Once the Battle of Chavez Ravine, as it came to be known, was won, it wouldn't take long for the city to come around and enjoy the new Dodgers enterprise. As Jerald Podair describes in his history of the Dodgers' move west, the tumult over the ballpark was where L.A. chose to set the "arc of its civic trajectory." While the referendum to reject O'Malley's proposal lost by only 25,785 votes, today, Dodger Stadium ranks among the highest annual attendance rates in the league. Yet, for many, if such outsize structures meant little to the working class and working poor, they could also be thought to offend them as well.Attempts to modernize American cities through the construction and development of professional sporting complexes have, in a few notable instances, adversely affected minority and marginalized communities.
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Concerned Angelenos have an activist arm in the NOlympics LA group which contends that the city has saddled its citizens with the potentially massive fiscal and social liability without as much as an economic and budgeting impact analysis. In the same report, Jed Parriott, an organizer for the group, said, "The whole process feels like a giveaway to the IOC [International Olympic Committee]."Among NOlympics' platform are calls for affordable housing, better police-community relations, and a more transparent public discourse, which, 2,173 miles away in Atlanta, is the concern of local community organizations there as well. Contending against expansive stadium-building, some Atlantans are seeking a civic insurance policy of sorts.
For local residents, some of whom camped out in a "tent city" in protest, they saw the former home of the Braves as an impassive structure that separated their neighborhoods from the rest of the city and whose savannah of asphalt parking lots exacerbated floodwater runoff. Following the GSU acquisition, groups such as The Turner Field Community Benefits Coalition spied an opportunity for the revitalization of their middle- and working-class communities that could be on terms they deemed equitable.The university still has plenty of construction to complete. Meanwhile, the denizens of Summerhill, Peoplestown, Mechanicsville, and Pittsburgh wait and see what comes next.
"On the whole, this is a big change and change is scary. We want to get it right," said Nelson, who aims to work with community leaders such as John A. Colabelli, president of Organized Neighbors of Summerhill, who echoed that sentiment in a statement he shared with me: "Our view is that change is coming and not all change is bad. We choose to work proactively with the forces of change for the best possible outcomes to the neighborhood."It's not necessarily about a seat at the ballgame as it is about a seat at the table.
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Carter plans to hold quarterly development meetings for the next eight years, underscoring their commitment to developing the some 26 acres they own around Georgia State Stadium in a way that "ensures everyone involved feels like they can be part of the process." Currently, Nelson told me, the initial plan for numerous student housing buildings has been adjusted to promote more retail and commercial businesses—including a brewery and coffee shops—for public enjoyment.
"I remain a skeptic," Dozier said. "I've seen what's been promised." He's running against an entrenched incumbent and a ballot that will count enough would-be candidates to nearly field a baseball team. With the election on November 7, Dozier, though, is patient and has developed a platform inspired by the issues he fought for during the stadium redevelopment conflict to provide a bulwark against outside pressures so that he and the constituency can decide what type of city they want.While Atlanta continues it's costly move to an outward facing modernity—having just premiered the nearby Mercedes-Benz Stadium, whose owner has offered funds to "effect real change" in the nearby neighborhoods—Detroit, Las Vegas, Oakland, San Francisco, and D.C. are engaged in stadium building ventures.The idea of the city is like Janus, of two dispositions. It both serves and governs. By this point, the arc of these cities' civic trajectories seems to come to a fork in the road: develop and gentrify or look in your proverbial backyard and to the folks on the margins. The days of a Fenway or a Wrigley, two historic ballparks that are part of the fabric of their Boston and Chicago hometowns, embedded into them like an artful roof cornice or original tin molding, are largely over. Sports complexes are investments for bona fide entertainment and retail districts now. In his emailed statement, the MLB spokesman also provided a few quotes from Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred including this one about the Braves' new, luxe suburban home: "There has never been something this massive around a baseball stadium and it's really an accomplishment."Sports complexes are investments for bona fide entertainment and retail districts now.