LA River

VX News interviews Scott Kratz, Senior Vice President of Building Bridges Across the River and 11th Street Bridge Park Director, on the decade-long project as it is about to break ground early next year. Kratz talks of the importance of fully engaging with affected communities early and often to create community-centered civic spaces. Kratz also opines on civic lessons learned & applicable to repurposing and extending the life of other federal infrastructure investments, e.g., the Los Angeles River Revitalization project.

With generous surplus state funding included for climate resilience in Governor Newsom’s 2022-23 budget request, VX News caught up with Santa Monica Mountain’s Conservancy Executive Director, Joe Edmiston, to elaborate on how the influx of federal and state infrastructure investments will impact Southern California conservation and open space projects.

VX News shares an interview of renowned LA landscape architect, Mia Lehrer, the newest appointee to the LADWP Board of Commissioners. Mia reflects on her firm's mission of advocacy by design as a process for making places that are environmentally significant and culturally meaningful to people and communities and helping implement projects—funded through bond measures and policies brought forward over time, whether on water, water conservation, shade, trees, or walkability.

Asm. Laura Friedman joins VX News to explain how recent legislation codifies many of the goals of Governor Brown's Water Action Plan.