Dodgers Opening Day Today

Photo: Joan Stevenson, 2015.  Expect traffic on the local freeways and streets (including Riverside Drive), loud stereos and a blimp or two, starting as early as 9AM for the game that starts at 1:10 PM.  If you don't need to drive through Elysian Park any time today, take another route into downtown.

Read more on parking restrictions and road closures: The Eastsider 

Dodger Stadium: Mother of All Grading Projects (with photo from 1960)

Corralitas Drive: Dodgers Opening Day, Today

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 18, 2013.  Corralitas Drive residents who face the 2 & 5 Freeways don't have a whole lot of love for the Dodgers, especially on Opening Day, when the traffic and loud radios on the freeways can start as early as 10 AM for a 1 PM game. 

Riverside Dr, Fletcher Dr, Allesandro St, Glendale Blvd: Expect Gridlock & Attempts At Cut-Through Traffic On All Our Neighborhood Streets

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 13, 2013. During Saturday's tanker fire road closures, despite clearly marked "Not A Through Street Signs" (like this one at Rosebud Ave at Allesandro Street), countless drivers attempted to cut through, only to find themselves on the winding hillside street of Corralitas Drive, from which there is no easy turn around.(Click on photos to enlarge.)

CalTrans announced Freeway closures will continue through at least Tuesday.  Read more: The Eastsider

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 13, 2013.  Traffic mayhem ensues when drivers attempt to make u-turns, left turns & right turns, all at once, each hoping they'll find a way through on our hillside streets, like the photo above (which is looking across Allesandro Street to the other side of Rosebud). It too is not a through street but it lacks a sign.  (Not that the signs actually stopped many drivers.)  

While we chatted on the street, a neighbor & I yelled at drivers to stop & turn around before driving up the hill.  That mostly worked. She turned her hose on a few cars too.  That got their attention. 

Neighbors on Silver Ridge & Lake View report drivers speeding through their streets attempting to cut through the neighborhood Saturday.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 13, 2013.  The intersection of the 2 & 5 Freeways is like a roller coaster maze of ramps, seen here from the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract.  

Saturday, I emailed a list of suggestions to City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell of where to place City traffic officers & barricades (restricting local traffic only on side streets) through our corridor.  I know he also met with all of the involved agencies and leaders from Elysian Valley Sunday.  Let's hope traffic control was one of the topics on the agenda.  Monday sounds like a good day to call in sick.

At least there are no Dodgers home games until July 25th!

Dodger Stadium Opening Day: No April Fool's Joke. No Traffic On The 2 Freeway, No Air Traffic

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 1, 2013, 12:18 PM.  The 2 Freeway southbound at Rosebud Ave overpass was wide open all morning.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

When you work at home, you usually have to plan around Opening Day for Dodger Stadium, even though we're about a mile north of the stadium.  Traffic on Riverside Drive usually backs up as far north as Allesandro Elementary School. 

The 2 Freeway is usually backed up starting at 8 AM 'til game time around 1 PM.  You know it's Dodger traffic because the commuters don't usually play their car stereos with house rattling bass, so loud you can sing along from 8o' above the freeway. 

If you live on the southbound side of the 2 Freeway, the exhaust fumes are stifling on opening day from hours of standstill traffic. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 1, 2013, 12:17 PM.  Even the 5 Freeway southbound at the Newell overpass was moving most of the day until about 11:30 AM.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 1, 2013.  Blimp over Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. 

 

Last year we were overwhelmed by air traffic; by 8 AM, there were already lots of small planes, many trailing advertising, the Goodyear Blimp and news helicopters created an almost war zone in the skies above Elysian Heights, Elysian Valley, Echo Park and our edge of Silver Lake. The aerial onslaught continued all day. 

This year, I saw 2 small planes close to game time and the Goodyear Blimp was the only advertising vehicle.  They even seemed to change the usual military jet flyover pattern.  I heard jets, but never saw them.   

Thank you Dodgers for finally appearing to take the community's complaints seriously after 50 years.  I'm sure The Eastsider will cover happenings closer to Dodger Stadium today.

Dodger Stadium: Mother Of All Grading Projects

Photo: Antonio Futterer, Holyland Exhibition Collection, 1960. With all the talk about large grading projects in the neighborhood lately,  I thought it was time to run this Dodger Stadium grading photo.  Thanks to Scott Fajack of the Citizen's Committee to Save Elysian Park for identifying the streets in this Elysian Park photo.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

It's hard to imagine that this was only the beginning of grading for Dodger Stadium.  Paducah Street was one of the streets completely filled in with 8 million cubic yards of earth for Dodger Stadium (Wiki).  At the end of Paducah Street was Palo Verde Elementary, reportedly buried in place. 

The bottom corner of the (above) dirt mound would be the corner of Lilac Terrace & Stadium Way today.  In some places, the fill dirt was 100 feet deep.

There were likely no air quality restrictions or dust control measures on the site.  California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was not signed into law until 1970. 

It's unlikely any project substantially altering canyons to this extent would get approved today, without years of litigation.  Although, with the current political climate in the City & State, it is good to remember just how important public review of development proposals really is.

Photo: Scott Fajack, March 13, 2012.  It's hard to match the 1960 photo, but houses on Boylston are in the far left, beyond the parking lot.  (The corner of Paducah & Chavez Ravine Road would be over the edge, in the foreground, where the shadow drops off.) 

Both photos were shot from White Knoll Drive above Figueroa Terrace looking north - northeast.

Recommended reading (with a historic map of the area overlayed on a current satellite photo): The Ravine, SolanoCanyon.net

History of Chavez Ravine, Independent Lens on pbs.org 

Chavez Ravine Revisited, LA Times, May 12, 2009 (includes a great Harry Chase 1959 bulldozing photo) 

Opening Day at Dodger Stadium is today.  Gates open at 10 AM, expect traffic everywhere around the Stadium including the 2 Freeway, Riverside Drive & Allesandro most of the day.  Game starts at 1:10 PM, expect a military flyover at 1 PM. 

Check The Eastsider for important news and community impacts of Opening Day.

Follow Citizen's Committee to Save Elysian Park (CCESP) on Facebook.

Special thanks to Scott Fajack for research on this post.  It's not easy to fill in the canyons in the photos and understand what you're looking at.