Cobb

You call *that* a river? That's not a river. It's a cement ditch!

Oh boy here we go...

It's true that the LA River ain't the prettiest site, but as you can see, there's a serious elevation issue. There's no way it could just flow through the city to the sea if a seriously deep ditch wasn't built for it.

There are some efforts to let the river run wild (in a controlled sort of way) just north of downtown, but there's no way it could be done for most of the river. It's actually almost dry most of the year, so it wouldn't be much to look at in a wild setting - just like a creek. But as you can see, it gets violent when the rain comes.

So my first point was going to be that rivers like the Charles in Massachusetts are mostly estuaries when they pass through cities. The LA River doesn't come from anywhere - there are no real tributaries. It's just from the local mountains right behind the city. I wish it were otherwise.

Now you're making me think about the other river north of the city... hmm.

Here's a good resource about the LA River.

So the river is a victim of urban development sprawl.