The world’s first river restoration card game has now been invented. It’s called “Play the LA River“.
Every card in the Play the LA River 51-card deck focuses on points of interest along the river’s 51 miles and includes access maps showing parking, bike trails, bathrooms, and well-known neighborhood markers. Along with a short description of the site, the cards also list ways to play at each place.
You could “leapfrog,” or “conga around the geodesic dome,” “write an ode to car exhaust,” play “korean poker,” or “smell the sage.” If that all sounds too complicated, you could always sketch or play a simple game of tag. Run by the arts collective Project 51, the project is what they call a “game of urban exploration and imagination.”
The game’s goal? To help Angelenos understand that they now have a right to enjoy the river–long a polluted, concrete-encased ditch–that is now on its way to becoming one of the city’s most treasured public spaces.