In 1958 the city of Los Angeles treated Hispanic citizens WORSE than the U.S. Government treated the Indians. In that year the white city government of Los Angeles, threw out hundreds of home owning Hispanics and gave the land to rich white people from New York. We destroyed lives, businesses and more, so the Dodgers would come to Los Angeles. An area set aside for housing was basically given to rich people to make them richer. Oh who did this, led the battle for the rich white people of NY?. Councilwoman Wyman, who’s husband Eugene Wyman was the national finance Chair for the Democrat Party. Once again, Democrats showed their disdain for people of color.
Los Angeles has already begun giving back land and property stolen from black people more than a century ago. Now is the time to close down Dodger Stadium and rebuild the housing promised in the 1950’s. the dodgers could go to the soon to be vacant Oakland stadium—or share a stadium with the Angels in Anaheim. The Dodgers need to apologize to the Hispanic community for their brutalization.
If this is being done for black people, why not Hispanic?
Los Angeles considers reparations for families forced off land where Dodger Stadium stands
A new bill proposes to compensate descendants of families who lived in predominantly Mexican American neighborhoods and were evicted from their homes in Chavez Ravine under eminent domain powers in the 1950s.
By Nicole Acevedo, NBC News, 3/24/24 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/dodgers-stadium-reparations-families-land-california-angeles-rcna145152
Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles is known for being one of the biggest and oldest MLB baseball parks in the country, having hosted 10 World Series and served as a grand entertainment venue for music icons like the Beatles and Elton John.
But before its construction in 1962, the area was home to thousands of residents, many of whom were of Mexican, Chinese and Italian descent. Nearly 1,800 of those families were displaced to build the stadium. State legislators are now considering a bill seeking reparations for the families.
Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo of Los Angeles on Friday introduced the Chavez Ravine Accountability Act — “offering a path toward historical accountability, reparative measures, and a permanent memorial,” according to her office.
Known today as Chavez Ravine, the 315 acres of land between the San Gabriel Mountains and downtown Los Angeles were once home to three predominantly Mexican American neighborhoods: Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop.
In 1950, the land was earmarked “as a prime location for redevelopment,” prompting city officials to send letters demanding Chavez Ravine residents and property owners sell their homes to make way for a public housing project, according to the bill. At the time, the city promised displaced families they would be able to return to the community and live “in the newly redeveloped housing project.”
That promise was never fulfilled.
Public housing plans for the Chavez Ravine area were abandoned in 1958 in favor of building the baseball stadium.
Previous efforts to block its construction led more than 650,000 registered voters in Los Angeles to participate in a 1957 plebiscite deciding the stadium’s fate, according to the Library of Congress.
With 62.3% voter turnout, it became the largest non-presidential election in Los Angeles at the time, and voters ultimately sided with the Dodgers’ plan to build their stadium.
More Chavez Ravine residents were evicted in 1959 “amid screaming, crying and cursing” as bulldozers cleared the site where their homes used to stand, newspaper clippings from the time show.
The Dodgers debuted in their new stadium in April 1962.
Aurora Vargas, Melissa Arechiga’s aunt, was among those evicted residents.
Arechiga, alongside other descendants of the displaced Chavez Ravine families, founded the nonprofit group Buried Under the Blue, which seeks to raise awareness about this history.
“Today marks the start of the journey to correct the injustices that were done to the people of Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop,” Arechiga said at a news conference Friday. “We must hold all city, state and federal agencies accountable for their part in the destruction of the three communities — plus stealing all the future generations from their wealth as owners and renters.”
“The stories of the three communities can never be told without us,” added Arechiga, whose family’s displacement was well-documented.
Carrillo’s bill specifically proposes that the city of Los Angeles create a task force to compensate the displaced families or their descendants. The proposed forms of compensation include offers of city-owned land or fair-market-value compensation. Dodger Stadium rushed to completion for the opening of baseball season on April 10, 1962.
The measure, supported by state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, also calls for building a permanent memorial honoring affected families and creating a searchable database that details the history of the land acquisition.
Carrillo said the database would be essential to verify which families were displaced.
Her office also emphasized that the bill “focuses solely on the displaced community of Chavez Ravine” and does not request involvement from Dodger Stadium or the baseball team that plays there.
Carrillo said the measure will be heard in the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee but did not specify when.
After it moves through the Assembly, the bill must go before the state Senate before it lands on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
I am certain that at least some of the affected people are still living so I would be more in tune with giving them money than I would with somebody who was a descendent, 10th time removed from a slave from 175 years ago. But, very conveniently, the article left out the part that the people were paid for their property, and most likely were paid more than the going rate at the time.