As we've blogged about before, Angelenos just aren't satisfied with that trash strewn, concrete ditch officially called the Los Angeles River. What more do they want? Water? Grassy banks? LAT has recently thrown in with the pro-water-in-the-river crowd with a series of pieces on the potential of revitalizing the LA River as some sort of a big wet puddle that flows from the mountains to the Ocean. Perhaps you've seen one of those in other cities?
First, yesterday's Current (no pun intended) featured a pro-river pitch from SOM's Philip Enquist and Frank O. Gehry Partners' Craig Webb, referring to other cities' successfull revitalizations. We grant them Chicago, Shanghai, and maybe even San Antonio as models. But Orlando? Tempe?!? Enquist and Webb shared the page with Lewis MacAddams' discussion of how the riverfront concepts would all require that the MTA consolidate the train tracks that currently line the river into a single underground alignment.
Just don't forget Pasadena, who joined the fun by approving a plan to spruce up the Arroyo Seco portion of the river upstream, near the Rose Bowl. Their 15-year plan will spend $15-ish million to revamp the existing park above the 1913 Colorado Street Bridge, pictured above.
It is just a matter of time, friends, before we can load up the styrofoam cooler and go tubing from Pasadena to Long Beach!
· Gussy up that trash-strewn concrete cesspool[LA Times]
· These trains should run under water
[LA Times]
· Pasadena OKs Plan to Improve Arroyo Area [LA Times]