Crowds celebrate the reopening of Echo Park Lake

Hundreds of Angelenos turned out Saturday to celebrate and welcome back Echo Park Lake after a $45-million, two-year renovation.

They photographed its new beds of lotus plants, climbed its playground equipment and marveled at the clarity of the lake water, which used to be a notoriously dark stew of toxic runoff.

“It was the heart of Echo Park, but it was in need of a triple bypass,” Los Angeles Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti said at a morning ceremony marking the lake’s and park’s formal reopening. He recalled some of the past troubles with crime and pollution but predicted a safer and cleaner future. “Today we celebrate the rebirth of a lake, of a park and of a neighborhood,” said Garcetti, who has represented the area on the City Council.

Just north of downtown, along Glendale Boulevard, the park had been off limits for the two years of draining, dredging and rebuilding, mainly hidden from view behind tarp-covered fences. Anxious to return, about 300 people rushed in Saturday after Garcetti snipped a ribbon at a northern entrance. People, dogs and baby strollers soon lined the nearly mile-long loop around the lake, which began as a man-made drinking water reservoir in the 1860s.

Nearby resident Bedillia Sosa, who frequently visited the park as a child, said the last two years felt “like torture” as she walked outside the fencing but was not able to get in. So she came Saturday with her 7-year-old son Frank, who was sitting on a new stone embankment near where the lake’s signature lotus plants bloomed again beneath protective netting.

“It’s a great part of history to share with our kids and years from now he can share it with his children,” Sosa said. “It’s part of our family.”

Not all the bandages were off by Saturday. The chain-link fence, parts still draped in tarps, is to remain around the perimeter for several more months to help protect new vegetation and give authorities a chance to better monitor activity in the 29-acre park, according to Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks.

Entrances will be shut between 10 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. and the park will be off limits during those hours, when most city parks are officially closed anyway.

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larry.gordon@latimes.com | Twitter: @larrygordonlat