The Lotus Festival is right around the corner. You can see the lotuses starting to bloom on Echo Park Lake. You can almost smell the delicious aromas wafting from the dozens of vendor stands that will set up shop in Echo Park the weekend of July 9th. And you can almost taste the sweet, sweet taste of crushing one's rivals in glorious waterborne athletic competition.
The Lotus Festival boat races between elected officials and community groups are one of the highlights of the festival, and we will be racing our Echo Park neighbor Council District 1 team for the fifth year in a row. The record, if I recall correctly, is 3-1 in our favor. Last year, not only did we good-naturedly hand our opponents' hats to them, but we also tied for first in the elected officials category with the mayor's office.
Of course, it doesn't come without practice. At about this time every year, the CD1 team starts a whisper campaign that our team has been seen practicing. We're proud of it: Success, whether on the council floor, in the neighborhoods, or on the water takes hard work. So look closely, Team Reyes, at the picture below. Because if you don't get on the water soon, that's what you'll see on Race Day: our backs and our wake. We love working with CD1 in Echo Park, but come race day, may the best team win!
For details on the 2005 Lotus Festival, see this page.
 |
Stroke! |