Posts Tagged recreation

Angelenos Shocked to Find Their River Looking Like a River

“In many places throughout the world, rivers are the lifeblood of civilization, havens of tranquility which keep rhythm with a higher order of time — but in Los Angeles, it’s more likely to conjure a Nick Cage flick than musings on eternity. For the last 70 years or so, the once free and winding LA river has been largely LA-ified, riddled with pollution and concrete slabs, deemed too dangerous for public enjoyment. But now, thanks to the efforts of local conservationists, the river’s making a comeback as more and more folks are discovering that, even in the concrete jungle, there’s still a bit of real nature to be found.”

Angelenos Shocked to Find Their River Looking Like a River via Stephen Messenger – Treehugger

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Launching a new vision of the L.A. River

“The long-awaited Paddle the Los Angeles River pilot program got off to a wobbly start Monday as two dozen civic leaders in hard hats and bulging life vests stepped into kayaks and pushed out through murky ripples in the Sepulveda Basin.

The group of flood control officials and City Councilmen Tony Cardenas and Ed Reyes was chaperoned by experienced kayakers and naturalists on hand to make sure no one tipped over into the treated urban runoff or entangled themselves in the heavy brush laden with shredded clothing and plastic bags that lines the 70-foot-wide channel.

The maiden voyage of the first legal float down the river in seven decades only ventured a few hundred yards from the put-in point at the Balboa Boulevard bridge. But for Reyes, the 30-minute ride past glades of sycamore and oak trees where cormorants and herons roost triggered dreams of a regional recreational zone in the making.”

Launching a new vision of the L.A. River via Louis Sahagun – LA Times

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