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

In case you missed it: Headlines from around Echo Park

Amish journey from homespun to hipster – LA Times
How Refuge salon and Form Academy owner Miriam Jones went from an Omish upbringing to Echo Park.

Capping an era of L.A. oil exploration – LA Times
This week the city started plugging an old oil well just south of Glendale Boulevard and Rockwood Street to make way for a 45-unit apartment complex. Just up the street, where the Echo Park Pool is now, was the first oil well in Los Angeles.

Robert DeLong’s electronic dance music residency, Monday nights at Los Globos – Examiner.com
If only we didn’t have to work on the weekdays! The Examiner.com gives out rave reviews for Echo Park resident Robert DeLong’s Monday night residency at Los Globos: “He is salvaging what is left of everything great about electronic music and creating something fresh and so immediately appealing that you can’t help but start moving to the music as soon as he starts playing.”

Planning board supports Elysian Heights coffee house plan to serve wine and beer – The Eastsider LA
Fix Coffee in Elysian Heights is one step closer to serving beer and wine after an appeal failed to convince the planning board to block the application. The coffee shop will still need to obtain a state beer and wine license from ABC.

LAPD cracking down on holiday drunk driving

Don’t hit the spiked egg nog if you’re driving over the holidays, the LAPD is cracking down on drunk driving offenders with several sobriety checks around Los Angeles through January 1.

There will be a checkpoint on Friday, December 23, 2011 on the west end of Echo Park at Sunset Boulevard and Coronado Street (which is unusual as they usually set up at Sunset and Portia… perhaps trying to catch all those Mohawk Bend goers from the west?). The checkpoint will start at 8:00 pm and last until 2:00 am.

Click here for more information about the checkpoints over the holidays.

7-11 returns to the Echo Park Improvement Association tomorrow night

The Echo Park Improvement Association is holding itss regularly scheduled Neighborhood Issues Committee meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, December 21). The agenda includes a presentation by representatives from 7-11, who were also present at the last committee meeting. They’ll likely be addressing the same concerns by the neighborhood, including parking, the beer and wine permit, and traffic, among other issues.

With an approval by the neighborhood council, and the corporation’s willingness to work with neighborhood organizations means our magic ball predicts 7-11 will get the space. We’ll see what happens with the vote by the city after the start of the new year.

Also on the agenda are the developers from the Morton Village project, which has been left uncompleted for quite some time now.

Echo Park Improvement Association Neighborhood Issues Committee meeting
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Williams Hall, Barlow Hospital, 2000 Stadium Way
Agenda

Mustache competition to benefit Silver Lake Library

Movember might be officially over, but for all you longer-term bearded fellows out there in Echo Park, Silver Lake and beyond, now’s your chance to show off those long facial locks at the first annual Beard and Mustache Competition at the Silver Lake Library.

Library staff member Johathan Pitre told the LA Times that he wanted to coordinate the event after learning that Jack Passion, two-time world beard champion, had recently moved to Silver Lake. Jack will be on hand at the event to talk about his new book, The Facial Hair Handbook, and Joel Stein will be the celebrity judge. Johathan hopes to introduce people to the fairly new Silver Lake library with the event.

And we’re predicting this event will be a popular one! Categories for entries include: Hipster, Santa Claus, Most Scholarly, Most Outrageous, and Go Big or Go Home. Prizes will be given to winners placing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. Registration is free, email silver@lapl.org for more details or to register.

Sponsors include the Friends of the Silver Lake Library, Silver Lake Wine, Cha Cha Lounge, Rockaway Records, Red Lion Tavern, Relapse Records and Mane ‘n Tail shampoo. The Cha Cha will also be selling commemorative pint glasses to help raise funds for the library.

If you miss the competition, be sure to follow the many great events going on at the Silver Lake Library, including Sustainable Silver Lake’s monthly series Sustainable Saturdays.

See you at the competition!

The First Annual Beard and Mustache Competition
Tuesday, December 20 at 6:00 pm
Silver Lake Library located at 2411 Glendale Blvd.
Registration deadline: Monday, December 19 at 5:00 pm
Email silver@lapl.org for more details or to register

LA Times reports a recent spike in violent crime for Echo Park

Echo Park is among a few LA neighborhoods where violent crime has spiked in the past week, according to the LA Times crime mapping report.

From December 1 through December 7 there were five violent crimes and 10 property crimes, averaging 3.4 crimes per 10,00-00 people (which is higher than surrounding neighborhoods like Silver Lake and Chinatown).

The report also indicates that the property crime reports were about average. However, we’ve heard before that there can be an increase in thefts from vehicles around the Christmas holiday – you should never leave your iPod and other valuables in the car, but it’s also risky leaving any clothing and other seemingly non-valuable items.

Stay safe out there! Consider subscribing to Select Patrol, which is not only a great deterrent for crime but a fantastic resource for the Echo Park community.