It could be the project that makes, or breaks, Los Angeles. With a complex historical legacy and an often-misunderstood ecology, the L.A. River’s 51-mile stretch is at once a huge urban opportunity, and to many, an even bigger eyesore. Thirty years ago, nonprofit Friends of the Los Angeles River was founded to protect and advocate for the river, and shortly after, the City of L.A. began looking at ways to take better advantage of the immense resource. Since then, many more communities and stakeholders have joined the conversation, raising concerns of ecology, sustainability, gentrification, public space, affordable housing, social equity–a wealth of complexities that testifies to what a lightning rod of urbanist discourse the River has become.While conversations about the L.A. River’s future have been percolating for decades, not until only a few years ago did the plans become a divisive topic for the general public–in no small part due to the appointment of Frank Gehry’s office as a leader in the city’s master planning initiative. Loaded with passion and ambition, the public dialogue rages about the river, and stokes the debate over what L.A. is becoming overall.As a live podcasting event, Archinect’s Next Up: LA River will be a dynamic platform to gather and discuss the river within current urbanist discourse. Through a series of short-form interviews and guided group discussions covering many different perspectives on the river, Next Up will be a place for airing dreams, concerns, plans and ideas for the river’s future, and its identity in a changing L.A.Participants:Christopher Hawthorne (LA Times)Frances Anderton (KCRW DnA host)Steven Appleton (LA River Kayak Safari)Marissa Christiansen (FOLAR)Elizabeth Timme (LA-Más)Renee Dake Wilson (VP of LA City Planning Commission)Catherine Gudis (Play the L.A. River game)Julia Meltzer (Clock Shop)