C’mon people, get it together. We is having an LA River Hootenanny supreme this Friday night at the House of Blues at 830 and we need your good spirits. Brannigan’s Law and Twin (arrested for going down the LA River two years ago) will be laying it down and others will be playing it up. More info here:
Fixing the LA River Part 1b
09 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
It's a start but it's not the end
The LA River got a little closer to its roots as the official boating program got launched today. The unofficial program has been going for years and it is the reason why the LA River is where it is today. The activists who have risked arrest by hitting the river are the real heroes and they deserve the praise and less those who have hidden behind non-existent laws to promote the boating program. On the day of this event the Canadians who hit the river in February for the sole purpose of exploring LA River were being paddled in court in Van Nuys for their transgressions. Their crime? Setting foot and boat in the LA River. Their charges? Loitering and trespassing.
The LA River will become the LA River when it is fully restored to what it once was: the heart and soul of LA. Please contact me at jeffreytipton@aol.com if you want to become a part of the next wave of truly cleaning up the LA River.
Viva Mulholland?
11 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
“Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring L.A. to the water“
~Chinatown
LA would not be LA without our imported water. LA’s growth was maxing out at the turn of the century because LA did not have enough of the wet stuff. Until the early 1900s the LA River was our sole source of water. LA was founded near downtown…not near the ocean, because downtown was where the freshwater was. LA basically exists because of the LA River. The 11 families who founded Los Angeles constructed the city’s first water system, a brush “toma” or dam across the LA river. This dam diverted water to the Zanja Madre, or mother ditch, which fed irrigation canals in their adjacent fields and to other smaller ditches to supply drinking water. This worked for twenty years or so then the demand for water outstripped the supply.
Then Mulholland…you know, the guy the street is named after…., a city engineer, crafted a plan to bring water in from the Owens Valley (near Mammoth) via an aqueduct. The LA aqueduct, completed in 1913, changed the water landscape of LA and helped turn it into the megalopolis it now is. Read more about him and how he shaped LA here:
Grow Your Own
17 May 2011 Leave a Comment
Can You Dig It?
Spring has sprung and many are getting their gardens on. There are probably few better things you can do for yourself and for LA than growing your own fruits and vegetables. While many in LA do not have access to dirt, and some of the dirt that people do have access to is pretty dirty, there are still plenty of other gardening options. We are indeed fortunate in LA to have many community gardens. There are approximately 70 community gardens in Los Angles County, serving 3,900 families. Community gardens are a special type of park: they are open to all who apply, but they are self-maintained and self-policed by the membership. Unlike most parks, community gardens occupy three categories of land: private land with short-term leases, public land with short-term leases, and garden-owned land.
If your community wants to build a community garden, the LA Community Garden Council will help you do it yourself. There are several non-profit organizations that build community gardens side-by-sice with a garden club, church, or school. A patchwork of private, federal and city funding has been used to build community gardens since 1996.
For more info about community gardens please visit http://lagardencouncil.org/
Let It Flow, Sis and Bro
29 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
You know I love that river and Lisa Boyle has written an excellent article that lets you know where it has been and where it is headed. It all started with the river and as long as the river keeps flowing so will we.
Attend an LA River event this weekend.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-kaas-boyle/return-of-the-la-river_b_854745.html?ref=email_share
