Friends, I hope this message finds you well. In good news, we just flew past 550 signatures!
I, like many of you, have been dealing with our current biggest issue, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. I've had to avoid our beloved Echo Park Lake for some time due to the Shelter in Place order. But I've just recently taken a drive around it. And I can't hold back my thoughts any longer...
Let's dive into the current state of our beloved park
Sadly, now, as expected, the amount of encampments have drastically increased as local government struggles to figure out what to do amidst this pandemic. Mitch O'Farrell tried offering space in a temporary 30-bed homeless shelter to get the lake community out of our park and into safe housing. Keeping people indoors and in Quarantine is incredibly important in this time. But... predictably, the members of the lake community refused to move into this housing.
Why focus on this issue right now you may ask? Well, our entire community is currently amidst this pandemic. And a large encampment in the center of our community that doesn't practice social distancing is a dangerous thing. Couches, tables, barbecue grills, a trampoline, and even a hookah lounge have been set up at the lake just recently by the unhoused community and zero social distancing is being practiced. This huge ever-growing encampment has turned down all offers of housing they've been given, all while living large on the lake funded by tax payers.
We need Mich O'Farrel and Eric Garcetti to step up, and immediately construct housing and shelters for the unhoused community and to make sure our lake is still a park, and not housing!
I am wishing all of you all a safe Quarantine and I hate to add more bad news onto an already sad time, but we must stay strong and try to hold our politicians accountable for what they've let our lake become. Eventually our communities will reopen and normal life will resume, but when we all return to our beloved lake, will we find a park for families, children, and a place of huge cultural importance? Or will we find a shanty town which has become permanent housing for all unhoused people of the entire CD-13 area? How our politicians respond now is critical to deciding which of these two results occur.
Let's contact call Mitch O' Farrell's office here: 213-207-3015 - and explain that we will not stand for our entire lake becoming housing- we want out community to be safe and to be ready for our families to use when the Shelter in Place order ends. Keep the pressure up and make sure Mitch understands that our lake must remain a park- NOT HOUSING. Period.
Stay well friends, we will talk more about this soon.
-Riley Montgomery