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Podcasts Off-Ramp
There will be Texas beer and BBQ: LA River hero Lewis MacAdams is turning 70
Off-Ramp with John Rabe Hero Image
(
Dan Carino
)
Oct 2, 2014
Listen • 15:16
There will be Texas beer and BBQ: LA River hero Lewis MacAdams is turning 70
Lewis MacAdams takes Off-Ramp on a tour of the L.A. River as he nears his 70th birthday and a huge celebration of his accomplishments as founder of FoLAR, Friends of the LA River.
Lewis MacAdams, champion of the L.A. River and head of FoLAR, imitates one of the herons that lives along the river.
Lewis MacAdams, champion of the LA River and head of FoLAR, imitates one of the herons that lives along the river.
(
John Rabe/KPCC
)
The view upstream from the L.A. River's lone footbridge, downstream from Los Feliz Blvd.
View upstream from the LA River's lone footbridge, downstream from Los Feliz Blvd.
(
John Rabe/KPCC
)
Friends of the LA River founder Lewis MacAdams, nearing 70, crosses the waterway on its only footbridge, and ponders how far the city has come since he arrived in the 1970s, when the river was a flood control channel and a punchline.
Friends of the LA River founder Lewis MacAdams, nearing 70, crosses the waterway on its only footbridge, and ponders how far the city has come since he arrived in the 1970s, when the river was a flood control channel and a punchline.
(
John Rabe/KPCC
)
Families and lovers attach locks to a fence on the L.A. River footbridge, south of Los Feliz Blvd.
Families and lovers click locks onto the railing of the LA River footbridge, south of Los Feliz Blvd.
(
John Rabe/KPCC
)
Lox
Lox
(
John Rabe
)
With no lock, John and Lewis did the next best thing.
With no lock, John and Lewis did the next best thing.
(
John Rabe
)
John Rabe with Lewis MacAdams, founder and head of Friends of the LA River, and FoLAR's Ariel VanPelt.
Rabe with Lewis MacAdams, founder and head of Friends of the LA River, and FoLAR's Ariel VanPelt.
(
John Rabe/KPCC
)
At Marsh Park in Frogtown, an example of development along the LA River as a condo building nears completion next to a multi-acre park.
At Marsh Park in the Frogtown neighborhood, an example of investment in the LA River. A condo building nears completion next to a multi-acre park that fronts the water.
(
John Rabe/KPCC
)
In Frogtown, friends Joaquin and Jose meet along the L.A. River bike path.
In Frogtown, friends Joaquin and Jose meet along the LA River bike path.
(
John Rabe/KPCC
)
A plaque honoring FoLAR founder Lewis MacAdams at a park next to the L.A. River.
A plaque honoring FoLAR founder Lewis MacAdams at a park next to the LA River.
(
John RabeKPCC
)

Lewis MacAdams takes Off-Ramp on a tour of the L.A. River as he nears his 70th birthday and a huge celebration of his accomplishments as founder of FoLAR, Friends of the LA River.

Lewis MacAdams takes Off-Ramp's John Rabe on a tour of the L.A. River as MacAdams nears his 70th birthday and a huge celebration of his accomplishments as founder of FoLAR, Friends of the Los Angeles River. MacAdams "wanted to crawl under a rock," but instead agreed to a huge fundraiser party on October 12 -- the FoLAR Fandango -- IF they agreed to bring in Texas BBQ and Shiner Bock from his West Texas homeland.

In the 1970s, when Lewis MacAdams came to Los Angeles, the L.A. River was a flood control channel and a punchline. But he founded “Friends of the Los Angeles River,” which helped the river make a Hollywood-worthy comeback. Now, as MacAdams turns 70, we tour the river and see how far we’ve come.

The poet and journalist remembers his first encounter with the river over thirty years ago, and the immediate connection he felt to it.

“I was walking to the bus stop and I saw the L.A. River for the first time, and for some reason that I’ve never really known, I had this realization that I was going to be involved with the L.A. River for the rest of my life,” says MacAdams. “I see trains going by, I see the 5 freeway, I see slimy – no water almost – but just slimy, street runoff slobber. The insight I think I had was that it was the darkest period and it was bound to change, and I started to ride that change.”

Soon after, MacAdams and a friend "asked the river if [they] could speak for it in the human realm and it didn't say no." That was enough of an answer for MacAdams. He founded FoLAR and began what he calls a “40 year art work” to bring the river back to life.

MacAdams’ first meeting with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works – scheduled shortly after he stood in the path of a bulldozer clearing trees in the river – quickly turned into a yelling match.

RELATED: Did you know Lewis MacAdams wrote the book, "The Birth of the Cool"?

“This guy from Public Works would refer to the river as a 'flood control channel’ and every time I would interrupt him and say ‘river.’ And it didn’t take long until the two of us were screaming at each other,” says MacAdams. “I knew that it was a seminal argument.”

Since then, FoLAR has spent nearly three decades tirelessly cleaning the river and advocating for its restoration.

(MacAdams and KPCC's Brian Watt clean up the river. John Rabe)

But MacAdams says that it never felt like work to him.

“I’ve always thought of it as being fun, and also as being a certain kind of joke on ourselves that we have to build ourselves a better river, but we do,” says MacAdams. “This is a post-modern river… where humans have to work with nature, not against nature. And L.A. River is kind of the poster child globally for screwed up rivers. I would also say it’s the poster child for restoring rivers too.”

One of the biggest challenges MacAdams and FoLAR have faced is getting Angelenos to think about the L.A. River as an actual river and not just a slab of concrete. With the U.S. Army Corps' recent endorsement of a $1 billion river restoration project, it seems like Los Angeles is finally listening.

“I think that if we’ve accomplished anything these past 30 years, one of them is that we’ve created this new mind that sees the river as a river and not as flood control,” says MacAdams. “Now as you can see, people moving with strollers, people walking their dogs, the river has reentered people’s consciousness and they didn’t even realize it.”