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Restore the L.A. River? It’s a pipe dream … At its best, the waterway is an above-ground sewer filled with nastiness and lined by graffiti-scarred concrete and smoke-belching industrial buildings.

Posted by: Maven on June 3, 2009 at 6:39 am

From the Los Angeles Times, this commentary:

I just got back from riding down the bike path along the Los Angeles River, and I’d like to write some Whitmanesque stanzas about the atomic oneness of nature, but the diesel fumes have aggravated my asthma and my ears are still ringing from the trucks blaring past on the Golden State Freeway.

When John Muir wrote about the effects of time spent in the wilderness — “the galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware” — he wasn’t thinking about the L.A. River. It is, and will remain, an above-ground sewer, rendering the efforts of those who want to remake it into a recreational paradise seem more than a little quixotic.

The five-mile bike path runs from the northern part of Griffith Park to Fletcher Drive near Silver Lake. It passes along the Glendale Narrows section of the river, which, unlike most of the waterway’s length, has no concrete bottom because groundwater rises to the surface here and would crack through a man-made barrier. The result is something that almost resembles a real river, with trees, shrubs and natural grasses. Picture a mountain stream, then line its banks with graffiti-scarred concrete, smoke-belching industrial buildings and the snarling, lung-burning, 10-lane tornado that is the I-5, and you have the Glendale Narrows.

Read more of this commentary by clicking here.

There are certain online gems that I like to pull out when stories about certain topics pop up … and any time there’s a Los Angeles River story, I just HAVE to post the link to my favorite Los Angeles River website of them all: the Friends Of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures (FOVICKS) The creator of this impressive piece of work writes: “As an amateur ‘Industrial Archaeologist’, I love the LA River as a bizarre curiosity. Many groups have formed in attempt to beautify or revert the “river” to a previous state. But I like it the way it is; a weird, massive flood control channel.” Yes, the writer of the above commentary may not like the river, but some people do….

For a blog that follows the revitalization plans for the L.A. River, plus a lot more, check out L. A. Creek Freak.

June 3, 2009 · Filed Under Southern California

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