I know this is going to seem rather random and out of the blue, but I’ve recently become interested in the fact that Los Angeles is now trying to re establish its river. It stems from my interest in the Olympic Games, and how different cities use them as occasions to present themselves to the world. LA is now going to host the games in 2028 of course, but they are now apparently trying to breathe new life back into their river, which has been largely concreted over since the 1930s. What pricks my attention is how it might change the character of the city. The river appears in films like The Terminator, but it isn’t something which immediately comes to mind when you think about Los Angeles, and looks rather forgotten and drab from the pictures. I’ve written here before about how fond I am of London’s waterways, so I can’t help wondering how Los Angeles might change in light of this. Flowing water seems to give a new dimension to lived in areas, so I wonder whether they could be trying to break the city free of its image in popular culture as a concrete sprawl ready to host the world in two years time. Perhaps more to the point, you’ll recall how their respective rivers were large features of both the London and Paris olympic opening ceremonies, so I’d be very curious to see whether the Angelenos take up that thread.