SAAJ 122 Bioregional Justice: Los Angeles River books

For centuries, the Los Angeles River was unpredictable-- prone to flooding, a raging torrent during rare Southern California rains, and just a trickle and marshlands the rest of the year. To tame it, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers walled in the river just before World War II. Decades later, roadside signs that proclaimed "Los Angeles River" prodded the question: How can this cement drain, strewn with trash and abandoned refrigerators, be considered a river? Abused through the 20th century, the L.A. River is amid a comeback thanks to the Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR) and local governments.

See Chapter 4: Re-Envisioning the Los Angeles River
Los Angeles--the place without a sense of place, famous for sprawl and overdevelopment and defined by its car-clogged freeways--might seem inhospitable to ideas about connecting with nature and community. But in Reinventing Los Angeles, educator and activist Robert Gottlieb describes how imaginative and innovative social movements have coalesced around the issues of water development, cars and freeways, and land use, to create a more livable and sustainable city.

In the last decade millions of dollars have been spent on restoring and revitalizing the Los Angeles River and its surroundings. Down by the Los Angeles River is the first on-the-ground guide to checking out sites new and old, and getting to know the historic river that runs through greater L.A. The book includes striking original illustrations as well as maps.

Three essays deal with the Los Angeles River, including "Who Killed the Los Angeles River?" by Blake Gumprecht

Chapter 5: Tracing the Los Angeles river
Water lies at the intersection of landscape and infrastructure, crossing between visible and invisible domains of urban space. In this book, Matthew Gandy considers the cultural and material significance of water through the experiences of six cities. He explores the incongruous concrete landscapes of the Los Angeles River.

Chapter six covers the Los Angeles River.
Many of the world's major cities sprang up on the banks of rivers. Using four European and two North American rivers as examples, A Story of Six Rivers considers the place of rivers in our world and emphasizes the inextricable links between history, culture, and ecology.

Although better known for its sunny skies, Los Angeles suffers devastating flooding. This book explores a fascinating and little-known chapter in the city's history: the spectacular failures to control floods that occurred throughout the twentieth century. Despite the city's 114 debris dams, 5 flood control basins, and nearly 500 miles of paved river channels, Southern Californians have discovered that technologically engineered solutions to flooding are just as disaster-prone as natural waterways.

Chronicling the rise of Los Angeles through shifting ideas of race and ethnicity, William Deverell offers a unique perspective on how the city grew and changed. Whitewashed Adobe considers six different developments in the history of the city, including the cementing of the Los Angeles River...

Great cities have grown around great rivers, but L.A. has always disregarded hers. RIO L.A. tells the poetic story of the river with NPR contributor and Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison's words and Mark Lamonica's startling photographs.

See Part 3: Los Angeles against the mountains

With Edens Lost & Found, award-winning filmmakers Harry Wiland and Dale Bell herald an exciting sea change in the relationship between ordinary citizens, environmental groups, and government.

A People's Guide to Los Angeles offers an assortment of eye-opening alternatives to L.A.'s usual tourist destinations. It documents 115 little-known sites in the City of Angels where struggles related to race, class, gender, and sexuality have occurred.

This Companion contains 25 original essays by writers and scholars who present an expert assessment of the best and most important work to date on the complex history of Los Angeles.

Once the greatest American example of a modern city served by infrastructure, Los Angeles is now in perpetual crisis. This provocative collection of photography, essays, and maps looks at infrastructure as a way of mapping our place in the city and affecting change through architecture.

Los Angeles Water Works explores Southern California's connections to water and is published by the nonprofit organization the Studio for Southern California History. This book has art, poetry, history information, maps and resources to go further.

Compiled by workers of the Writers' program of the Work Projects Administration in Southern California