USA. Los Angeles. 2014. A weekend turtle racing contest at a fundraising event at the elementary school in Elysian Valley, a diverse riverside community where real estate speculation is rampant because of river restoration efforts. The city of Los Angeles plans to restore the Los Angeles River channel, formerly an industrial wasteland, with up to one billion US dollars in state, local, and federal money, improving the ecology of the river and making it an attractive environment for residents and visitors. These changes are expected to lead to billions more in commercial and residential development. The inevitable gentrification that will result may have a detrimental impact on working class communities who have lived by the river for generations.<br><br> Seventy-five percent of the global population is projected to be living in cities by the middle of this century.