Los Angeles residents at a section of the Los Angeles River cleanup in Los Angeles, CA. Oct. 5, 2024. Evan Lirette/The Occidental
For thousands of years before Spanish colonization began in 1769, dozens of tribal villages inhabited and cultivated the LA Basin. Among these tribes were the Tongva, whose land is partially occupied by Occidental College.
According to LAist, the LA River begins in the western San Fernando Valley, flows through Burbank and Glendale, along Griffith Park and Elysian Park, through Downtown LA and 17 cities until ending its 51-mile journey at the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach.
In certain sections of the river, such as near Elysian Valley (also known as Frogtown, named for its frogs) there is a shallow, albeit flowing, steady stream — in others, a sweeping flow or a barren concrete basin.
Having previously sustained LA for 150 years as a major waterway, the LA River was constrained to a concrete channel in the 1930s in response to a series of floods that destroyed thousands of homes, killed hundreds of people and flooded one-third of the city. Before being channeled, it was to be a robust water source full of floodplains and wetlands.
According to the LA River Master Plan, the result was the displacement of a quarter-million people in LA County, reinforcement of segregation through the creation of ethnic and racial “enclaves,” as well as poor air quality and a general lack of green space for communities that live near the river.
There are various ways LA residents interact with the river, whether it’s kayaking, crossing over one of its many newly built bridges or riding alongside its 8-mile bike path.
James Grayson (senior) said he has been to the river a couple of times to bike, though he describes it as not much of a river.
“I think [I associate] most of the nature in LA with greenery, and there’s not a lot of green-colored things around the LA River,” Grayson said. “It’s a lot of gray.”
Friends of the LA River (FOLAR) is an organization that dedicates itself to river restoration and education. Saturday Oct. 5, various volunteers gathered together at Bull Creek — one of four sites of the 34th Annual Great LA River Cleanup — to […]
Full article: theoccidentalnews.com
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