Echo Park, Part One - Who Do You Want To Be?

O.K. little neighborhood....no wait, I'm sorry, not so little really, are you?

Just because you are named after a jewel-like park tucked into a little hollow a little over from downtown L.A.,

does not mean that you aren't sprawling, rolling hills...and raw, rollicking, rusting streetscapes that stretch out along Sunset Boulevard for well, miles.  You are full of surprises and history, one of the oldest neighborhoods in L.A., just up the hill from Chinatown and Olvera St. where the Pueblo began...and right next door to Chavez Ravine where the Dodgers are struggling as I write this, and where I'm reminded that the more things change....the more they stay the same.....

(the Rolling Stones' last Spring inaugurated their Summer tour in that building to the right, now known as the Echoplex.)

......you can trace your ancestors back to beyond the "beginning" of what we now call that great left coast conurbation, Los Angeles.

You are famous in L.A. for your gangs, your local police precinct that has sometimes conducted itself no better than a gang, as an incubator for generation after generation of artists, writers, musicians and actors and lately, for your restaurants, for Maria the goose

for your CULTURE COLLIDE which took place last week.

I don't know you very well, Echo Park

but I love the way you embrace me.  (And for your Chinese take-outs, Cambodian groceries, Korean drycleaner.)

Easier I guess, for you to grab a hold of me and tuck me under your arm

than for me to to accommodate your vastness and possibility in my own.

You are so much to so many.

(anybody you know here?)

and, I'll say it again.....full of surprises!  Have I reminded myself that your namesake park is full of yes, LOTUSES?

Anyway, just wanted to say....I've got time to get to know you better and truly, I look forward to that!