Beautification

A trove of trash was plucked from the Los Angeles River on Saturday morning during the 20th annual river cleanup. An estimated 3,000 volunteers spread out over 14 sites from the San Fernando Valley down to Long Beach. Wearing disposable gloves and armed with trash sacks, the garbage-collectors-for-a-day did their part to purge the river of all manner of trash that ends up in its 52-mile stretch.

The ficus crisis in Santa Monica appears to be headed to court. For the last several months, local activists and city officials have sparred over the planned removal of 54 ficus trees along 2nd and 4th streets, part of an $8-million beautification project. On Monday, Santa Monica's Landmarks Commission voted 6 to 1 to deny landmark status to those trees -- and 99 others -- in the downtown area near Third Street Promenade.

Neighborhood activists in the northeast San Fernando Valley thought they scored a major victory in 1995, when they persuaded Los Angeles officials to approve zoning rules to keep new buildings on Foothill Boulevard from blocking their hillside views.

In August, Kevin and Danet Davis got a letter from the City of Santa Clarita informing them that the yard and parkway in front of their house were not up to city standards. The dirt and weeds had to go -- and preferably be replaced by vegetation or other landscaping -- and the city gave the Davises two months to make adjustments. But unlike cities that merely issue citations, Santa Clarita also offered a helping hand.

Where to start? With the transgender prostitutes who just moved into the cheap hotel down the street? With the taco vendors who are so indifferent to the law that they set up shop on the side of the road like a full-fledged restaurant, with tables and heat lamps? And what about the troubled old lady who stands at the gas station all day, slapping herself in the face, spitting on your shoes if you get too close?

The city of Los Angeles is moving forward with an innovative proposal to transform some of its alleys, long used for dumping, crime and not much good. The City Council this week approved a package of 10 recommendations advancing the proposal. It included provisions for developing design guidelines, determining cost, building a detailed map of alleys and identifying pilot project sites.

The 9-acre waterfront plot at the northwest edge of downtown Seattle was an oil depot for much of the last century; for years it was considered a fuel-soaked toxic waste site. After a decade-long cleanup, it caught the eye of developers, who floated proposals for apartment buildings there in the 1990s.

After decades of enduring jokes about the city's concrete-lined waterway, officials today will release an ambitious master plan for restoring the Los Angeles River, a project that reflects lofty dreams and carries a big price tag. If anything, the plan is significant not for its specifics but for its sweep and boldness in proposing to turn the industrial-strength storm drain running from the San Fernando Valley to the sea into "one of the city's most treasured landmarks."

Behind orange net fencing that cordons off much of Norman Manley International Airport, the skeletal frame of a new terminal looms as a nagging reminder that this host nation of the Cricket World Cup has only a month to go before 15,000 fans descend on this city.

As Los Angeles gears up for a historic makeover of its namesake river, the grand plans aren't flowing south. The much-trumpeted $2-billion blueprint for revitalizing the Los Angeles River ends at the city line, omitting the last 19 miles of the river as it cuts through some of Southern California's poorest, most crowded communities.