25 years or so, Lewis MacAdams began a 40-year project to restore the Los Angeles river. What began as a performance art piece has grown into a movement called Friends of The Los Angeles River, an organization that works to educate, restore, and connect. Think of it as a painting on a 52-mile canvas.
I went, along with my family and the students from the Los Angeles Leadership Academy, to the 20th Anniversary of La Gran Limpieza - the Great Clean-up. We wanted to get our hands dirty picking up the trash that Angelenoes dump on the street, almost all of which ends up in the river.
Here is the actual "clean-up" part of the clean-up. While tackling trash in the islands of the Glendale Narrows, we found this strange sculpture made out of urban remains: toys, computers and tires.
After a few hours of serious hard labor, we were rewarded with the sight of natural spring water bubbling up to the surface.
Yeah.... the river rules.
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