Echo Park LA

Echo Park

The park doesn't seem like much at first. Like the rest of Los Angeles it's an enigma, a challenge to visitors and residents alike, and for good reason. Not only because of its touristy boat rides, not only because of the authentic street vendors, and certainly not just because of the views of downtown. But the park has a significance to it, something you feel from the moment you set foot inside. 

The amazement that so much life and happiness could all be packed into such a tight space makes one feel a solid sense of place from being there; because of all the movements, actions, and events constantly happening that many of the residents have become accustomed to. It has an undeniable eccentric allure to it which pulls its visitors in and keeps them coming back.

Densely packed into the 2.4 square mile neighborhood is a population of over forty-three thousand people, all making a living and coming home to their little pockets. The park itself is a good view, a sample, of the varying and diverse peoples all inhabiting the small, hilly region. On a typical day, the surrounding streets make it difficult to find parking if you're just visiting, and also turns the crossing into the park into a perilous rush. 

Once inside there can be a range of people depending on when you go. Unfortunate regulars will notice massive spikes in tourism on days like Easter Sunday when everyone and their mother needs a day at the park. The sun shines down as the water spouts in the lake spray mist on passersby. For such a small park the wildlife is surprisingly well kept and flourishing. Geese, ducks, and coots plot their homes in the tall lotus flowers on the waterside. 

Turtles and fish swim beneath the surface, enticing catches for the first rate fisherman with a line, a hook and some time to kill. It goes without saying that the park is primarily a people's park, the lake's main purpose is to be an attraction.

Originally built in 1870 as a part of a reservoir system to help supply water to Los Angeles, the lake was a promising addition to the supply of drinking water. Starting out as a water filled ditch, simply named Reservoir No. 4, the lake ended up being a commercial flop. 

It did however have great success in diverting water from the ditch into multiple other streams and ponds as a result of the canals created in the forming of the reservoir. The major of these being the Arroyo De Los Reyes that ran from the current day park, down through downtown by way of second street, finally connecting with the LA river but instead sloshing out into a concrete, muddy mess of a canal. 

Many saw this as a nuisance to the city, serving no purpose, but before it could be damned up to eventually serve as the park it is today, the river was another part of the city. The LA Woolen Mill sprung up around 1873, utilizing the canal for electricity in the form of water wheels. Some water was pumped out through pipes for the same purpose to power larger plants and factories. Not only that, the water provided another getaway for citizens both recreationally and hygienically:

"He told me of his boyhood and how he learned to swim in a pond at Second and Beaudry streets. It was a natural pond formed by a brook that ran down from the Echo Park reservoir. Along this little creek grew cattails and water lilies. Also there were sweet-water fishes which are still to be found in great quantities in Echo Park lake. He remembers frogs croaking after dark" (Leo Politi, reminiscing on his friend's upbringing near Echo Park).

Historically, the park served people but that's to be expected in a city like LA. The people are the staple behind most places in the city and in Echo Park they cherish every moment they have in such a small and personal slice of heaven. 

After jokingly telling my sister, a new resident living on Montrose Street, a thirty second walk from the park, that it's "just a park," she got enraged with me. I asked her again recently why she held it so near and dear to herself, what did this place do that made it so different. She and her friends all agreed that the park is more than just a place, but an event that's constantly happening. "When you go you always see the craziest people -- different people that you didn't see the day before, even if you go everyday" (2018). It's not recommended to go everyday but I ended up going three weekends in a row myself to visit, and each time opened up more about the complexities confined in such a small section of LA.