"But others say Metro Rail will not be heavily used by poor people because it will not take them where they want to go--to jobs scattered throughout the Los Angeles area," The Times' William Trombley wrote.
"The traffic patterns of low-income blacks and Hispanics are diffused," said George W. Hilton, professor of economics at UCLA. "They are highly auto-dependent and are likely to remain so in the foreseeable future." Hilton also said: "We aren't going to run out of fossil fuels. There's no economic point in finding more than a 20-year supply at one one time. As prices rise, other sources will be found."
Mr. Modular was working on these pages. They look like bento boxes.
Well, of course, the subways work in Los Angeles, but nobody knew it in 1984. Tunneling beneath the city was not without problems, as anyone who recalls the partial collapse of Hollywood Boulevard during construction of the Red Line will remember.
And people with long memories will recall that traffic congestion during the 1984 Olympics was much less than expected.
The 1984 Olympics united Southern California residents over a familiar topic--traffic.
Bob Pool's story focused on concerns in the San Fernando Valley with
the Games starting in less than a month. "We're going to have problems
if 70% of the people going to the Olympics don't take the bus. If 50%
of them go by car, we're going to have total gridlock," David C. Royer,
senior Los Angeles city transportation engineer for the Valley, West
Los Angeles and LAX, told a group of Encino homeowners.
The worries weren't limited to the Valley, of course. Events were
scheduled across the Southland so if you lived somewhere in Southern
California, you were planning for the worst-case scenario.
Royer said residents should ask their employers for flexible working
hours during the Olympics and people with tickets should start
reserving seats on RTD buses.
Bishop Timothy Manning of Fresno is coming to Los Angeles. After his death in 1989, he will be repeatedly cited in allegations that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles covered up priests' sexual abuse cases. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said Manning had no written guidelines for handling reports of molestation.
A witness says police searching for a freeway sniper killed Donald Lee Oughton without giving him a chance. During the incident, Kennedy apparently shot O'Malley in the hand, The Times said.
Oughton had a speech impediment and was believed to have been reaching for a card explaining his disability when he was killed. The coroner's jury split on the verdict, with two members saying the death was the result of criminal action.
The district attorney declined to charge Officers Norman O'Malley and Henry Kennedy, calling the death "tragic and regrettable." His mother brought a $1-million suit against the city of Los Angeles, but The Times never reported the outcome.
Photograph by Larry Sharkey / Los Angeles Times
June 12, 1964: Willie Davis jumps out of the way as Maury Wills tries to steal home in the 7th inning. Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver makes the tag. The umpre is Ed Vargo.
Times file photo
Nov. 1, 1965: Abbe Lane and Maury Wills -- with banjo.
Maury Wills was back with the Dodgers.
"I can't describe this feeling. It is the Dodger blue, this No. 30,"
said Wills, acquired from the Montreal Expos along with Manny Mota for
Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich.
The deal had been rumored for some time as Wills struggled in
Montreal. He got into a scuffle with a reporter, then decided to retire
and then un-retired. "My greatest regret in leaving Montreal is that I
never did show them how I could play the game. I'm sorry about that ...
but I will not let Los Angeles down, you can be sure of it," he said.
Wills had become a star in the Dodgers' early years in Los Angeles,
a six-time all star and the National League's most valuable player in
1962 largely because of his then-record 104 stolen bases. He even
played the banjo and made appearances on TV and in clubs. But he was
traded after the 1966 season when he left the team without permission
during a trip to Japan. He played two seasons in Pittsburgh and then
was taken by Montreal in the expansion draft.
He had a solid season back in L.A., hitting .297 with 25 stolen bases in 104 games.
The Times, June 10, 1909: Alice Ramsey sets off on her cross-country tour to promote the Maxwell Model 30 DA.
April 14, 1909: Maxwell also promoted the 1909 Model DA with a nonstop drive through New England. Like many autos of this era, the Maxwell was not a fuel-efficient vehicle and got 14.8 miles per gallon on this run, according to The Times, May 9, 1909.
The 1909 Maxwell Model DA at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Adjusted for inflation, the car cost $44,982,22.
Emily Anderson of Seattle is setting out from New York on June 9 to re-create the cross-country trip made by Alice Ramsey in 1909 to promote the Maxwell Model DA touring car.
Anderson is making the trip in a car that her father, Rich, assembled from pieces of other Maxwells in a project that began in 2005.
According to Anderson's website, they only found one existing Model DA. The owner was unwilling to sell, but he provided a frame so they could build one from scavenged parts, with machinists fabricating the missing pieces. (Ever try to find an exhaust manifold for a 1909 Maxwell?)
June 6, 1909: Women drivers were inevitably "pretty" according to The Times. Mrs. Col. Robert Northam learned to drive a Baker electric car in an hour and in three weeks became as skillful as the best chauffeurs.
Anderson's trip highlights the subject of women drivers. There were enough of them to be listed in an Aug 8, 1909, Times article, which noted that Adele Smith "has distinguished herself by making the run from Lordsburg into the city in one hour and twenty minutes."
"Women are usually cautious drivers, are watchful of the speed limitations and have few accidents and almost no casualties. They enjoy the sport to the fullest," The Times said.
Photo courtesy of Aliceramsey.org
Aug. 8, 1909: Alice Ramsey arrives in San Francisco.
At left, Emily Anderson and the Maxwell.
Feb. 19, 1961: Ramsey is featured in The Times. (Modular layouts were obviously not a concern in 1961).
"Iowa was the worst experience on the trip as far as weather and lack of roads. We broke a rear axle there and one afternoon made only 13 miles," she said. "The cross-country trip already had been made by men. I'm not pioneer enough to have attempted it if it hadn't been done," she said.
Above, Ramsey's obituary, Sept. 13, 1983. She was 96.
At left, March 5, 1971, The Times interviews Ramsey about her trip.
"My husband never rode if he could walk," she said. "It wasn't that he was afraid. It was just that he was of another generation. He was much older than I and died in 1933. John just never cared much for the automobile or wanted to learn to drive one, the same as I don't want to go to the moon."
Ramsey made many cross-country trips after her historic trek and in the late 1960s, traveled 11,000 miles touring the U.S.
She said: "Good driving has nothing to do with sex. It's all above the collar."
Beatnik robbers tell victim to "play it cool." Woof, Daddy-o.
Above, another mass-transit plan that never got off the drawing board.
All right, you kids, no more chopped and channeled five-window coupes, understand? And no more lowered front ends on your T-buckets! Next, we're going after your Glass Packs.
Nice headline -- does that mean some women aren't upset?
Above, FBI agents give the governor of Mississippi the names of about 10 men involved in the lynching of African American truck driver Mack Charles Parker.
Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike addresses a Planned Parenthood meeting and calls California's laws against birth control unconstitutional.
At left, my kind of story. The Assembly sends the Highway Patrol to track down legislators who skipped their session on the last day they got paid. Among the missing is Assemblyman Sam Yorty, who reported later in the day.
There's a follow-up on anti-Semitic groups in the U.S. and purported plots to take over the government.
In Italy, mobs shout "On to Paris!" and crowds at the Tall Corn Exposition in Marshalltown, Iowa, are terrified when an ape escapes from a carnival and runs through the streets before being captured in a hardware store.
The Yankee Clipper, which can carry 35 passengers, begins service to Europe.
Ed Ainsworth takes a look at back at six years of columns.
At right, Los Angeles is reading "The Grapes of Wrath," "All This, and Heaven, Too" and "Reaching for the Stars."
Jews and Arabs fight with the British in the Holy Land. View this page
There's a mile-long table for Ontario's All States Picnic. View this page
"Only Angels Have Wings" is opening.
Hollywood is ruled by fear of criticism, failure, public opinion and whispering campaigns, Hedda Hopper says. View this page
Here's some interesting background on the interchange where Glendale Boulevard turns into 2nd Street west of downtown. Evidently much of the bridge was buried but the caption is a bit unclear as to the reasons. Note that the artist is Charles Owens of Nuestro Pueblo.
Still another attempt to ease traffic in Los Angeles: A bridge is built to help turn Olympic Boulevard into a thoroughfare across the city.
Gaaah! What were they thinking? No wonder these were on sale!
This Sunday paper is an alarming time capsule with fear and anxiety on every page, plus a little sex here and there. At left, "What We Must Know About Communism" is No. 3 on the nonfiction bestseller list. Then there's "Doctor Zhivago," "The Ugly American," "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and "Lolita."
Below, a typical theme of the era. Rudolf Flesch responds to an article in the Saturday Evening Post (a relic that was once found in most middle-class homes) about the likelihood of World War III, which usually broke down as the "free world" versus the "communist empire."
Vice President Richard Nixon leads New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in a Gallup poll of likely GOP presidential candidates.
Conspiracies in America's past!
Iraq -- and all that oil -- may go to the communists!
America forgets its veterans! Traffic is terrible! Landlords are jerks! We're cutting at home and sending money to foreigners!
... cars are NOT all about sex ...
... and smut is corrupting young America!
The Times runs articles on two local religious figures in the Sunday paper. But what figures! Aimee Semple McPherson and Manly Palmer Hall! I should mention a book by my friend and colleague, Louis Sahagun, on Hall. Check it out.
And check here for Lately Thomas' "Vanishing Evangelist."
The state of women's history in the 1950s: a feature on Ma Barker.
Gloria Vanderbilt vs. Leopold Stokowski!
What if "Gorgo" was set in Paris instead of London?
Herb "Hy" Gardner's "The Nebbishes," a foreshadowing of the dismal state of comics' artwork yet to come. Fortunately, the strip was soon canceled and he put his time to better use writing "A Thousand Clowns."
Photograph by George R. Fry Jr. / Los Angeles Times
May 8, 1959: Councilman Edward R. Roybal meets with the Arechiga family at Curtis Street and Malvina Avenue, where they camped out in their fight against being evicted from Chavez Ravine.
Photograph by Harry Chase / Los Angeles Times
Sept. 16, 1959: Groundbreaking for Dodger Stadium.
Eric Avila is an associate professor of Chicano studies, history and urban planning at UCLA. His book, "Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight," deals in part with the Dodgers’ decision to move to Los Angeles and the construction of Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. He answered questions about the Dodgers and Chavez Ravine in an e-mail interview with Keith Thursby.
1. How did you start studying Chavez Ravine and the Dodgers' move?
I realized that Dodger Stadium was another component of this new suburban culture that was taking shape in L.A. during the postwar period. Along with shopping malls, television, theme parks, movies, Dodger Stadium emerged as one of the new cultural institutions that defined the identity of Los Angeles during the 1950s. Thus, I saw the need to include it in my book.
2. There's a wonderful passage in your book from a former Chavez Ravine resident describing life there before many of the residents were moved out for a housing project that never happened: "There were dances in the churchyard. Pageants held in the streets. Weddings in which the whole community joyously participated." Reading The Times' coverage in 1958-59 provides no idea what the community was like at that point. Can you describe life for the remaining residents. How many people were still fighting the Dodgers' planned move?
Photograph by Hackley / Los Angeles Mirror-News
Jan. 9, 1952: Homes being cleared from Chavez Ravine.
It's not surprising to me that the Times didn't cover the conditions of community life in the Chavez Ravine during the 1950s, except to emphasize that the ravine was a worthless piece of land -- a "junkyard," I think it called that neighborhood -- in need of redevelopment. But it's important to remember that by the time the Dodgers had agreed to move to Los Angeles, most of the residents of the ravine had already moved out, based on an earlier promise from the city that public housing was going to be built in the area. I can only speculate on their disappointment when they learned that the project was canceled, fueled by the later discovery that the city was going to subsidize O'Malley's bid to build a stadium on the site. And that was the crux of the opposition to the "Sweetheart deal" between O'Malley and City Hall: that the city reneged on its promise to build housing for poor people because government-subsidized housing was "socialistic," then turned around and subsidized (Walter) O'Malley's bid to build a stadium in the area (I spell out the terms of that deal in my book). Many Angelenos saw that as pure hypocrisy (and it very much reminds me of current accusations of "socialism" in the U.S.).
3. How would you describe the role of The Times?
The Los Angeles Times wholeheartedly endorsed the plan to build a stadium in Chavez Ravine, and mocked the plight of the Arechiga family as staged theatrics. Over and over again, the LAT emphasized the imperative to build Dodger Stadium in the ravine -- this was after it denounced public housing as a "socialist scheme" -- and it played upon local fears that if the public did not approve the construction of Dodger Stadium, that the Dodgers would pack up and go back to New York. Basically, The Times initially played upon local Cold War anxieties to defeat the proposal to build public housing in the ravine, and then became the biggest cheerleader for bringing the Dodgers to Chavez Ravine.
4. The campaign for the stadium included the passage of Proposition B, which approved the Dodgers' deal with the city. How did the city leaders approach that campaign and what did you think of the tactics that were used?
The city and The Times used scare tactics to the effect of "if you don't vote for Proposition B, then the Dodgers will leave L.A. and find another city more willing to accommodate their interests." No evidence of this, of course, but that's how The Times advocated its side of the controversy. What many people don't realize is that Proposition B passed by a narrow margin: Many people did not approve of the deal between the city and the Dodgers, as they felt that the city was giving away too much to bring the Dodgers to L.A. In other words, the Dodgers arrived amidst a great deal of controversy and by no means was there any kind of consensus about their arrival in Southern California.
5. You linked the building of Dodger Stadium to the development of high culture in neighboring Bunker Hill. Can you explain the connection?
As far as I can tell, the Times -- historically a major proprietor of downtown real estate and business -- was invested in boosting the centrality of downtown, especially in light of the rapid suburbanization that was occurring in the larger urban region. Thus, both the Music Center and the stadium were central to downtown revitalization -- one would attract wealthy elites and the other would attract middle and working class consumers. It was all about their geographic proximity to the downtown core.
6. We're approaching the anniversary of the Arechiga family evictions. What were the longer-term implications of those evictions, which many people outside Los Angeles saw on television?
The long-term reverberations of the evictions left a residue of bitterness among many local Mexican Americans, who remember a much longer history of displacement and dispossession in California and the U.S. West. For many of these people, the televised spectacle of this Mexican family being forcibly evicted from their homes resonated within a larger historical context of the American conquest of Mexico and the subordination of Mexican Americans within a new political, economic and racial order.
7. How did the Dodgers' move to Los Angeles fit in the cultural changes happening in the region in the late '50s and early '60s?
This essentially is what my book is about, so I can't recite the entire argument for you here, but basically, Dodger Stadium was another component of a new suburban culture that took shape in Southern California that catered to white middle class suburban consumers who sought safe, convenient and controlled cultural experiences that were removed from the historic diversity and perceived dangers of the city. Disneyland, shopping malls, freeways were all part of this new suburban culture. True, Dodger Stadium was in the heart of the city, but it was a self-contained island of sports entertainment (defined at the time as "wholesome family entertainment"), lodged upon a hilltop ravine, insulated by a massive parking lot and easily accessed by the new freeways.
Photograph by Steve Fontanini / Los Angeles Times
May 2, 1964: A large crowd packs into Dodger Stadium for a Sunday afternoon game. It looks like every parking spot is taken.
8. Let's talk about another scenario. What do you think the Dodgers would have done if they were somehow not able to play in Chavez Ravine? What might have become of the area and the people still living there? And would the Dodgers playing somewhere other than Chavez Ravine been better for the region in the long run?
Before Walter O'Malley announced his decision to move his team to L.A., he quietly purchased some 11 acres of land in South-Central L.A. which included, I believe, an old baseball diamond known as Wrigley Field. Initially, there was some speculation that O'Malley would build his stadium there. And in fact, the African American community--loyal fans of Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers -- expressed its great hope that the Dodgers would settle somewhere in the vicinity of South-Central L.A. The city, however, boosted by the cheerleading of the L.A. Times, proposed what was essentially a gift of the Chavez Ravine (since it had already been cleared initially for a defunct public housing project) to O'Malley, which O'Malley accepted in exchange for the 11 acres in South-Central, much to the chagrin of the black community. The huge irony of course is that now there is some talk about moving the Dodgers out of the ravine somewhere closer to downtown to build one those retro ballparks that are in fashion now, which likely could have been Wrigley Field in South-Central LA. All the makings were there, but instead the city and The Times opted for the Chavez Ravine. As for the community that occupied the ravine prior to its clearance for public housing, I suppose it may very well have become gentrified in the way that Echo Park has become in recent years. Imagine a craftsman home in the heart of Elysian Park!
Larry Harnisch. The leading Black Dahlia expert and a collaborator in the 1947project, Harnisch has been a copy editor at The Times since 1988. He has appeared on many TV shows discussing the Dahlia case, notably "James Ellroy's Feast of Death."
Join him for a spin through old Los Angeles in the Mirror's radio car. Keep your eyes open for Mickey Cohen and Tempest Storm. It's quite a ride.
The reporter's badge belonged to Sid Hughes (1908-1958), legendary reporter who worked at nearly every newspaper in Los Angeles.
Keith Thursby. Keith has been an editor at The Times in news, sports and design since 1986. The Rams moved to St. Louis on his first day as assistant sports editor of the paper's Orange County edition. He grew up in Norwalk and lives in Irvine.
Subscribe to this Blog - What is RSS?
Larry Harnisch. The leading Black Dahlia expert and a collaborator in the 1947project, Harnisch has been a copy editor at The Times since 1988. He has appeared on many TV shows discussing the Dahlia case, notably "James Ellroy's Feast of Death."
Join him for a spin through old Los Angeles in the Mirror's radio car. Keep your eyes open for Mickey Cohen and Tempest Storm. It's quite a ride.
The reporter's badge belonged to Sid Hughes (1908-1958), legendary reporter who worked at nearly every newspaper in Los Angeles.
Keith Thursby. Keith has been an editor at The Times in news, sports and design since 1986. The Rams moved to St. Louis on his first day as assistant sports editor of the paper's Orange County edition. He grew up in Norwalk and lives in Irvine.