Welcome/Slime

A hearty welcome to CD13 blogger Jenny Burman, whose "Chicken Corner" is part of the growing LAObserved empire. Jenny lives in and blogs about Echo Park. She writes:

The lotus flowers are now, gloriously, almost in full bloom, their huge satellite-receiver leaves tilting toward outer space — "they missed the Lotus festival in mid-July, a result of cool spring weather, said the LA Times. The lotus thrive in slime, which makes me worry that when the city cleans the lake — Prop O funds are earmarked for the project — what will they do to preserve the lotus bed? Will they scour the lakebed and then add new slime to replace the toxic sludge they just spent zillions to scoop out? No imported slime could be quite the same as what we have spent decades developing here at Echo Park Lake.

Great point, and thanks, Jenny, for pointing out that Echo Park Lake is a high-priority Prop O project. Prop O raised half a billion dollars in bond funds to clean up our rivers, lakes and waterways through projects as mundane as funding more street sweeping to those as specialized and cutting edge as using parks to filter out contaminants.

It will be a couple of years before the Echo Park Lake cleanup under Prop O commences. The entire lake will be emptied of water and scraped clean of layers of earth, removing the contamination that has settled there over the decades, including toxic metals and the like. The lotus beds will need to be completely re-planted. As the time approaches, we'll contract with a plant specialist to make sure our signature plants get no less than star treatment.

Someday I'll blog about the time my partner Amy's niece fell in the water in Echo Park. Maybe I'll wait until she's old enough to be mortified by it.