Design podcast explains history of the LA River

Steve Kuchenski, a friend of the blog (as well as my friend!), suggested this podcast.

 “Your regular readers may be familiar with much of this, but (for example) I was unaware of the original Fredrick Law Olmsted plan for parks all along the river in lieu of 100% concrete channelization,” he wrote in an email.

The description of this episode follows. If you would like to listen, >>CLICK HERE.

When you hear the word “river,” you probably picture a majestic body of water flowing through a natural habitat. Well, the LA River looks nothing like that. Most people who see it probably mistake it for a giant storm drain. It’s a deep trapezoidal channel with steep concrete walls, and a flat concrete bottom. Los Angeles was founded around this river. But decades ago it was confined in concrete so that, for better or worse, the city could become the sprawling metropolis that it is today. All these years later the county is still grappling with the consequences of those actions.
Reported by Gillian Jacobs, guest hosted by 99PI producer, Vivian Le.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

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