'Next Up: The LA River' Mini-Session #6 with Julia Meltzer (Clockshop) and Elizabeth Timme (LA-Más)

For this Mini-Session from our Next Up: The LA River event, Nicholas Korody spoke with Julia Meltzer, director and founder of non-profit arts organization, Clockshop, and Elizabeth Timme, co-director of the urban design and architecture non-profit LA-Más.

Both Clockshop and LA-Más are located within Elysian Valley, aka Frogtown—a sliver of a neighborhood bordered by the LA River, the 5 and the 2 freeways. In recent years, Frogtown (predominantly a low-density neighborhood of single-family homes) has become a major focus in LA conversations about gentrification and development, and both Timme's and Meltzer's work is heavily invested in their context. Clockshop (in collaboration with California State Parks) has its HQ in Frogtown and hosts art events in the Bowtie, an undeveloped plot of land along the river. In 2015, LA-Más led a community "co-visioning process" (the 'Futuro de Frogtown') to determine the kind of development decisions residents were concerned about.

Nicholas Korody spoke with both Timme and Meltzer about issues of equitable-design and place-making along the river, and the role of art within a master redevelopment plan.