I Want You To Have Nice Things

In case you were wondering, there is a new plan for the LA River. This is the tenth scheme since 2000, but more on that later. The 272-page draft of the Sepulveda Basin Vision Plan lays out a $4.8 billion, twenty-five-year case for rethinking the design and use of the nearly 2,000-acre swath of land as a “Central Park” at the south end of the sprawling San Fernando Valley. Released last fall, the plan was produced by a cast of thousands, including the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering; the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks; and LA Sanitation and Environment, together with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the Mountains and Recreation Conservation Authority, and a host of private consultants, including Geosyntec, OLIN, Agency Artifact, and Psomas. On offer is a seductive vision of the Southern California good life, but the plan in its current form also raises the question of whether this kind of investment in an existing park within an area primarily zoned for single-family residences is the equitable climate action LA…