News of the Arroyo
Title: | Welcome Villaraigosa to river restorations |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2005-09-14 |
Summary: | September 14, 2005 - The SGV Tribune applauds the LA River Revitalization effort and links it to restoration efforts in the Arroyo Seco and San Gabriel Valley. |
Author: | Editorial |
Publication: | San Gabriel Valley Tribune |
Content: | FROM our perspective, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa\'s call to Angelenos Monday to get excited about the Los Angeles River is just the kind of cheerleading his project needs. He announced Monday he\'ll hold 18 months of public meetings, starting in North Hollywood on Oct. 15 and then in Northeast L.A.\'s Lincoln Heights Oct. 25. We expect folks from Pasadena, El Sereno, from Montebello and Pico Rivera, and from Azusa to Claremont to attend those meetings and lend moral support. Why should we care? First, a geography lesson. The Los Angeles River, now mostly a flood-control channel, is fed by the Arroyo Seco on its eastern flank, which in itself gurgles with life in Pasadena and may soon become greener due to new efforts launched in the Rose City. In the south county, the lesser-known Rio Hondo River, which defines the borders of Arcadia, south Monrovia, El Monte, South El Monte, Pico Rivera and Downey, feeds into the Los Angeles River. From that confluence, the water\'s journey ends at the Pacific Ocean. Why should we care? Because these rivers, sometimes thriving, in places struggling, now mostly deadened channels abandoned by industry and government, don\'t follow political boundaries. Their survival should not be determined by only one city\'s effort. Instead, the Los Angeles and other rivers of the Southland are fed by a magnificent mountainous watershed and connected by the muddiest of channels to serve a disconnected yet resilient flora and fauna. Lately, the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo rivers have soared past their larger neighbor in terms of attention and efforts to revitalize. Restorations in Whittier Narrows (the Bosque del Rio Hondo) and between La Canada Flintridge and Pasadena of the Arroyo Seco and the Devil\'s Gate Dam have stolen some of the bigger L.A. River\'s thunder. Villaraigosa wants to capture some of the San Gabriel River\'s momentum, and we say more power to him. In a press conference Monday, he even used some of the language spoken by the architects of the San Gabriel River\'s renaissance, saying he wanted to create green parks and terraced river banks (instead of sloping concrete) that would form \"an emerald necklace of parks along the river.\' The same language was popularized by the city of El Monte in cooperation with the Sierra Club, North East Trees and local conservancies to help the public envision green jewels of park space along the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel rivers. Even the moonscape of the San Jose Creek has been terraced with trees and shrubs. The city of Los Angeles even hired a Pasadena engineering firm Tetra Tech Inc. to sketch out plans. We think there\'s room for both efforts. In fact, a rejuvenated Los Angeles River restoration effort can unite the entire 10 million people of Los Angeles County into the realization that they are underserved by parks, that their rivers (plural) need more water and more soft banks, more trees and more greenery for residents, their children and grandchildren to sit and watch egrets dance. -- |
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