Family River Bike Tour – Saturday March 5th
February 24th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Be GOOD - Support CicLAvia!
As part of the GOOD fundraiser for CicLAvia, Creek Freak author/artist, CicLAvia-ista yours truly Joe Linton will be leading a very fun very family-friendly bike ride and tour of the Los Angeles River. The ride departs at 2:30pm on Saturday March 5th 2011 - from Atwater Crossing – 3229 Casitas Avenue, Atwater Village 90039. We’ll return to the party by 4pm.
The ride is very short – about 1/3 of a mile each way, on very very quiet residential streets - and will visit one of the very nicest parts of the Los Angeles River – lots of ducks, other birds, tall trees, fish, and lush and pleasant place in (nearly) every respect. I’ll talk a little about the history of the river and plans for its future. « Read the rest of this entry »
“Abusing discretion” in Bel Air’s Stone Canyon Creek
February 17th, 2011 § 1 Comment
2006 photos of culvert pipes intended for Stone Creek. The Planning Commission mandated protection of the stream, which the property owner now seeks to have stricken.
A Bel Air property owner is crying “abuse” and seeking to remove all references to Stone Canyon stream and, perhaps more importantly, stream protection from his 2006 development requirements. If this sounds familiar, you may have read about it in the Los Angeles Weekly story about my work, the Lost Streams of Los Angeles, which reported on this actual hearing. Or you may have seen this image of the pipe that was going to be laid in the stream at any of a number of talks I had given around town. Indeed Stone Canyon Creek (and nearby Kenter Creek) has been something of the poster-child for the need for an overarching stream protection ordinance in the City of LA.
The hearing takes place next week – Thursday, February 24, 9:50 A.M at City Hall Room 1050 (200 N. Spring Street, 90012).
So to cut to the chase, the owner contends that it is inaccurate to call the stream a stream, and that it is an abuse of discretion to impose requirements to protect the stream when other property owners have not had this requirement imposed upon them. « Read the rest of this entry »
Places to Visit: Acresite Gate in Atwater Village
February 15th, 2011 § 2 Comments
Brett Goldstone's Acresite Water and Willow Gate
The Acresite gate isn’t Brett Goldstone’s biggest or most elaborate river gate… but it’s very nice, and just enough off the beaten path, and along one of the nicest stretches of river, so I figure it’s worth alerting Creek Freak readers to. « Read the rest of this entry »
Knocking down harmless art on Ballona Creek
February 14th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Regular users of the Ballona Bike Path next to Marina del Rey are probably familiar with the little stone cairns down by the water’s edge. Or were – they apparently have merited the attention of the Flood Control District, which is now going to knock them down if they haven’t already. « Read the rest of this entry »
News and Events – 2 February 2011
February 2nd, 2011 § 2 Comments
Recent News:
> In today’s Los Angeles Times, Louis Sahagun has an excellent piece on the proposed massive Newhall Ranch development, and the differences between the federal Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency. ”Developers … would convert nearly 20 miles of tributaries and riverbank into storm drains and levees”
> The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported on a recent evaluation of the San Gabriel River’s Santa Fe Dam (located in Irwindale – near the confluence of the 210 and 605 freeways.) The article states that the dam is “potentially dangerous” and asserts that ”probability of failure is very high.” Simultaneously, though further down in the article, the Tribune clarifies that the dam evaluation found ”no major flaws” and that the dam’s ”chances of failure are remote.” The story was soon followed by an editorial invoking catastrophic New Orleans’ Katrina damage. (Joe’s snipey comment: Methinks people who get paid to build dams are looking for work.)
> I stole some of Jessica Hall’s ideas for a quick guest blog at the city of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation’s Stormwater Blog.
Upcoming Events:
LACBC's River Ride takes place on Sunday June 5th
It’s not tooo sooon to mark your calendar for the big L.A. River events of the year:
> Friends of the Los Angeles River’s annual Clean-Up will be on Saturday April 30th 2011.
> Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s annual River Ride will be on Sunday June 5th 2011.
> CicLAvia (not all that riverly, but includes a great river bridge) announced 2011 dates too: April 10th, July 10th and October 9th.
