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GUEST: Joe Linton, Outreach Director at Friends of the Los Angeles River

Last Friday, LA City officials released an ambitious and expensive decades-long plan to revitalize the Los Angeles River. The revitalization master plan would cost more than two billion dollars and would transform thirty-two miles of the concrete filled river channel from Canoga Park to Downtown LA, into a “green ribbon” of parks, recreational trials, and housing over the next 25 to 50 years. Though very little of the funding needed for the overall project has been secured, the proposal is broken down into 239 individual projects. City officials hope that various sources of funding, from federal, state, local, and private sectors, can move the individual projects along. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who drafted the plan alongside the city and consultants, is currently undertaking a three year, 7.3 million dollar study to determine what is technically achievable. The Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan enjoys the political support of city Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a number of city council members.

The LA City master plan to revitalize the river can be downloaded here: www.lariverrmp.org.

For more information, and for tours of the LA river, visit www.folar.org.

There will be opportunity for public comment at the following hearings:

Saturday, February 24th
Hollenbeck Middle School
2510 E. 6th St, Boyle Heights
10:00am–11:00am Master Plan Workshop
11:15am–12:30pm PEIR/PEIS Public Hearing

Tuesday, February 27th
Canoga Park High School–Auditorium
6850 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park
6:30pm–7:30pm Master Plan Workshop
7:45pm–9:00pm PEIR/PEIS Public Hearing

Wednesday, February 28th
Metropolitan Water District (MWD)–Board Room
700 North Alameda Street, Los Angeles
6:30pm–7:30pm Master Plan Workshop
7:45pm–9:00pm PEIR/PEIS Public Hearing