The benighted Los Angeles River, long an eyesore of trash and water treatment plant outflow, is set to be landscaped as a linear park à la the High Line Park in New York.
Today the river is slated for an overhaul, backed by officials including LA mayor Eric Garcetti and even President Obama. Last spring the Corps agreed to remove concrete along 11 miles of the river. In its place: sloping green terraces and wetlands, cafés, and bike paths. (The city is buying former industrial sites for use as parkland.)
But the river will still be a kind of mirage, a trick of human engineering. The floodplain is a major US city. Almost half the flow during the dry season comes from treatment plants. Much of the rest is urban slobber, runoff from Angelenos washing cars or watering lawns. "It's hard to understand how artificial the river really is," says Lewis MacAdams, godfather of the movement and cofounder of Friends of the Los Angeles River.
This isn't a restoration project. Transforming the river is a grand exercise in modern ecosystem manipulation. What Los Angeles is building is more like a monument to rivers—artificial, in perfect LA style, but constructed on ecological principles. A once-hostile environment will be terraformed into a hub of human activity. "This is the beginning of a golden time for the LA River," MacAdams says. "You can almost taste it." Then he reconsiders. "Well, that's not really the word you'd want to use."
The High Line Park in Manhattan has revitalized the West Side, from the Meat Packing District to Hell's Kitchen. New restaurants, businesses, office buildings, and residential high rises have sprung up along its length, and walking along it is lovely, with excellent views of the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline. Perhaps this park can do the same for Los Angeles.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @12:54PM
If the concrete is removed, where will Hollywood film high speed chase scenes? Blasting up and down the sloping sides of the "river" and sliding around in the big puddles on the bottom has been featured in many movies.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Tuesday April 28 2015, @01:26PM
...has been featured in many bad movies.
FTFY
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:01PM
uh...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 [imdb.com]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077631/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 [imdb.com]
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:45PM
"Repo Man"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:06PM
They'll all be done with CG, silly. No-one does real stunts anymore.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:35PM
The location you're thinking of is right next to the Warner Brothers studio (complete coincidence, I'm sure), and it looks like the proposed map doesn't actually touch that section of it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday April 28 2015, @08:09PM
and it looks like the proposed map doesn't actually touch that section of it.
Its also adjacent to Warner Brothers just east of Glendale. That area is well within the area. [google.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by aclarke on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:48PM
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday April 28 2015, @01:26PM
Isn't the thing almost always entirely dried up?
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 5, Informative) by SrLnclt on Tuesday April 28 2015, @01:38PM
Spending lots of money to revitalize the area along a man-made river during a terrible drought. Sounds like a winning plan to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:49PM
That's the beauty of it. They have scads of space in the bottom of the dry riverbed to build a lot of expensive infrastructure.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday April 28 2015, @05:42PM
I don't live in LA, but TFA said the river gets water treatment plant outflow so it sounds like it will always have a little water if people in LA continue to drink water, shower, and flush toilets.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday April 28 2015, @06:12PM
It could actually help in that tegardSpending lots of money to revitalize the area along a man-made river during a terrible drought. Sounds like a winning plan to me.
It actually makes sense to to the construction in drought times, because you have less run-off to work around. Easier to manage.
But also, creating terraced wetlands will retain some of that water in the area, and use nature to help in the water purification, ground water replenishment. (assuming the new wetlands don't have concrete bottoms).
Its mentioned that sewage outfall is one of the principal sources of water in dry times, and wetlands are one of the cheapest ways to get from secondary treatment standards to tertiary standards (drinkable).
Add some water falls, or spray fountains and you also add significant cooling.
I agree that they might find they need additional sources of water if they want to give the appearance of a reasonable amount of water flowing through the system. Maybe there are more sewage treatment plants that could have their outfall diverted there.
The tricky bit will be to retain the linear park's ability to handle the huge run-off that still happens with flash storms in the area, While rare, these were the reason it was turned into a concrete river in the first place, and they will tear out any wetlands put in place unless there are some sort of flood gates or diversions to keep storm flow from washing the expensive wetlands to the ocean.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday April 28 2015, @09:27PM
Add some water falls, or spray fountains
I hope their sewage treatment plants are operating properly. Going into plant bypass mode while spraying sounds gross.
huge run-off that still happens with flash storms in the area
Maybe its a civeng expression of the fact that the last century was the wettest on record etc etc and its all downhill from here for CA rainfall. I mean, there is talking about it as a likely long term climatic change, and debating, and study, but when the civeng project starts moving earth and jackhammering concrete, that implies the debate is probably over.
See you have the wettest century on record, and then it ends, and thats not a drought, that just returning to BAU. Sucks for you if BAU is unsustainable, good luck with that. But its not really a drought and you don't really need to build for 1920's anymore if its never going to rain like that again for at least a couple centuries.
Doesn't mean it'll never rain again or never flood again, just trying this in 1950 might have washed away the wetland every other year, but now in the new climate its gonna last 20-30 years at a time, which is probably good enough.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday April 28 2015, @11:27PM
What happened to Global warming? Did you write that off already?
http://www.livescience.com/49225-atmospheric-rivers-double-climate-change.html [livescience.com]
http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/ucs-ca-water.pdf [ucsusa.org]
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-climate-change-precipitation-southern-california-20141211-story.html [latimes.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday April 28 2015, @01:34PM
>... urban slobber
I saw them live back in '83, shortly before bassist Jimmy Kreng was jailed for that incident with the Van der Graaf generator in the Lithuanian Embassy. Hell of a gig. The mosh pit ground to a halt 40 minutes in because the spilled beer and bodily secretions were so thick that people were actually getting stuck to the floor. Four people drowned in the front row, and they sacrificed a camel to Odin live on stage. Hell of a gig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:00PM
But now All the GTA Los Santos maps will be wrong !!! The Horror!
(Score: 5, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:47PM
I assume this helps fix the drought right?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:19PM
A water crisis in the largest city in an arid region with talking heads going on endlessly about need to take away water from others and conserve water themselves has decided to add more water using resources? A prolonged drought and their latest and great idea is to put in sloping green terraces and wetlands?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:48PM
Depends how they do it. If they actually use plants that are native to the area, then they won't have to water them that much.
(Score: 3, Funny) by redneckmother on Tuesday April 28 2015, @04:26PM
Like, say, dirt?
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @06:59PM
One man's troll is another's comedian.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @07:45PM
Troll? What is up with the mods today?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @11:18PM
I think it has to do with sensitivity in some people towards any criticism of California. They are immersed in a culture that tells them they are of the utmost importance in a variety of ways. If someone challenges, well, some get mad.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by redneckmother on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:18AM
Gracias, Senors y senoritas (pardon the lack of proper characters). That Is what I was hoping for... yes, it WAS trollish, but dry humor is lost on some folk.
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @10:40PM
Just as there are peoples that are indigenous to the SW USA who have bodies that are extremely frugal with resources (and bloat up when they get a modern calorie-dense diet), there are plants in the region that are very miserly with the water they get.
Succulents [wikipedia.org]
The leaves are thick, giving an improved volume-to-surface-area ratio.
The surface of their leaves is also waxy to minimize evaporation/transpiration and conserve water.
One such plant you may have heard of is aloe vera, which is used in medicines and lotions.
There is also a bunch of desert plants that produce a rosette structure that is pleasing to the eye of many folks.
Plants that have spikes which discourage browsers/grazers is another group (e.g. cactus).
That last one would obviously be a poor choice where humans--especially kids--will be.
-- gewg_
(Score: 4, Informative) by richtopia on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:22PM
I'm not sure if this is comparable but the description reminds me of Cheonggyecheon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonggyecheon) in Seoul. Just a small break from the skyrises is appealing even.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 28 2015, @06:03PM
So the new landscape will be full of stuff that grows but that is so poisonous they should have warning signs on them. "Watch, don't eat".
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday April 28 2015, @06:40PM
Hey this isn't in Australia.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh