Echo Park as Eden

Echo Park is Eden-incarnate: The sight of the neighborhood's Lotus Festival, lake, and cafes—and talk of its colorful history—makes Boston.com writer Ethan Gilsdorf feel all tingly inside. But the downside: Tensions and housing despairs in the neighborhood. Unable to afford homes on the west side, younger artists have moved in, LA Observed's Jenny Burman tells him. "Now there's outright class struggle between old-guard arts types . . . and old-guard Latinos."Meanwhile, fun fact revealed: Echo Park's hipster cred was solidified in the McCarthy era when socialists and progressives moved in and the community became known as Red Gulch or Red Hill. [Boston.com]