The City as Teacher
Charly Hinojosa is an active community member in Northeast LA, where he has served on the Cypress Park Neighborhood Council, led kayak tours for BIPOC individuals on the LA River, and coached at-risk youth in the community. However, Charly spent his “active, outdoor childhood” immersed in youth countercultures. A punk rocker, he was against playing…
Read MoreSilent Killer
Dayana Molina is no stranger to gentrification. As a longtime resident of and advocate for Northeast LA, she has seen her community change drastically. It is part of the double-edged sword that comes with fighting to improve one’s neighborhood. Dayana has engaged with community activism since her youth. As a teenager playing in Anahuak Youth…
Read MoreFinding the Right Path
Daniel Paredes recalls a childhood typical to Frogtown in the ‘90s — a tight knit community where everybody knew each other and neighborhood kids would hang out in the streets. “I was forbidden to go to the river when I was a kid. That didn’t stop me from going to the river. I used to…
Read MoreA River’s Watershed
Mark Hanna is a civil engineer with a specialization in water resources management and river restoration and revitalization. His passion for rivers has led him to work extensively on a variety of projects up and down the LA River. “I prefer projects that are right here in Los Angeles. I live here, my family lives…
Read MoreThe Coastal Conservancy
In the late eighties, while in graduate school at UC Berkeley, Christopher Kroll began a part-time job at a relatively new and small state agency: the Coastal Conservancy. Established in 1976, “the Coastal Conservancy was set up to be a project agency to actually work with local governments, and nonprofits, on issues that could not…
Read MoreA Tree Grows in Elysian Valley Pt. 2
After Ruben Molina and his family moved into Elysian Valley in 1958, Ruben, aged 5, soon found himself in what he calls “paradise.” At the time, the ongoing construction of the 5 Freeway left behind sandlots in Elysian Valley — the remnants of the homes that were destroyed to make way for this huge infrastructure…
Read MoreA Tree Grows in Elysian Valley Pt. 1
Ruben Molina and his family moved to Elysian Valley in 1958. Having arrived in Los Angeles from El Paso, Texas five years prior, his family had moved around between a hotel, duplexes and small homes in Cypress Park and Lincoln Heights before settling into the home on Glover Place. Ruben, now a dedicated community music…
Read MoreLA River Fishing
It’s a common practice for fishers or anglers to keep their best fishing spots a secret, as part of the appeal of recreational fishing is researching and discovering your own spot and keeping that good spot hidden. For newcomers, this practice might be daunting, but when Karen Barnett was first learning to fish, she didn’t…
Read MoreProposition 12
In 2000, California residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air, and Coastal Protection Bond Act, known as Proposition 12, which allocated $2.1 billion to California State Parks to address hundreds of critical State Park System needs across California, particularly for high-density, park-poor areas. As the former Los Angeles…
Read MoreThe River Teacher
For more than ten years, Eric Kenyon White has lived on the LA River. After losing his home, Eric spent some time between shelters before living on the banks of the Glendale Narrows. This was not a choice Eric thought he would ever have to make, but life in the shelters was becoming increasingly difficult.…
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