Tour the L.A. River, now with its own controversial mural, on Jan. 27

So you hear there's a Los Angeles River -- but do you know where it actually is? You may have read about the river lately, because of a controversy involving a mural painting of a topless green nymph. More on that later.

In any case, now is a good time to check out the river, because it's a-changing, thanks to a river revitalization program that's underway. See firsthand the metamorphosis in progress by taking a car caravan tour organized by the the Friends of the L.A. River.

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 27. Can't make this particular tour? The river group is running about a tour a month now; check the schedule here.
Where: Meet and form carpools at the River Center & Gardens, 570 W. Ave 26, Suite 250, Los Angeles
Cost: $20 members, $25 non-members, free for kids and dogs. Students and nonprofits can get the member rate; contact mail@folar.org or jjprice@ucla.edu. Lunch not included.
RSVP: Call (323) 223-0585 or write mail@folar.org.

Led by Jenny Price, writer and environmental activist who has written “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A.” for the Believer, the tour will take you to current and planned restoration sites, including the Sepulveda Basin in the Valley, the Glendale Narrows across from Griffith Park, the historic Arroyo Seco confluence, the Los Angeles State Historic Park (a.k.a. the Cornfield), and the heart of downtown. At each spot you'll learn about the river's important role in the city's past, present and future.

I took this tour about a year ago; the photos are from that tour. When the revitalization program's completed, we'll hopefully have an entire "emerald necklace" of parks around the river, as Villaraigosa has described it. I plan to take another tour then, to take "after" photos.

Back to that mural: The Friends of the L.A. River has developed an odd graffiti problem. The nonprofit offered to paint a mural to pretty up Arroyo Seco, but the topless green wood nymph included in the mural seems to have angered some Los Angeles County supervisors.

Now, parts of the mural have gotten whitewashed, attracting taggers -- and the county Department of Public Works thinks the teeny nonprofit should pay for each costly cleanup. Yikes. Mark Mauer at L.A. Weekly's Lurker blog has pictures of both of the original murals and the now partially whitewashed and tagged murals. "Anyone would be hard pressed to say it looks better now than it did before," Mauer writes.

Below is a photo of the barren walls, before the murals, that I took during the tour last year.

Photos by Siel

Comments

[Jenny Caronna]

The wood nymph in the mural was beautiful and powerful- it infuriates me that the LAC supervisors are so woefully out of touch when it comes to art. Maybe they can get Disney to sponsor some the next mural- I'm sure they'd prefer their nymphs to resemble Tinkerbell!