L.A. River: 6th Street Bridge FOLAR Beerfest 2008

The Los Angeles River stretches 52 miles and crosses 13 cities, flowing through diverse communities from Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley through downtown Los Angeles to the ocean in Long Beach.

The Los Angeles River can unite the city across racial, ethnic, and economic lines and link all of Los Angeles together as one community through space and time.

“Were it not for the Los Angeles River, the city that shares its name would not be where it is today. Were it not for the Los Angeles River, Los Angeles would not be at all. The Los Angeles River has always been at the heart of whichever human community is in the basin: Gabrielino village, Spanish outpost, Mexican pueblo, American city. The river has been asked to play many roles. It has supplied the residents of the city and basin with water to drink and spread amidst their grapes, oranges, and other crops. It has been an instrument by which people could locate themselves on the landscape. It has been a critical dividing line, not only between east and west, north and south, but between races, classes, neighborhoods. . . . [T]he river has also been a place where ideas and beliefs about the past, present, and future of Los Angeles have been raised and contested.” William Deverell, Whitewashed Adobe.

See YouTube videos about the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan river justice, gentrification and displacement.

See GIS maps and demographic analyses of the Los Angeles River and healthy, livable communities for all.

Read more in The City Project’s Policy Report Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities: Mapping Green Access and Equity for the Los Angeles Region.