One of the last of the old guard Echo Park booze holes has a "change of ownership" beverage application notice posted in the window. El Prado, at 1805 Sunset, in the same yellow-brick storefront building as Par Paints, is said to be the very last of the Mexican Cowboy joints in the neighborhood, and it seems it's going to be sucked into the vortex of The Echo/Spaceland, as Mitchell Frank's name is on the change of ownership app. (Mitchell Frank is one of The Echo/Spaceland partners.) El Prado joins the ranks of The Shortstop and Little Joy as EP bars flip for hipsters.
One piece of neighborhood lore has it that about four or five years ago an El Prado patron took it outside into the street, firing his gun and hitting someone (fate unknown). Caballero then went back into the bar and ordered another drink while the police cordoned off Sunset, looking for their suspect.
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I received a pair of responses to my post about the "kiddie porn" American Apparel billboard on Alvarado at Sunset (facing south) in which I disputed a Curbed LA writer's descriptino of the intersection where the clothing ad is posted. The first email was from the Curbed LA writer, Dakota Smith, who says that she stands by her description of the corner.
Hi Jenny: You may call my description of that corner daffy, but as an Echo Park resident, there is no other block in Echo Park where I routinely see homeless people and people on drugs, no matter what time of day it is. I was never referring to the people waiting for the bus in my story). Last fall, right under that American Apparel billboard, I intervened in a fight between two homeless people--a homeless man was harassing a homeless woman who had one eye missing.
I moved to the neighborhood a year ago. My friends have told me the corner was a known place to buy crack in 90s, but has gotten better in recent years. Maybe because I am a new resident, I am being too harsh on it, and seeing it with different eyes. But I still find it a sad corner.
Abby Arnold emailed with her take on the billboard itself, essentially in agreement with Curbed LA:
I live on the border of Santa Monica and Venice, but I work throughout Los Angeles, mostly in low-income neighborhoods. The posts about this billboard sparked my recollection of a moment in early January when I was in Echo Park. The billboard caught my attention, and I had a strong enough reaction to it to remember it here a month later...can't think of any other billboards that memorable!
My reaction was "YUCK". I wasn't thinking about the model's age, just the image of a half-naked teen looming above a neighborhood, adding to other other anti-woman propaganda like "Girls Gone Wild". Have you read "Female Chauvinist Pigs" by Ariel Levy? The billboard isn't the most damaging thing in the world, but I did have a feeling of revulsion that stayed in my consciousness for four weeks (so far). The billboard is almost bigger than the American Apparel store. Who needs it?
We all know that kiddie porn is evil, as well as criminal. Referencing it is vile, too. But it's legal, as it should be, even though it inhabits a loophole in the spirit of the law. People and companies will always find a way to talk about the things that are on their minds.
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No-kill proponents will be glad to see Carla Hall's Death Takes a Holiday" (for the weekend) story in the LA TImes today.
