UNNATURAL NATURE: ANGLERS REIMAGININGS OF THE LOS ANGELES RIVER AS PARKLAND

abstract

The Los Angeles River provides residents with much-needed access to nature and recreation opportunities in a city plagued by a lack of parks. Park access and use in Los Angeles varies greatly along racial and class lines, artifacts of the city’s history. Inequalities exist in how and where people can access urban nature and parks. Fishing on the L.A. River is a response to these inequities. Anglers create their own park spaces and nature experiences through fishing. In this study, videos of fishing activity on the L.A. River were probed and queried to get a sense of the angler experiences. Anglers fish for a variety of reasons, including social interaction, sport, and sustenance fishing to augment insecure food supplies. Angler experiences and constructions of the river are stratified, consistent with patterns of park use in Los Angeles. Anglers frame the river as both a classed and raced social space, mediating the inequities of the raced and classed city it flows through. Keywords: urban parks, fishing, socially constructed nature, YouTube videos