All photos by Mark Mauer. More after the jump.

Lots of great stuff can be found walking around the railroad tracks downtown along the LA River. It is, however, off limits, and can lead to some twisted explanations to cops and other uniform wearers about how you got turned around on that one street, and just wanted to get a better view of the bridge...

Some fence hopping required too.

All photos by Mark Mauer. More after the jump.

All photos by Mark Mauer. More after the jump.

The farther north you go, the more you see these massive letters 20 feet high or more...

While others stay out of the river and instead work topside.

All photos by Mark Mauer.

Associated Press has a story on Yahoo News this morning about the permitted artwork along the Arroyo Seco that went up last year during the Meeting of Styles, which brought together graffiti artists from across the country.

According to their reporting, "The county has given organizers until Wednesday to whitewash the mural, and neither side is backing down."

Not everyone was pleased, however, with the results of the civic-minded effort, which had the city's blessing but has rekindled debates over whether Los Angeles County should condone a practice it pays millions to combat.

Some politicians protested that parts of the mural are obscene and have attracted gang-related tags in a city where graffiti already mars homes, sidewalks and buildings.

The story on Yahoo is currently one of the most popular stories on the web, which means literally millions of people are reading about this. The article also makes it clear that the project was legally approved ahead of time, and it was only after it was completed that County Supervisor Gloria Molina demanded the murals be whitewashed , "complaining that some of the images were inappropriate for a public art display."

L.A. Weekly's Matthew Flesicher reported on the fight between Molina and the event's organizer ManOne in January.

After the jump, pictures of the lurid murals that so offended Molina's sense of decency, and Gloria Molina's contact info.

A rough patch of the river here, but there will be some better looking stuff coming up tomorrow, though we get a couple glimpses of the massive pieces, like the PDB one below, that line the second half of this stretch of the river.

All photos by Mark Mauer. More after the jump.

All photos by Mark Mauer. More after the jump.

All photos by Mark Mauer. More after the jump.

This post starts a look at a few miles of the L.A. River going north from Atwater Village to the 134 that will continue for the next week or so.

Because the river bottom is mostly unpaved along this stretch, there's a lot of trees, birds, fish, and wildlife, all just a few feet away from the Golden State Freeway.

The L.A. River plays a huge part in the ongoing history of the city's graffiti, and is of course reviled by many city officials.

All photos by Mark Mauer. More after the jump.

Matthew Flesicher wrote a piece in the news section about the County calling an "emergency" over the properly permitted art project held in the Arroyo Seco in September.

Standing on a bridge overlooking the confluence of the Arroyo Seco and Los Angeles rivers, Friends of the Los Angeles River founder Lewis MacAdams stares at the cement-walled streams and indulges in a moment of nostalgia. “This was the birthplace of FoLAR,” he says of the desolate area. “I came down here one day and saw how blighted and disgusting it was and just thought, ‘I have to do something about this.’ ”

Twenty-two years after MacAdams founded FoLAR, however, the stretch of river that inspired him has landed his group in a bizarre battle with County Supervisor Gloria Molina, leaving the nonprofit organization potentially liable for thousands of dollars in cleanup costs.

To see part of what's already been lost, check out the before and after photos after the jump, showing the whitewash that destroyed several of the huge murals. Of course, it didn't stay whitewashed for more than a few days: sloppy bombing tags quickly covered the area, as anyone would know, making me wonder, what was the point of all of this anyway? Anyone would hbe hard pressed to say it looks better now than it did before.