatic views of the Los Angeles Civic Center, Victor Heights had a population of "older Italians and Croatians who once dominated the area," along with "newer Asian and Latino immigrants [and] a smattering of hipsters betting that Victor Heights will be the next big thing." The area became known for the flock of peacocks and peahens, with their chicks, who had taken over parts of the district, often on Everett Street, where they gathered in the morning.

Victor Heights is an old area. In 1887 "Choice lots, commanding a splendid view," were being advertised for $1,200. Lesser lots went for $700 to $1,300. All had "Water piped through the street." In 1908 its residents took a fight against disruptive dynamite blasting by the Los Angeles Brick Company in Chavez Ravine to the Los Angeles City Police Commission. They complained that the explosions were "cracking the plaster on their walls and causing their homes to settle to such an extent that they could not open their doors.

Population

The 2000 U.S. census counted 40,455 residents in the 2.4-square-mile neighborhood—an average of 16,868 people per square mile, one of the highest densities in Los Angeles. In 2008 the city estimated that the population had increased to 43,832. The median age for residents was 30, about the same as the city norm.

Echo Park was considered moderately diverse ethnically. The breakdown was Latinos, 64%; Asians, 18.8%; whites, 12.9%; blacks, 2%, and others, 2.3%. Mexico (41.3%) and El Salvador (15.2%) were the most common places of birth for the 53% of the residents who were born abroad, a figure that was considered high compared to the city as a whole.

The median household income in 2008 dollars was $37,708, a low figure for Los Angeles, and a high percentage of households earned $20,000 or less. The average household size of three people was about the same as the rest of the city. Renters occupied 76% of the housing units, and house- or apartment owners the rest.

The percentages of never-married men and women, 46.8% and 38.3%, respectively, were among the county's highest. The 2000 census found 5,325 families headed by single parents, a high rate for both the city and the county. There were 1,034 military veterans in 2000, or 3.5%, a low figure for Los Angeles.

Census data below for Echo Park is generally cited from only US Census District 1974.20 and does not include a large portion of what is geographically and culturally considered Echo Park. District boundaries shifted from 2000 to 2010 in most of the other contributing districts, so trends are not necessarily reliably reported by the data. It is also alleged that Echo Park and Hollywood are among the lowest responding areas to census polls.

The 2010 US Census estimates that the neighborhood demographics for tract 1974.20 are as follows: Latinos still form the majority of the community, though the percentage fell from 69.8% in 2000 to 59.5% in 2010; Whites grew from 13.2% in 2000 to 23.2% in 2010; Asian population remained almost unchanged at 13.3% in 2010 compared to 13.2% in 2000; Other grew from 3.4% in 2000 to 4% in 2010. The number of people in the district shrank by almost 15% to around 3500 people. This represents less than 10% of the number of residents considered to live in Echo Park. This demographic shift from Latino to White is generally acknowledged as the over all trend in the area.

Government and infrastructure

Rampart Police Station

Local government

The Los Angeles Fire Department Station 20 is in the area.

The Los Angeles Police Department operates the Rampart Community Police Station at 1401 West 6th St., 90017.

County, state, and federal representation

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Central Health Center in Downtown Los Angeles, serving Echo Park.

The United States Postal Service Edendale Post Office is located at 1525 North Alvarado Street.

Education

Eighteen percent of residents 25 and older have a four-year degree, about average for the city and the county, but there is a high percentage of residents with less than a high school diploma.

In 2007, LAUSD used eminent domain to remove 50 homes in order to build a new school.

Within Echo Park are the following schools:

Elementary schools

• Baxter Montessori, 2101 North Echo Park Avenue (private)
• Elysian Heights Elementary, 1562 Baxter Street (LAUSD). This school was home to "Room 8 the Cat"
• Clifford Street Elementary, 2150 Duane Street (LAUSD)
• Mayberry Street Elementary, 2414 Mayberry Street (LAUSD)
• Golden West Christian, 1310 Liberty Street (private)
• Gabriella Charter, 1435 Logan Street (LAUSD)
• Logan Street Span School, 1711 West Montana Street (LAUSD)Serving K to 8th grade
• Rosemont Elementary, 421 N. Rosemont (LAUSD)
• Betty Plasencia Elementary School, 1321 Cortez Street (LAUSD)

Other schools

• DC Academy, 626 Coronado Terrace (private)

Public libraries

The Los Angeles Public Library operates two branches in Echo Park: Echo Park Branch and Edendale Branch.

Entertainment and night life

The trendy Echo Park area, known as one of "the city's hippest neighborhoods", has many bars, night clubs, and restaurants.

Notable residents

• Carlos Almaraz, artist
• Allison Anders, film and television director
• Amber Benson. actress, film director, author.
• Jackson Browne, musician
• Anna Camp, actress
• Leonardo DiCaprio, actor
• William Ferguson (1822–1910), member of the Los Angeles Common Council
• Seth Green, actor
• Glenn Frey, musician
• Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles mayor
• Peter Garrison, aviation writer and airplane designer
• Roy Hampton, Los Angeles City Council member, 1939–41
• Marilyn Horne, soprano, lived at 1565 Altivo Way
• John Huston, film director
• Paul Landacre, artist, lived at 2006 El Moran Street
• Shia LaBeouf, actor
• Solomon Lazard (1827–1916), entrepreneur, banker and politician
• Henry Jay Lewis, musical conductor
• Estelle Lawton Lindsey, newspaper columnist and Los Angeles City Council member, lived at 2414 Echo Park Avenue
• Edward Middleton Manigault, painter
• Steve McQueen, actor, lived on Vestal Avenue in 1955
• Carey McWilliams author, editor and lawyer
• Albert Nozaki, movie art director
• Art Pepper, jazz musician
• Leo Politi, artist and illustrator
• Jackson Pollock, artist
• James Wesley Potts, merchant, landowner and member of the Los Angeles Common Council; noted locally as an amateur weatherman nicknamed "The Prophet."
• Ann Robinson, actress and stunt horse rider
• Horatio Sanz, comedian, actor, ex-SNL cast member and podcaster.
• Roger L. Simon, novelist and screenwriter Simon's fictional detective, Moses Wine, also lived in Echo Park.
• Elliott Smith, musician, singer, songwriter
• J. D. Souther, musician
• Darwin William Tate, Los Angeles City Council member, 1933–39
• Danny Trejo, actor
• Frank Zappa, musician and songwriter, lived at 1819 Bellevue Ave
• Jake Zeitlin opened an antique book shop at 1623 Landa Street

See also

• List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Silver Lake, Angelino Heights, and Echo Park
• List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles
• Mi Vida Loca, a 1994 film centered on life in Echo Park
• Quinceañera, a 2006 film about gentrification in Los Angeles

External links

• Echo Park Historical Society
• The Eastsider LA A news source for Echo Park and surrounding neighborhoods
• Echo Park Now News and Information about Echo Park happenings and history
• Echo Park Online - A social networking site and blogging platform
• Short history of Echo Park
• Edendale Farm CSA and Learning Center
• [1] Echo Park crime map and statistics