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'I Want My L.A. River To Be...' Kiosk Travels Through Northeast L.A.

By Alvaro Parra
June 10, 2013
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The NELA Riverfront Collaborative is an interdisciplinary project that 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 visit our website www.mylariver.orgKCET Departures is the media partner of the Northeast Los Angeles Riverfront Collaborative.
Collecting community opinion from five different neighborhoods in Northeast Los Angeles can be a daunting task considering we already live in a world rife with online petitions, environmental canvassers, and pesky questionnaire's. But when the call to action is a humble kiosk filled with postcards that read "I Want My L.A. River To Be..." the "flow" of community opinion can be swift. In the end, the combination of sleek, multilingual postcards and miniature golf pencils have resulted in a collective archive of hopes, poems, drawings, jokes, and protests from the good people of Northeast Los Angeles. Through this kiosk, the Northeast Los Angeles River Collaborative has collected hundreds of river ruminations and met it's first objective: to open a dialogue about the future of the L.A. River.
The aqua themed structure has temporarily lived in each of the neighborhoods that comprise the NELA RC study area. The kiosk's first home was the Cypress Park Library; from there it traveled to the Atwater Village Farmers Market and also spent time at Atwater Crossing followed by the NELA RC Kickoff Event at Marsh Park in Elysian Valley, affectionately known as Frogtown; from there the kiosk moved to Lincoln Heights Library as well as the Glassell Park Community Center until it's last public appearance at the opening of the Elysian Valley Community Garden. For those of you who missed the kiosk, worry not, you can always tell us what you think here. This tower of collective opinion will soon return, remodeled and remixed with a new prompt for inciting fresh dialogue. To learn more about the NELA RC project you can visit www.mylariver.org. Below you can view a selection of postcard submissions received over the last few months. Enjoy!

Kiosk at the Cypress Park Library
Kiosk at the Atwater Village Farmers Market
A drawing from a the Atwater Village Farmers Market
A paradise for Angelinos
Kiosk at Marsh Park
Kiosk at the Lincoln Heights Library
A message from Spock
A drawing from a high school student in Glassell Park

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