Mark your calendar: Echo Park TAP neighborhood cleanups

The next Echo Park Trash Abatement Program (TAP) cleanup is tomorrow morning, so make sure to get up bright and early and help out!

You can also show up after the start of the cleanup and contribute for an hour, or more!

Dates for the cleanups include:

Saturday, February 18, 2012
and Saturday, March 3, 2012

8:00 am – 12:00 noon

Meet at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Logan Street by Walgreen’s Parking lot. Dress for weather. Bring gloves if possible.

Also, save the date for:

Friends of the Los Angeles River Cleanup
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Check the Friends of the LA River website for details.

Free workshop: How to include your pets in emergency preparedness plans

This Sunday, February 19, 2012 from 6-7:30 pm, join the P.U.P. (Prepare Ur Pet) at BlueCollar Working Dog in Echo Park for a FREE emergency preparedness class! They are, after all, our best friends, and we wouldn’t want to leave our babies behind in an emergency because we weren’t prepared.

Animal trainer and behavior specialists will be doing live demonstrations on how to handle your pet before and after a disaster, including calming your pet during stressful circumstances, what to pack in an emergency kit, as well as how to collar, harness, or leash your pets for an emergency evacuation.

RSVP is a must – simply email prepareurpet@gmail.com.

BlueCollar Working Dog is located at 1533 Echo Park Avenue

Echo Park Lake rehab update meeting tonight

Screenshot from echoparklake.com

Tonight is a meeting of the oversight committee and odor monitoring group of the Echo Park Lake rehabilitation project. All are invited to attend to get updates about the project, and share information on how you think things are going.

Echo Park Lake Rehab Meeting
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 6:30 pm
St. Paul’s Cathedral, located at 840 Echo Park Avenue

Sunday: Open house for Echo Park eco-home, complete with yurt

We don’t normally write a whole lot about real estate here in Echo Park, but it’s on our minds all the time since we got married and have started to think we could buy a place in Echo Park. This particular piece of property caught our eye because, well, it’s just so COOL! There aren’t that many places that are so self-sustainable in Echo Park that you could hide out through a zombie apocalypse.

Although a zombie apocalypse isn’t why this home is super green – owner Michael Jacob Rochlin told Echo Park Patch he spent $100,000 converting the 1922 bungalow into a “green” home. The property features a tankless water heater, gray water appliances, an organic vegetable garden, drought-tolerant landscaping, rainwater harvesting, ten composters, and a plant nursery. The property is 10,000 square feet total, and in addition to all the delicious fruit trees is a certified farm and wildlife habitat.

I can also see why the current owner, who is an author and historian, wrote three novels and compiled two photographic essays while living there – there’s a gorgeous 225 square foot yurt retreat in the far corner amongst the trees. Though the place is only a 1 bedroom/1 bath at 700 square feet, there’s a studio in addition to the main house, and plenty of porch space to chill. Oh yes, and it’s listed at only $399,900 – which, for safe and quiet Lake Shore, is a good deal.

Enough with the sales pitch, there’s an open house tomorrow, Sunday, January 15, hosted by listing agent Darren Hubert from 1:00 – 5:00 pm. The address is 2006 Lake Shore, and you can view more photos of the place (yurt and all) by clicking here.

Are you going? Echo Park urban planning workshop Saturday!

From the placeit.org website

SATURDAY, January 14, 2012
10:00 am – 12:30 pm
@ The Echo Country Outpost, 1770 Glendale Blvd. in Echo Park

Echo Park Improvement Association member and activist Josh Post, who organized the recent Glendale Boulevard community cleanup, has put together a great event this weekend that will help further the efforts to get fix up the historic Echo Park corridor for good.

Urban planner James Rojas is leading a workshop on, you guessed it, urban planning! Using props, blocks and salvaged items, workshop goers will create individual 3-D models reflecting how members of the community would like to see Glendale Boulevard used and changed. Ideas will be presented to the group and discussed, and results of the workshop will be shared with local government and organizations.

Rojas was just featured in the LA Times for his work on his project in Long Beach. The event is free, and everyone is welcome to come share ideas for change and have some fun!

RSVP is recommended. Email echopark@patch.com to rsvp or with questions.

Keep Echo Park clean: Neighborhood cleanup on Saturday

Photo via the LA Stormwater website

This is the second neighborhood cleanup organized by the Echo Park Trash Abatement Program (TAP) in the past couple of months – the last one on December 3 collected more than 60 bags of trash (according to the LA Stormwater Blog).

This weekend, treat yourself to some sunshine, pack your bottled water and work gloves, and join Echo Park neighbors for the first neighborhood cleanup of the year!

Saturday, January 7, 2012 from 8:00 am – 11:00 am
Meet on Sunset by Metro Bus Stop between Echo Park Avenue and Logan
Dress for weather. Bring water as needed.