Mayor Villaraigosa will be stopping by Echo Park tomorrow (Weds) morning to accept an award – a national planning award that names Echo Park a “Great Neighborhood.”

According to Christopher Koontz a of L.A.’s city planning department, the American Planning Association’s award is part of:

…a national recognition program that celebrates places of exemplary character, quality, and planning. Places are selected annually and represent the gold standard for a true sense of place, cultural and historical interest, community involvement, and a vision for tomorrow.

Beautiful. Take a passel of one-of-a-kind oddballs and one-of-a-kind immigrants, assorted others, a lot of artists, a bike shop, fauna from around the globe, and you get a model community. Cluck, cluck. Love it.

Of course, the choice of Echo Park Lake as a site for celebrating the award is subtly unfortunate. The waterfowl are dying all of a sudden. (More on this to come) Dead coots and dead ducks. And, of course, dead lotus. Just don’t look too closely at the water.