Sunday, June 29, 2008
Where have Echo Park's lotuses gone?
FROM: LOS ANGELES TIMES
The Day of the Lotus might as well be called the Day of the Dead. Echo Park's famous lotus beds are nothing more than a scattering of a few sickly, brownish pads floating in foul-smelling water, a scene that in two weeks will greet about 150,000 visitors who are expected to attend the 2008 Lotus Festival.
Gone are the hundreds of pink- and cream-colored flowers atop a lush green expanse of umbrella-like leaves that were once described as the largest lotus beds in the nation.
The count as of Saturday: 12 tattered leaves.
Residents and some park managers who had hoped the plants would rebound from two weak years conceded that the lotuses -- with their perfectly sculpted blooms that have long been an icon of summer in urban Los Angeles -- are probably dead. MORE-->>
The Day of the Lotus might as well be called the Day of the Dead. Echo Park's famous lotus beds are nothing more than a scattering of a few sickly, brownish pads floating in foul-smelling water, a scene that in two weeks will greet about 150,000 visitors who are expected to attend the 2008 Lotus Festival.
Gone are the hundreds of pink- and cream-colored flowers atop a lush green expanse of umbrella-like leaves that were once described as the largest lotus beds in the nation.
The count as of Saturday: 12 tattered leaves.
Residents and some park managers who had hoped the plants would rebound from two weak years conceded that the lotuses -- with their perfectly sculpted blooms that have long been an icon of summer in urban Los Angeles -- are probably dead. MORE-->>
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