Kings-Ducks Bet Brings Mayors To LA River Cleanup
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The mayors of Los Angeles and Anaheim paid off a friendly NHL playoff wager Saturday morning when they met to lend a hand during a cleanup of the Los Angeles River.
The wager that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait made during the Kings-Ducks series in the second round of the playoffs concerned an exchange of community-service projects.
"When I made a bet with Mayor Tait I said, 'Let's not do the same old food bet, besides the food in Anaheim isn't that different, we're just going to be betting different tacos from each place,'" Garcetti said.
The Kings decisively won Game 7 of the hard-fought series in May, on their way to their second Stanley Cup in three years, and ended the Ducks' season. That meant Tait would have to pay up.
The Anaheim mayor and volunteers from several organizations in the city joined Garcetti and dozens of others to help clean up the river in Elysian Valley at Marsh Park.
"We want to restore pride in the LA treasure the same way we restored pride in the LA Kings," Garcetti said.
Tait was impressed with the waterway.
"It's beautiful, and the thought that you could kayak down the LA River, I didn't know you could," Tait said. "We have the Santa Ana River, and it could be equally as beautiful."
The group of volunteers who drove up from Orange County included some Ducks fans.
"It's a benefit for everybody that we lost, I guess," said Steven Rodriguez of Huntington Beach.
Tait, meanwhile, was already thinking about a return visit from the LA mayor.
"We'll get you next year," he told Garcetti.