Photo by Scott Fajack
The L.A. Times follows up on last year’s story about the fate of the parking lots surrounding Dodger Stadium. The parking lots, which cover much of the 350-acre ballpark property, are owned by team owner Frank McCourt and are not involved in the team’s bankruptcy court sale. As a result, any buyer would have to pay McCourt extra for that land or pay him $14 million a year to lease the lots, said the story. Or McCourt could just keep the lots and try to develop them. The Times notes:
However, McCourt could try to develop the land in a way that could rehabilitate his battered civic image. “There is no doubt in my mind he wants to hold on to the property,” said a person familiar with McCourt’s thinking. “L.A. is his home. It will remain his home.”
What could he build? The story mentions the failed attempt to build office buildings on the lots at Anaheim Stadium, and the NFL’s longtime interest in building a Chavez Ravine football stadium. Last year’s story, written before the Dodger bankruptcy filing, also brought up the possibility of building homes around the stadium.
If anything ever gets built on the team’s parking lots, things will certainly get a lot more crowded around Dodger Stadium. Barlow Respiratory Hospital, which sits next to the Stadium, wants to develop hundreds of units of housing on its property.
Photos by Christine Peters
A small group of volunteers gathered in Elysian Park this morning to help build this year’s tumbleweed snowmen after last week’s windstorm delayed the holiday decorating project. Under the direction of Recreation and Parks Department workers, the volunteers trimmed and shape the tumbleweeds, which were there mounted on to poles to await painting and accessorizing ( eyes, hats, earrings, etc). If the painters show up and there are no more windstorms, four tumbleweed figures are expected to be set up in different spots across the park later this week.
Related post:
- Who needs snow to build a snowman when a tumbleweed will do? The Eastsider
Volunteers are needed on Thursday morning to help shape, trim and assemble Elysian Park’s holiday decorations made out of tumbleweeds. City budget cuts had threatened the Elysian Park snowmen and snowwoman with extinction until volunteers stepped in to help out and defray expenses. Park staff collect and spray paint the tumbleweeds, leaving volunteers to trim and accessorize the figures with hats made from plastic buckets and noses cut from the tips of playing field cones.
Volunteers are asked to show up this Thursday, Dec. 1, at 10 a.m. at the park maintenance yard at Academy Road and Solano Canyon Drive. Send an email to hello@TheEastsiderLA.com to be notified of any potential scheduling change.
* Update: Volunteers are asked to bring gloves and wear long sleeve shirts and pants.
Photos courtesy Solano Avenue Elementary PTA
It maybe dirty and stinky, but a pedestrian tunnel underneath the 110 Freeway serves as an important pathway for kids attending Solano Avenue Elementary. The freeway divides Solano Canyon in half, with students who live to the east of the freeway having to walk through the tunnel and under a freeway bridge to get to the school on the west side of the highway. The students often had to walk through the stench of urine and past graffiti-covered walls and piles of trash on their way to school. Conditions under the tunnel and a nearby freeway underpass had worsened as government budget cuts left less money for cleaning. As a result, the newly formed Solano Elementary PTA decided to host a clean up on Saturday.
“We had 30 volunteers, half of them children, and planted a small garden along the 110 freeway and at the Solano Avenue Community Garden,” said Sara Harris with the Solano Elementary PTA. In addition, Mario Hernandez and AMPM Maintenance Personnel, agreed to power wash the tunnel once a month.
Photo by Scott Fajack
The family of Bryan Stowe, the Giants fan who was left in critical condition after being beaten in the Dodger parking lot following the season opener, today filed suit against the team and owner Frank McCourt. The family blamed insufficient stadium security and antiquated equipment for creating an unsafe environment, according to the L.A. Times. The conditions at the stadium, located on the eastern edge of Echo Park, left Stowe vulnerable to attack, according to the lawsuit. The Times said:
Even before the attack, Stow and his three friends were harassed during the March 31 game, with other Dodger fans repeatedly taunting them and throwing peanuts, hot dogs, and wrappers — “clear signs of intimidation” that Dodger security personnel should have addressed — the suit alleged. “The lack of security and inadequate lighting presented a perfect opportunity to commit a variety of crimes,” attorneys wrote in the suit. “Unfortunately, for Bryan Stow, this is exactly what happened.”
The lawsuit was filed two days after police apprehended a suspect in East Hollywood who is believed to be one of suspects involved in the March 31 beating.
A man who police believe to be one of the two suspects who brutally beat a Giants fan following the Dodger season opener is in custody this morning after an LAPD SWAT Team descended on an apartment building in East Hollywood. L.A. Now reports that officers acted on a tip after a parole agent said he believed one of his parolees matched the description of the suspects involved in the beating of Bryan Stowe in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. Police continue to search for the other suspect who has evaded capture nearly two months after the attack prompted a massive manhunt. Martiza Camacho, in an interview with L.A. Now, describes what happened after SWAT officers ordered the occupants of Apt. 25 to get out:
One by one, the occupants emerged, Camacho said. The man taken into custody had a bald head and tattoos on his neck and arms, she said, a description that appeared to match the vague sketches released by police of one of the two suspects. She added that he did not appear to resist being taken into custody.
Police and city officials have scheduled a 4 p.m. press conference to provide more details.
* Update: The suspect has been identified as 31-year-old Giovanni Ramirez, who was booked for assault with a deadly weapon. L.A. Now reports Ramirez has been convicted of attempted robbery, robbery and firing a weapon in public.
Photo by Ben+Sam/Flickr
A large police presence may have made Dodger Stadium safer in the wake of the brutal beating of a Giants fan but the ballpark just feels sad, said Kitty Felde of KPCC after a recent visit during a Dodger-Giants game. There were large numbers of empty seats and parking spaces as well as shuttered concession stands. It all made for a “very sad place,” said Felde in her blog:
The view was still gorgeous — sunset coloring the hills and clouds of Chavez Ravine. And even though my Dodger dog was steamed, not grilled, it still tasted the same. But somehow, it just wasn’t the same place.
A Solano Canyon resident named Victoria is seeking the owner of an American Staffordshire Terrier:
This beautiful young pup wandered onto our property this afternoon. My husband found her when he was pulling into our yard. We live on Solano and Bouette. Please repost & spread the word. She is really affectionate, well-behaved, clean and well-adjusted. It’s difficult to believe someone just dumped her. I walked around the neighborhood with her to see if she recognized her home. None of our neighbors recognize her. She’s missing her mommy and daddy. You can contact me at vrharding@gmail.com
Lost & Found is part of The Eastsider Forums, where Eastsider readers can post announcements or start a conversation on neighborhood news, issues problems & ideas. Click here to find out how to share your news & views.
Photo by Scott Fajack
The parking lots that surround Dodger Stadium generate about $11 million a season in parking fee revenue (guess those higher rates add up). That’s a lot of money but that sea of asphalt might be even more valuable if all or part of those lots were transformed into a residential community. The possibility of parking condos instead of cars on the lots was raised in a Sunday L.A. Times story about the fate of the 350-acre Dodger property after Major League Baseball stripped team owner Frank McCourt of operating control. McCourt divided the team and stadium property into separate companies. If MLB finds another owner for the Dodgers, McCourt might remain owner of the stadium property, according to the Times story. What would he do with that land? It’s still too early to say but new Dodger executive Steve Soboroff told the Times that housing might be a possibility:
Dodgers vice chairman Steve Soboroff, who shepherded a major retail and residential development at Playa Vista, said the Dodger Stadium property might best be used for residences around the perimeter. Soboroff emphasized he has not talked with McCourt about land development since joining the Dodgers last month — “I wasn’t hired to do that,” he said — but added that the most feasible development would be limited and community-oriented, with cash flow years down the road. “You’re not talking about a large-scale project,” Soboroff said. “It would take five, six, seven years to do it right. You want the community and the neighbors to say things are better because of it.”
The story notes that McCourt would likely have to battle MLB as well as his ex-wife, Jamie, over any attempt to hold on to the Chavez Ravine property underneath the stadium. If housing is ever built on the team’s parking lots, things will certainly get a lot more crowded around Dodger Stadium since Barlow Respiratory Hospital, which sits next to the Stadium, wants to develop 888 units of housing on its property.
Photo by Scott Fajack
With Frank McCourt clashing with Major League Baseball over control of the Dodgers, the uncertainty over the team’s future has some sports fans talking about a football team joining the Dodgers on their 350-acre property next to Elysian Park. Previous owners, including Walter O’Malley, have tried and failed to attract an NFL franchise to Chavez Ravine in the face of financial issues, competing stadium proposals and, of course, fierce opposition from residents living in Echo Park, Solano Canyon and the other neighborhoods that ring the stadium property. The most recent round of speculation of a hilltop football stadium began when Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday published a story by writer Jason Cole titled “Dodger’s woes could open door for NFL.” Cole writes:
Assuming MLB Commissioner Bud Selig does the dirty work and new ownership results, the possibility of reviving Dodger Stadium as a future home for an NFL team just got brighter. At least some people in L.A. with the power to help the NFL return understand the situation … If someone with extremely deep pockets (such as Anschutz) could buy the Dodgers, build a football stadium next to Dodger Stadium and then buy a football team, the marketing possibilities could be endless.
In a totally difference scenario, Cole said Anschutz or some other group could buy the Dodgers and move them to a new downtown stadium. Cole, however, failed to guess what would would happen to the 350-acres of land the team would leave behind.
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