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James [00:00:00] So my name is James. This is Camilla. And I’m sorry your name.
Endy [00:00:08] My name is Endy.
James [00:00:09] Endy. OK. And are you a resident of Southgate or Holiday Park?
Endy [00:00:14] Linwood which is right next to South Gate.
James [00:00:18] So I guess the first question we have is what would you say is your experience with the L.A. River? Like have you used it the for anything?
Endy [00:00:29] No. I mean just. My connection probably be social media. I’ve never been there. I know people go down there. A couple times I’ve heard helicopters flying up and down the river. I’ve never seen it. But I can hear thought that was pretty cool.
James [00:00:48] So you’ve never been to the river. No never been. And would you say like have you heard any stories or like anything like perception wise like.
Camila [00:01:01] Or from what you’ve seen on social media like what’s your take?
Endy [00:01:04] I mean just like a photo shoots and stuff like that. And uh I guess movies you know. Yeah. Mostly just photoshoots and movies. I’ve never heard any stories about anything that goes on down there.
James [00:01:20] So the city of Southgate and the entire and the city of L.A. they kind of want. They have plans to kind of open access for the river kind of create more parks on the river.
Endy [00:01:34] Oh really?
James [00:01:34] More community amenities. And so, what would you, if it was up to you, like what would you like to see and maybe like what are your concerns about having projects on the river?
Endy [00:01:45] I don’t know. Sounds kind of like a cool idea but I don’t know what the impact would be on keeping the water clean you know cause its the one that goes out to the ocean right?
Endy [00:02:01] Obviously environmental concerns would be something that I would first think about. Yeah I don’t. What are they planning on doing?
James [00:02:11] So in Southgate there are plans to for an urban orchard adjacent to the river. And also plans to cap the river actually to cover it up and build on top of it. And so part of our project is to kind of gauge how community residents would feel about certain projects like that and see if that if they see any issues or concerns about them or if they support them in general.
Endy [00:02:46] That sounds pretty interesting. I mean it sounds like a pretty bold idea. Pretty innovative pretty smart. Yeah I mean if you putting parks on top or orchards or putting something more green that sounds pretty cool. I’d like to get more infor on that.
James [00:03:08] So would you say you are, you’re not familiar with those kind of projects.
Endy [00:03:13] No I wouldn’t.
James [00:03:16] Would you have any like um. How. How would you think. That at least like the city could best communicate with you if you would like to know more. Or like how do you think they should outreach more so that people like you have more idea of what’s going on.
Endy [00:03:31] I get a lot of my news from Facebook and radio like NPR, stuff like that that. Maybe they can reach out to radio stations and add some spots or something.
Camila [00:03:46] So obviously you come to this park and what do you usually come here for?
Endy [00:03:50] I just bring my dog out and let him run. He’s a pretty big, pretty active dog so if I don’t take him out he gets pretty antsy.
Camila [00:03:56] Yeah and you said you’re from Lynnwood. So is there a reason that you specifically come to the Holidale?
Endy [00:04:02] Holidale yeah I mean because this is just a big wide expanse over here and it’s kind of separated from the soccer fields and the baseball field over there and the school right over there. And there is hardly anybody ever here and there’s a dog park literally right here. So kind of take advantage that. He’s a nice dog, you know he’s big but he’s harmless. He’s over there making holes right now. Hey, no come here! No. So yeah I mean that sounds pretty interesting.
James [00:04:48] So one of the biggest concerns we’re actually working on for our client L.A. Water Keeper and one of the concerns with having more projects on the river and basically developing the river is that I’m concerned about flooding and and flood control especially going forward in terms of weather events caused by climate change and extreme weather events caused by climate change. Do you have any experience with flooding here or like concerns.
Endy [00:05:21] No not at all but I mean I think from what I can see the river bed is pretty big. You know I’ve never seen it anywhere close to being full or even halfway full. That’s not to say it can’t happen. During one thing. When you really think about it. What’s good about this is I mean whether the idea is good or bad just opens it opens up the dialogue to something that maybe a lot of us don’t think about. And it’s good to have innovative conversations with people. I think that’s pretty cool.
James [00:05:58] I think that’s pretty much then.
Camila [00:06:00] Although you haven’t super been to the River, but you’ve seen it, what is one word you could use to describe the river as.
Endy [00:06:01] It’s pretty big.