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By Bryce Hubner
F
or many, California is at once
revered and reviled, progressive
and backward, emblematic of
both realized American Dreams and
crushing disillusionment—a tinsel-
laden enigma.
For anyone who’s seen it in person,
though, the Golden State’s diverse nat-
ural beauty is unequivocal. Sometime
in the future, that natural beauty will
unite the state’s great urban centers,
mass transit and regional park networks
by way of far-reaching paths such as the
1,200-mile California Coastal Trail.
The trails are a great dream that will
change the way the state and its resi-
dents—and perhaps those who visit or
judge California from afar—navigate
transportation, public health and the
environment. Here’s a look at a few
people who are leading inspired initia-
tives to deliver the future now.
Emerald Necklace
With a shrinking water supply and the
largest population of any county in the
nation—almost 10.5 million people, more
populous than all but eight states—no place
is in greater need of rethinking green space
and watersheds than Los Angeles County.
“When I first moved here, I was shocked
by how lacking the parks, waterways and
tree canopy are. It looks like an asphalt
quilt,” says Claire Robinson, founder and
managing director of Amigos de los Rios,
a nonprofit organization with the stated
mission to realize “an interconnected loop
of parks and greenways connecting 42 cit-
ies and over 2,000,000 residents of the Rio
Hondo and San Gabriel River watersheds
in L.A. County.”
Robinson conceived the idea for the
Emerald Necklace and named it after
Boston’s famous water and parks network.
One reason for the moniker is that Los
California
Dre m
Angeles’ linked parks, like Boston’s, resem-
ble a chain of green jewels when viewed on
a map.
An academic who’s taught architecture
and city planning at several of the country’s
top universities, Robinson says she first
engaged the idea after seeing a “brilliant
1930s parks plan for the L.A. County
basin” that was co-drafted by Frederick
Law Olmsted Jr. A great conservationist,
Olmsted was the son of Frederick Law
Olmsted, a pioneer of landscape architec-
ture in America and the mastermind behind
Boston’s Emerald Necklace. Working with
students from the University of Southern
California and other local universities,
Robinson began modifying the 1930s plan
eight years ago to accommodate 21st centu-
ry constraints. In 2005 she formed Amigos
to help carry out and support the mission.
“It’s a shame that no one in the ’30s saw
the genius of [Olmsted Jr.’s] plan, because