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July 25, 2008
On further review, O'Malley got bum rap
Case can be made that Dodgers owner was pushed
Albany Times-Union
by Brian Ettkin
In a lengthy and interesting piece on Walter O'Malley on the cusp of the former Brooklyn (and L.A.) Dodgers' owner's enshrinement in baseball's Hall of Fame, reporter Brian Ettkin repeats the too-often repeated error about the precise location of the Ebbets Field successor that never came to be, with a twist.
O'Malley continued asking for help to acquire the Atlantic and Flatbush site (where Bruce Ratner would build Atlantic Yards five decades later).
Ettkin is actually right about the location for Atlantic Yards, but he's wrong about O'Malley, who actually wanted to build on the spot that's now home to Ratner's Atlantic Center mall. He's also off on his phraseology — "would build" is different than "wants to build."
The article does offer up a number of good tidbits, including:
O'Malley offered to build a 100-percent privately financed Major League Baseball stadium, the first since Yankee Stadium had been constructed in 1923, and the land once the city acquired it.
While O'Malley's willingness to privately finance the ballpark was much different than Ratner's dependence on subsidies, O'Malley's plan, like Ratner's, relied on the use of eminent domain.
Moses considered big-league sports of minimal value to a city.
In that respect, Moses and many economists would agree.
[T]he Chavez Ravine stadium deal wasn't valid until a vote of the people narrowly passed it on June 3, 1958, and even then O'Malley had to win several court appeals filed by stadium opponents.
Unlike residents of New York City, Angelenos actually got to vote on the Dodgers' stadium plan.
Posted by eric at July 25, 2008 12:30 PM