Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium, in Los Angeles, California, has been the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team since 1962. It was also the home of the Los Angeles Angels between 1962 and 1965. The park is still also sometimes referred to as Chavez Ravine (more formally as Chavez Ravine Stadium), after the name of the site where it was constructed, and the name used by the Angels organization during their tenancy.

Construction controversy

The land for Dodger Stadium was expropriated from the local residents in the early 1950s by the city of Los Angeles under eminent domain. The residents were told that it was to be used for low-income housing and that the residents would have their choice of the new homes. The city, however, used the land to induce the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers to relocate the franchise in Los Angeles.

Related Topics:
1950s - Eminent domain - Low-income housing

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Famous LA author Mike Davis, in his seminal work on the city, City of Quartz, describes the process of gradually convincing Chavez Ravine homeowners to sell. With nearly all of the original, Spanish-speaking homeowners initially unwilling to sell, developers resorted to offering immediate cash payments, distributed through their Spanish-speaking agents. Once the first sales had been completed, remaining homeowners were offered increasingly lesser amounts of money, to create a community panic of not receiving fair compensation, or of being left as one of the only holdouts.

Related Topics:
Mike Davis - City of Quartz

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The top of a local hill was removed and the soil was used to fill in the actual Chavez Ravine, to provide a level surface for a parking lot and the stadium.

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A few years after the stadium opened, a minor land dispute arose. A nearby landowner claimed that a corner of his property had been paved over as part of the parking lot. He announced he was going to build a small hamburger stand on that small slice of property, selling "O'Malleyburgers", the buns to carry an imprint of Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley, so that disgruntled patrons could "bite off his ear". Apparently a settlement was reached, as nothing much came of this incident.

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