Friends of the Los Angeles River founded by Lewis MacAdams, Pat Patterson, and Roger Wong
FoLAR is the first organization to explicitly advocate for habitat restoration and public access on the Los Angeles River. The group’s first La Gran Limpieza/Great River Clean Up is held in 1988.
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Land Back in Los Angeles
Following the first land return in 200 years to the Indigenous peoples of Los Angeles County, the Tongva Taraxat Paxaava Conservancy was formed. Located in the Altadena hills, the Conservancy represents the beginning of a process meant to rematriate and reestablish connections between tribal members and California native plants to their ancestral and unceded lands.…
Memories of a Neighborhood
Bobby Arcos grew up on a quiet street in Atwater in the 1970s — before it was known as Atwater Village. Around his childhood home on Glenhurst Avenue, he recalls the smells of the old Van de Kamps bakery, 50 cent ham and cheese sandwiches from Vince’s Market, and playing football, and baseball at John…
Building the Foundations
As Director and Founder of The River Project, and the former Executive Director of Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR), Melanie Winter is no stranger to the many opinions people hold regarding the future of the LA River and its surrounding communities. Over the years, the development of high-rise luxury apartments, large commercial retail…
Parks and Gentrification
During the 80s, Downey Recreation Center — one of the few public parks in Lincoln Heights — was inaccessible and uninviting. Still, as the only park in the area, neighborhood kids like Lazaro Arvizu Jr. found themselves there often. Located in between the Swiss Dairy Company Plant (now home to the newly built Albion Riverside…