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News & Notes
Echo Park's crime rate dropped 5.37% between 2017 and 2018, according to a citywide analysis by researchers at USC. Compared to 114 other neighborhoods, Echo Park ranked No. 58 in terms of criminal activity. (Downtown came in at No. 1 with the highest rate). However, next door to Echo Park the area that includes Elysian Park and Dodger Stadium had the fifth highest crime rate, and the highest on the Eastside. The Eastsider has more info on the study.
Jackie Goldberg of Elysian Heights was the top vote-getter in Tuesday's school board election, reports The Eastsider. Preliminary results showed that Goldberg garnered more than 48% of the vote to represent District 5, which includes Echo Park. She had far more votes than any of her rivals but it's still likely she'll be forced into a runoff election in May with the second-place candidate. The 74-year-old has been previously elected to the school board as well as the City Council, representing Council District 13, and the state legislature.
Citing safety concerns, Councilman Gil Cedillo is trying to temporarily ban electric scooters in his district, which includes the eastern portion of Echo Park and Angelino Heights, says CBS2. He wants Council District 1 to be exempted from a one-year pilot program that will unleash dockless scooters across the city, saying the wheeled vehicles increase emergency room visits and are often left blocking sidewalks.
The police pursuit of a stolen minivan that began in Studio City ended just east of Echo Park on Tuesday, The Eastsider reported. Aerial video footage showed the van traveling down Sunset Boulevard followed by several squad cars as TV news helicopters hovered overhead. The chase ended at about 10 a.m. near Sunset and Beaudry Avenue when a squad car bumped the suspect’s vehicle in a PIT maneuver.
A 5-bedroom Carroll Avenue Victorian that went up for sale last month for $1.69 million has sold for the asking price. The Queen Anne-style Angelino Heights home was built in 1895 and is Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #189. The home was designed by architect Joseph Cather Newsom, who along with his brother, Samuel, designed elaborate homes in the Victorian and other period styles in Southern and Northern California.
He was a familiar sight on Echo Park Avenue. A big, burly man, Joe Sandoval greeted and chatted with passersby from behind a waist-high cinderblock wall at the public parking lot just south of Sunset. He lived with his wife and managed the apartment building overlooking the same parking lot. Late last month, Joseph V. Sandoval, Jr., also known as Joey, died at age 72. The same wall where Sandoval once stood is now adorned with flowers and photos in his memory. A Celebration of Life Mass is scheduled for 5 pm on Saturday, March 9 at St. Athanasius Church, down the street from where Sandoval lived.
"One of the reasons I’ve been so hesitant to leave Echo Park was Joey," said Mitra Khayyam in a Facebook post about Sandoval. "He’d call me 'kiddo' as I’d walk down the block to him and in the last few weeks he started giving me hugs. I stopped seeing him behind the wall a few weeks ago and I heard he had gone to the hospital because he had trouble breathing. I was so worried that we were going to lose him I was worried that I was going to lose him. I did."
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