The NELA River Collaborative project builds upon the growing momentum of efforts already underway to transform the Los Angeles River into a "riverfront district" and to create a focal point of community revitalization. For more information on the collaborative visit www.mylariver.org

Spring is here and, in Los Angeles, that means taking full advantage of our warm weather with picnics, barbecues, bike rides and all manner of good fun. With its newly launched Kickstarter project, the Los Angeles Revitalization Corporation (LARRC) is proposing a gem of an addition to our itinerary -- a bike-in movie theater series.

Riffing off of the 1950s tradition of drive-ins, the LARRC is asking Angelenos to tune-up their bikes, make use of the bike path by the river, and take in a free movie at the end. If you don't have a bike, don't worry -- the event will be open to the public, but they encourage attendees, skate, take the bus or walk to the venue.

Developers and environmental advocates are often pitted against each other when it comes to the question of how to move communities forward, but in a forum dedicated to the Los Angeles River, the case was made to change that old dynamic.

The Council for Watershed Health hosted the "The Restoration and Development Challenges of the L.A. River" forum last Friday at the CBS Studios. As expected, many challenges were outlined and aired. These included finding ongoing funding for maintenance of projects, working with multiple agencies, and creating an engaged community around the river. By far, a recurring theme was getting pivotal people on board so water-related projects and its benefits could be realized.

"The people who own land and the people who are able to finance -- those people need to be in this room to make this pop," said Cecilia Estolano, co-founder of Estolano LeSar Perez Advisors, a consulting agency that seek to grow healthy, vibrant communities. Out of roughly 180 attendees, only two or three representatives fit into the financial or land-owning categories. But ironically, they are a crucial part of any project.

Long before freeways arrived, binding the far-flung corners of Los Angeles closer together, there were streetcars. And before that, there were horses. Though much of yesteryear's horse trails have since been paved over with concrete, in a small community just off the 134 freeway, the rugged appeal of the country life still calls.

The Rancho Equestrian District of Burbank-Glendale is set just a few miles from Griffith Park, right by the Glendale Narrows on the Los Angeles River.

Jurisdictionally, the Rancho district crosses many borders. "The equestrian center is in the city of Los Angeles. The county of Los Angeles has say in the area because of the Los Angeles River. Caltrans is also there because of the 134 freeway. Then, the neighborhood is shared between the city of Glendale and the city of Burbank," explained Cory Wilkerson, transportation planner with the city of Burbank.

Despite its hazy official borders, the Rancho district is a a close community bonded by their love of horses. The neighborhood comprises two tracts of land: the smaller of the two sits right by the Warner Brothers studio south of the 134 freeway, ending at Bob Hope Drive on the east. The larger tract of land starts north of the 134 freeway, bordered by Keystone street on the west, ending just before Victory Boulevard on the east. Within this small area, city folk become backyard cowboys and cowgirls. It is perhaps the closest to rural living as you can get near downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood.

The NELA River Collaborative project builds upon the growing momentum of efforts already underway to transform the Los Angeles River into a "riverfront district" and to create a focal point of community revitalization. For more information on the collaborative visit www.mylariver.org

Angelenos may be celebrating the increased awareness and activity along the Los Angeles River, but residents of Atwater Village worry that these projects unfolding right in their backyards are adding stress to an already overloaded system.

On February 17, the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council released a resolution calling for increased consideration of the neighborhood when planning future projects and developments.

According to Alex Ventura, Environmental and Land Use Chair of the neighborhood council, this problem has been seething under the surface for quite some time now, but the recent push for a recreational zone in the Glendale Narrows has finally sparked the need to take action. He personally feels that recent public meetings have only asked for the neighborhood's token participation, not really allowing them to contribute meaningfully. "We have all these outside groups looking at the river and somehow our community is out of the loop. We're not being contacted. I think we're just getting lost in the shuffle," he said.

Just like how Hollywood hopefuls hold down day jobs, one of science fiction's landmarks has been holding down Los Angeles' water since 1984.

By day, the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant and its surrounding Japanese Gardens is a wastewater treatment plant that serves nearly 800,000 people within the surrounding San Fernando Valley area. By night (or whenever the production call time is), the plant on some occasions turns into Starfleet academy, where the Federation molds young minds to be future space explorers.

Though I encountered no Starfleet officers while walking through the grounds, one look at the Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall-designed building shows just why location scouts found it to be a perfect spot to evoke the future.

"You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved," said Ansel Adams, a master in the art of landscape photography.

Any dedicated photographer knows that to hold a camera in your hand is a powerful thing; through a camera's lens, we create a world based on what we choose to focus on.

Last summer, ten young Latinas from Boyle Heights were selected through applications to the leadership program Girls Today, Women Tomorrow to participate in Las Fotos Project, a non-profit community program that encourages creativity and self-expression by teaching them the basics of photography. The girls had the opportunity to create photographs that not only allowed a tantalizing glimpse of their own everyday lives, but also provoked questions about their relationship with nature.

Their works are now collected in the book "Nature: Double Exposed -- Boyle Heights meets the San Gabriel Mountains." In it, readers see haunting images of family members and friends playing in and around the neighborhood, juxtaposed with ghostly wisps of trees or leaves or water hovering over the urban landscape. Paired with haiku-like poems, their images allow readers to see the world through the young girls' eyes, even for just a few minutes.

The NELA River Collaborative project builds upon the growing momentum of efforts already underway to transform the Los Angeles River into a "riverfront district" and to create a focal point of community revitalization. For more information on the collaborative visit www.mylariver.org

After the originally scheduled date was postponed due to an unusually heavy rainstorm, a perfectly sunny Los Angeles morning greeted the attendees to the press event to kick off the Northeast Los Angeles Riverfront Collaborative.

The event was held at Marsh Park in Elysian Valley, where single family homes, industrial structures, and pocket parks share the only neighborhood that directly abuts the Los Angeles River. Curious local residents, conservationists, and city officials, as well as students from nearby schools who took a field trip to the event as part of our Youth Voices media literacy program, all gathered at the small but well-maintained park to show their support for the potential and future of the river.

"We have this wonderful effort that is transforming this corridor," said CD1 Councilmember Ed P. Reyes who, as Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on the L.A. River, has been a strong supporter of the river. He will soon see a river-adjacent park named in his honor.

Two more public meetings have been scheduled to discuss the Glendale Narrows Recreational Program. Much of the details have remained the same, since we last told you about the program, with one major change.

"More likely than not, the recreational zone will begin at Fletcher Drive instead of North Atwater Park," according to Walt Young, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority Chief of Operations, who was a major part of designing the proposed program. The change in the trail is due to the progress of finalizing permits to begin the North Atwater Bridge project, which is downstream from the original trail's starting point on North Atwater Park. "We haven't gotten the final word on the bridge," emphasizes Young. Until then, organizers wouldn't have a 100 percent certainty of the final river trail.

During their first large public presentation at the Los Angeles River Center, some concerns brought up by residents of Atwater Village on the negative effects to their neighborhood due to increased foot traffic from the river trail. Should the revised zone push through, the Atwater neighborhood would no longer be part of the recreational zone.

Plastic bags are a modern-day convenience that can all too easily be abused. A quick inspection of many kitchen cabinets (including mine) reveals just how much we use without a second thought. In the near future, shoppers in Los Angeles would need to be more circumspect as the plastic ban ordinance is now making its way to full approval and implementation.

The Bureau of Sanitation has just completed its draft environmental review of the single-use plastic bag ordinance passed by the Los Angeles City Council last May 23, 2012. As one would expect, the review found no adverse effects on the environment from implementing the ban as proposed. It even found that the use of paper bags decreased alongside plastic bags in the longer term.

Preliminary data, as submitted by stores in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles following the implementation of the county's single-use plastic ban July 2011, revealed a reduction of 34 percent in paper bag use between 2009 and 2012. The ordinance, which is only in effect for the county's unincorporated areas, charges a 10-cent fee on each paper carryout bag. The data also showed a 13 percent reduction within the first three quarters.

One of the last remaining vestiges of a 2,000-acre expanse of coastal habitat, the 600-acre Ballona Wetlands has been a disputed subject with environmentalists, community groups, and public agencies all having divergent ideas of its future.

Just before the end of January, the Annenberg Foundation, a new player in the ongoing conversation on the wetlands, stirred up debate by signing a memorandum of agreement with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to build a $50-million interpretive center in the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve.

Conversations between CDFW and the Annenberg began sometime last year, according to Annenberg spokesperson Liza deVilla Ameen. "It's always been part of our mission to advocate through improved communication respectful stewardship of our environmental resources in this living city," she said. "We felt that the state had a similar goal and vision around the Ballona Wetlands project."