Every July the lotus blooms pink across much of Echo Park Lake, a small lake ringed with palm trees just west of downtown and laid out in the 1890s. Echo Park Lake was developed in the 1890s as part of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.'s plan for a parkway system connecting the city's neighborhoods. The lotus plants — a variety from Asia — have bloomed here every summer for decades, and the July lotus festival draws thousands of visitors to see the pink blooms covering much of the lake surface.
The neighborhood around the park has been home to successive waves of immigrant communities: the Filipinos and Mexicans of the early twentieth century, the Central Americans who came in the 1970s and 80s, and more recently a new population drawn by lower rents than neighboring Silver Lake and Echo Park's reputation for creative communities. In 2021, the park became the site of a large unhoused encampment and was closed for weeks while the city cleared it, an action that drew protests and became a focal point in the debate over Los Angeles's chronic homelessness crisis. The park reopened after renovations.
The paddle boats are still there. The lotus still blooms every July.