Chávez Ravine
Encyclopedia
Chavez Ravine is an area in Sulfir Canyon that is the current site of Dodger Stadium
in Los Angeles
, California
.
It was named after Julian Chavez, a Los Angeles Councilman in the 19th century.
in other parts of Los Angeles. With the population of Los Angeles expanding, Chavez Ravine was viewed as a prime, underutilized location. The city began to label the area as "blighted" and thus ripe for redevelopment
. Through a vote, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles
, with the assistance of federal funds from the Housing Act of 1949
, was designated the task to construct public housing, in large part to address the severe post-World War II
housing shortage. Prominent architects Richard Neutra
and Robert Alexander developed a plan for "Elysian Park
Heights." The city had already relocated many of the residents of Chavez Ravine when the entire project came to a halt. Fear of communism
was sweeping the United States and loud voices in Los Angeles cried that the housing project smacked of socialism
.
Before construction could begin, the local political climate changed greatly when Norris Poulson
was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1953. Proposed public housing projects like Elysian Park Heights lost most of their support. Following protracted negotiations, the City of Los Angeles was able to purchase the Chavez Ravine property back from the Federal Housing Authority at a drastically reduced price, with the stipulation that the land be used for a public purpose. It wasn't until the baseball referendum Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball, which was approved by Los Angeles voters on June 3, 1958 that the Dodgers were able to acquire 352 acres (1.42 km²) of Chavez Ravine from the City of Los Angeles. (The Dodgers, from 1958 to 1961, played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
.)
Los Angeles-based author Mike Davis, in his controversial, often polemical history of the city, City of Quartz
, describes the process of gradually convincing Chavez Ravine homeowners to sell. In his book Davis asserts that with nearly all of the original Spanish-speaking homeowners initially unwilling to sell, "developers" representing the city and its public housing authority resorted to offering immediate cash payments, distributed through their Spanish-speaking agents. Once the first sales had been completed, it is said that remaining homeowners were offered lesser amounts of money, some speculate to create a community panic of not receiving fair compensation, or of being left as one of the few holdouts. Some residents continued to hold out despite the pressure being placed upon them by such "developers," resulting in the Battle of Chavez Ravine, an unsuccessful ten-year struggle by a small number of remaining residents of Chavez Ravine to maintain control of their property after the substantial majority of the property had been transferred to public ownership during the period in which the city intended to use the land for the Elysian Park Heights public housing project.
In the end, the project died. A few years later, the city made the controversial decision to trade the land to the Brooklyn Dodgers and their owner Walter O'Malley
, in exchange for land around the minor league park Wrigley Field
, in a move to provide incentives for a migration to Los Angeles.
Many cities had been subsidizing sports stadiums in an effort to bring prestige to their cities, and Los Angeles was no exception in that the city provided the land on which Dodger Stadium was built as such a subsidy. But in another sense Dodger Stadium is a very major exception to what occurred in other cities (such as San Francisco) in that construction of Dodger Stadium was financed almost entirely by the Dodgers' private funds, not public revenues. With Chavez Ravine slated to become the site of the new Dodger Stadium, the tiny number of remaining members of the Chavez Ravine community were physically forced to relocate, although they were compensated for their properties at fair market valuations. While some had initially left the neighborhood, voluntarily or involuntarily through either the use of eminent domain or condemnation, a number (quite a small number after about 1954) stayed until the end. Eventually the sheriff's department went in with bulldozers and armed men. A few property holders in the area had actually managed to avoid eminent domain proceedings and they were finally bought out by O'Malley. The final holdout eventually accepted the city's offer of $10,500 for his former home. The homes and streets were razed, the larger community having been destroyed years before in the public housing effort.
were tenants of the Dodgers (1962 through 1965), the Angels referred to the stadium as "Chavez Ravine Stadium" or simply "Chavez Ravine".
Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium, also sometimes called Chavez Ravine, is a stadium in Los Angeles. Located adjacent to Downtown Los Angeles, Dodger Stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers team since 1962...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
It was named after Julian Chavez, a Los Angeles Councilman in the 19th century.
History
Before being cleared for public housing, Chavez Ravine was made up of the three mostly Latino/a communities of La Loma, Palo Verde, and Bishop.1940s
In the 1940s, Chavez Ravine was a poor, though cohesive, Mexican-American community. Many families lived there because of housing discriminationRedlining
Redlining is the practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. The term "redlining" was coined in the late 1960s by John McKnight, a...
in other parts of Los Angeles. With the population of Los Angeles expanding, Chavez Ravine was viewed as a prime, underutilized location. The city began to label the area as "blighted" and thus ripe for redevelopment
Redevelopment
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses.-Description:Variations on redevelopment include:* Urban infill on vacant parcels that have no existing activity but were previously developed, especially on Brownfield land, such as the redevelopment of an industrial site...
. Through a vote, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles
Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles
The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles is the public housing agency for Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1938. There are more than 60 public housing locations in Los Angeles.-History:...
, with the assistance of federal funds from the Housing Act of 1949
Housing Act of 1949
The American Housing Act of 1949 was a landmark, sweeping expansion of the federal role in mortgage insurance and issuance and the construction of public housing...
, was designated the task to construct public housing, in large part to address the severe post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
housing shortage. Prominent architects Richard Neutra
Richard Neutra
Richard Joseph Neutra is considered one of modernism's most important architects.- Biography :Neutra was born in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Vienna, Austria Hungary, on April 8, 1892. He was born into both-Jewish wealthy family...
and Robert Alexander developed a plan for "Elysian Park
Elysian Park, Los Angeles, California
Elysian Park is a park and adjacent neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, California.Encompassing Chavez Ravine where Dodger Stadium is located, Elysian Park is mostly a hillside community that is also home to the Los Angeles Police Academy....
Heights." The city had already relocated many of the residents of Chavez Ravine when the entire project came to a halt. Fear of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
was sweeping the United States and loud voices in Los Angeles cried that the housing project smacked of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
.
1950s
The land for Dodger Stadium was purchased from local owners/inhabitants in the early 1950s by the City of Los Angeles using eminent domain with funds from the Federal Housing Act of 1949. The city had planned to develop the Elysian Park Heights public housing project which included two dozen 13-story buildings and more than 160 two-story townhouses, in addition to newly rebuilt playgrounds and schools.Before construction could begin, the local political climate changed greatly when Norris Poulson
Norris Poulson
C. Norris Poulson served as the 36th Mayor of Los Angeles, California from 1953 to 1961, after having been a California State Assemblyman and then a member of the United States Congress for eight years...
was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1953. Proposed public housing projects like Elysian Park Heights lost most of their support. Following protracted negotiations, the City of Los Angeles was able to purchase the Chavez Ravine property back from the Federal Housing Authority at a drastically reduced price, with the stipulation that the land be used for a public purpose. It wasn't until the baseball referendum Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball, which was approved by Los Angeles voters on June 3, 1958 that the Dodgers were able to acquire 352 acres (1.42 km²) of Chavez Ravine from the City of Los Angeles. (The Dodgers, from 1958 to 1961, played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park, that is home to the Pacific-12 Conference's University of Southern California Trojans football team...
.)
Los Angeles-based author Mike Davis, in his controversial, often polemical history of the city, City of Quartz
City of Quartz
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles is a 1990 book by Mike Davis examining problems facing Los Angeles. The underlying material was originally intended as a Ph.D. submission in completion of the requirements for his history doctorate, but it was rejected...
, describes the process of gradually convincing Chavez Ravine homeowners to sell. In his book Davis asserts that with nearly all of the original Spanish-speaking homeowners initially unwilling to sell, "developers" representing the city and its public housing authority resorted to offering immediate cash payments, distributed through their Spanish-speaking agents. Once the first sales had been completed, it is said that remaining homeowners were offered lesser amounts of money, some speculate to create a community panic of not receiving fair compensation, or of being left as one of the few holdouts. Some residents continued to hold out despite the pressure being placed upon them by such "developers," resulting in the Battle of Chavez Ravine, an unsuccessful ten-year struggle by a small number of remaining residents of Chavez Ravine to maintain control of their property after the substantial majority of the property had been transferred to public ownership during the period in which the city intended to use the land for the Elysian Park Heights public housing project.
In the end, the project died. A few years later, the city made the controversial decision to trade the land to the Brooklyn Dodgers and their owner Walter O'Malley
Walter O'Malley
Walter Francis O'Malley was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from to . He served as Brooklyn Dodgers chief legal counsel when Jackie Robinson broke the racial color barrier in...
, in exchange for land around the minor league park Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field (Los Angeles)
Wrigley Field was a ballpark in Los Angeles, California which served as host to minor league baseball teams in the region for over 30 years, and was the home park for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League as well as a current major league team, the later Los Angeles Angels, in their...
, in a move to provide incentives for a migration to Los Angeles.
Many cities had been subsidizing sports stadiums in an effort to bring prestige to their cities, and Los Angeles was no exception in that the city provided the land on which Dodger Stadium was built as such a subsidy. But in another sense Dodger Stadium is a very major exception to what occurred in other cities (such as San Francisco) in that construction of Dodger Stadium was financed almost entirely by the Dodgers' private funds, not public revenues. With Chavez Ravine slated to become the site of the new Dodger Stadium, the tiny number of remaining members of the Chavez Ravine community were physically forced to relocate, although they were compensated for their properties at fair market valuations. While some had initially left the neighborhood, voluntarily or involuntarily through either the use of eminent domain or condemnation, a number (quite a small number after about 1954) stayed until the end. Eventually the sheriff's department went in with bulldozers and armed men. A few property holders in the area had actually managed to avoid eminent domain proceedings and they were finally bought out by O'Malley. The final holdout eventually accepted the city's offer of $10,500 for his former home. The homes and streets were razed, the larger community having been destroyed years before in the public housing effort.
1960s
During the years when the Los Angeles AngelsLos Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...
were tenants of the Dodgers (1962 through 1965), the Angels referred to the stadium as "Chavez Ravine Stadium" or simply "Chavez Ravine".
See also
- Don A. Allen, Los Angeles City Council member, favored building a zoo and a golf course, as well as a baseball stadium, in the Ravine
- City Council member Harold A. Henry, opposed the contract with the Dodgers
- John C. HollandJohn C. HollandJohn C. Holland was one of the longest-serving Los Angeles City Council members, for 24 years from 1943 to 1967, and was known for his losing fight against bringing the Los Angeles Dodgers to Chavez Ravine and for his reputation as a watchdog over the city treasury.-Biography:Holland was born...
, Los Angeles City Council member, 1943–67, also opposed the pact - Patrick D. McGeePatrick D. McGeePatrick D. McGee was a Republican member of the California State Assembly from 1950 to 1957 and from 1966 until his death in 1970. He was a Los Angeles City Council member from 1957 to 1961, when he opposed the city's agreement to bring the Dodgers baseball team to a new stadium in Chavez...
(1916–70), Los Angeles City Council member who opposed the contract - City Council member L.E. Timberlake, favored the contract
- Ciy Councilwoman Rosalind Wiener WymanRosalind Wiener WymanRosalind Wiener Wyman is a California political figure who was the youngest person ever elected to the Los Angeles City Council and the second woman to serve there. She was influential in bringing the baseball Dodgers from Brooklyn, New York, to their new home in Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles...
, leader of fight to bring the Dodgers to Los Angeles