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October 8, 2007
L.A.'s major league play: Dodgers' 50 years in Los Angeles
LA Times
By Steve Springer
The story of the Dodgers' move to Los Angeles from the Left Coast perspective explains that eminent domain was invoked at Chavez Ravine well before anyone thought of building a ballpark on the site, but by the time the move was set in motion, the last remaining holdouts had to go.
In 1953, a seemingly unrelated event back in L.A. would push [City Councilmember Rosalind] Wyman's dream one step closer to reality.
Three years earlier, a letter had gone out from the Los Angeles Housing Authority to residents living on more than 300 acres of steep rolling hills near downtown known as Chavez Ravine. It informed them a public housing development for low-income families was to be built on their property, which they would be forced to sell at fair market value under eminent domain. The residents would be given the first opportunity to buy into the new project, to be known as Elysian Park Heights, or would be given public assistance in finding other homes.
"The Dodgers had nothing whatsoever to do with the moving of people out of Chavez Ravine," Wyman said.
Even after the season ended in Brooklyn on October 7, 1957:
There would still be unanticipated hurdles ahead, including a referendum on the move, lawsuits against the Dodgers, the ugly spectacle of the last remaining holdouts on the land being forcibly removed, and delays in stadium construction.
NoLandGrab: In NYC, Robert Moses refused to use eminent domain for a new ballpark for the Dodgers, but that's how they got it done in L.A. Cut to 50 years later: in order to heal the gaping hole left when a young Marty Markowitz had his heart torn out by the Dodgers' move to L.A., eminent domain is being used again in hopes of building an arena for the NJ Nets... eerie.
Posted by lumi at October 8, 2007 7:02 AM