River Mingling: LA River Definitely Dating Up

The big shot is of the Isar River in Munich, Germany, the very same river that "mingled its waters" with the LA River last weekend. That's a good-looking river. And that's a shot of the LA River and of City Councilman Tom LaBonge overseeing the sexy mingling. As previously noted, a delegation from Munich came to the city to help us with our own LA River revitalization project.

It turns out the Islar River was a cement river once, too! As Friends of the River's web site notes, the Isar River "was once paved and neglected as merely a flood control channel - and now it’s a swimmable, boatable, and surfable river! The City of Munich has created a beautiful, space for recreation that is safe, clean, and manages annual flooding from snow melt and spring and summer rains."

The German press is taking a break from conducting polls on whether its citizens would rather give up beer or condoms in these tight economic times (they'd rather give up condoms), to cover the LA River trip. "But this October, the Terminator-turned-Governator will no longer be the only German-language influence on the washed-up waterway. The Goethe Institute, Germany's international culture and language outreach organization, is planning to present the recent renaturation of Munich's Isar River as an example to LA, where the city council adopted a 32-mile revitalization plan in 2007.

"They have an immense amount to do," Ralf Wulf, head of the Munich building commission's ongoing Isar River project told The Local.
· Munich river heads for Hollywood [The Local]
· Reviving the Los Angeles River [CD4] Image via Tom LaBonge's site
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