A Letter to the new Dodger Management re transit accessibility at Dodger Stadium. Please feel free to copy it, and send your own to Stan Kasten at fanbox@ladodgers.com.
Dodger Stadium is a transcendent place. Those who know baseball, know its curving wings, its view of the mountains, and its gentle sunsets.
This year is the stadium’s 50th birthday, and it should rightly be celebrated. But while the stadium itself holds up beautifully for something half a century old, the experience of getting to and from the stadium does not. Los Angeles has a vibrant and growing downtown filled with new skyscrapers, yet Dodger Stadium is still mainly geared toward the car. When the stadium was being built, we were building freeways, but today we’re building rail lines.
Guggenheim Baseball Management needs to bring Dodger Stadium into the city. For too long, it’s been an island in a sea of parking lots. The easiest fix would be to give priority lanes to the Dodger Express shuttle bus. This would enable more people to get to the stadium faster, and would improve the fan experience all around. Any revenue lost from parking fees would be gained back from improved fan satisfaction and fan attendance.
Improved pedestrian and bike facilities would also greatly enhance the game experience. The stadium has become part of the fabric of Chavez Ravine, and should be more easily accessible from the surrounding neighborhoods. People will walk to the game if you make the experience safe and pleasant.
Finally, enhanced connections with the local rail network should be explored. The city and county are there to help if the Dodgers are willing to reach out. Only a few percent of Dodger fans switching to transit would drastically improve traffic flow, and reduce the game-day impact on the local community. The layout of Dodger Stadium should be designed for Dodger fans, not just for their cars.
Help Dodger Stadium last another fifty years by reconnecting it to a changing Los Angeles.
A Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.
Dodger Stadium.
The WPA Guide really is a gem.
I’m starting a new feature on my site and I’m calling it “Three by Three”.
Three great websites, three great books. That’s it.
The focus? History, geography, planning, architecture, and other things that fall into my roundhouse of urbanology.
I’m going to start with America’s Second City…
There was some great news today for those who are looking forward to a more livable Los Angeles. Perhaps still on a post-CicLAvia high, the mayor has decided to trump his bike share initiative with a ringing endorsement of a Measure R+.
But I don’t think that’s what I’ll remember years from now. Instead, I will remember hearing a sponsorship spot on KCRW that advertised the Helms Bakery shopping complex as just a block away from the Expo Line. That’s right, a popular shopping and eating complex on the westside of Los Angeles is advertising its location by referring to a rail line that isn’t even operational yet. Amazing.
Can you imagine what will happen when Expo actually opens? I can’t wait to find out.
CicLAvia is incredible. It’s 100,000+ people in the center of Los Angeles and not a car in sight. It has to be seen to be believed, and it’s happening again soon. Yes, it’s about bicycles, but it’s also about people, and getting them engaged again with the city around them.
Cities belong to those who love them the most, and CicLAvia inspires a lot of love. It is a shock to the system— a one day reset to a status quo where everyday life for many is being stuck in a car. It blows right through a host of outdated preconceptions about how we interact with our urban environment. Even for those in love with their vehicle, after you’ve been to a CicLAvia, it doesn’t seem odd to cycle down to the bar to meet a few friends, or to walk to the grocery store instead of drive.
For many, CicLAvia is also an opportunity to see Downtown Los Angeles and its surrounding neighborhoods with new eyes. These are distinct and wonderful neighborhoods that are places to enjoy rather than simply drive through. You’ll hear parents tell their kids that they haven’t been to Downtown in years, but now they want to come back, and that they want to take another weekend trip on the Gold Line. You’ll hear people rediscovering their city. And once that happens, they want to do more, see more, and take ownership of their surroundings.
CicLAvia is Los Angeles at its best: showcasing the diversity and uniqueness of its people and neighborhoods while simultaneously knitting them together. CicLAvia is incredible, it’s coming soon, and it needs your help.
Donate now! The Kickstarter ends today: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cicLAvia/ciclavia-2012
See also, a great post at LA Streetsblog http://la.streetsblog.org/2012/04/04/ciclavia-needs-your-help-pledge-your-support-on-kick-starter/
and at Steven White’s blog http://steven-white.com/2012/04/04/ciclavia-experience-your-city/.
Thanks to Steven White for coaxing out a written post.
Orchid in San Marino.
Eric Garcetti holds forth, telling it like it is.
On the set of Jessie.
