1			2		3				4		5		6					7			8				9		10			11		12		13		14		15
																		Elysian Valley
																									Tujunga Wash
																					If the landscape can be viewed as a reflection of the economic model on which our society has based itself, then what the L.A. River looks like is as much a result of the priorities of growth and real estate over habitat as it is a result of functionalist design. It would be interesting to imagine what the city and the river might have looked like had our priorities been reversed. In fact, two well respected urban designers, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Harlan Bartholomew had imagined just that. In their 1930 report to city and county officials, they proposed transforming flood channels into a 440 mile network of parks. This was just one of many lost opportunities, killed primarily by real estate interests afraid of an excess of public land not accessible for commercial exploitation. Ironically, Los Angeles, having sold itself on the beauty of its physical attributes, has done little to preserve them. In the 225 years between the Portolá expedition and the present lies a history of the river, not exactly a road paved with gold, but a river paved with concrete.
			Eaton Canyon Park