MARKERS PART OF RIVER'S UPGRADE.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

As part of efforts to build parks and bike paths along the Los Angeles River's concrete banks, 80 blue signs are being placed along the 30-mile stretch from from West Hills to Long Beach, officials said Friday.

The signs - which read ``Los Angeles River'' and depict a heron - will help bring recognition to a long-abused waterway that's now the centerpiece of urban-renewal projects from the western San Fernando Valley to southeastern Los Angeles County. The signs, many of which have already been posted, cost about $31,000.

Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge showed off one of the signs Friday morning at the Los Feliz Boulevard bridge over the river, a lazy, algae-filled flow through concrete channels lined with graffiti.

``The Los Angeles River is the next phase in the development of urban Los Angeles,'' LaBonge said. ``This is all part of the awareness of the revitalization of the river.''

Large and small parks, walkways and bicycle paths are planned along vast portions of the river's 52-mile length from Canoga Park to the Port of Long Beach.

City officials are working to reconfigure bridges over the river in the western San Fernando Valley so that bicyclists can pedal uninterrupted from Canoga Park to near downtown Los Angeles.

Los Angeles City Council members endorsed a bond measure earlier this month that would provide $500 million to clean water in municipal lakes and the Los Angeles River. Among other things, the bond would pay for screens to filter trash from the river, which is part of a federal mandate to reduce trash in the river by 20 percent by September 2006.

State parks officials are using money from a 2000 statewide bond measure to buy land along the river near downtown Los Angeles to convert blighted rail yards into parks.

In the Valley, conservationists are converting patches along the concrete-encased channel into small parks and wildlife habitat, said Melanie Winter, director of the Studio City-based nonprofit The River Project.

Much of the group's efforts are directed at the Sepulveda Basin, the only Valley stretch where the river's bottom is not concrete.

The River Project is removing non-native vegetation from the basin and replacing concrete along its banks with a permeable hard-scape surface.

But the river - which was encased in concrete decades ago to control flooding - will not be restored to its natural state, Winter said.

``We're not looking to blast out the concrete and say property be damned,'' Winter said. ``We're looking for an equilibrium.

``It's a patchwork right now. We're just looking to connect these dots.''

James Nash, [phone]

james.nash(at)dailynews.com

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Signs being posted along Los Angeles River bikeways will help bring recognition to a long-abused waterway that's now the centerpiece of several urban-renewal projects.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News