The Los Angeles River is something of a civic joke. Polluted, abused, ignored, and bound into a concrete channel, the river that once provided all of the city’s water has become a symbol of downtown L.A.’s shortsighted urban strategies. But a movement to remake the city’s core has been gaining steam in recent years, and a loose coalition of artists and local activists want to free the river from its concrete bonds and make it the centerpiece of a grand… well, a grand something. Neighborhoods want parks, activists want an environmentally protected area, and some people just want the river cleaned, by any means necessary. What everyone agrees upon is that the river must play a part in the long-overdue revitalization of downtown Los Angeles.