It's Wednesday. Why Los Angeles families are trying to reclaim the land beneath Dodger Stadium. Plus, can reparations bring Black residents back to San Francisco? |
 | | The land that Dodger Stadium was built on was once home to hundreds of families, most of them Latino, who were displaced by the city in the 1950s.Meg Oliphant for The New York Times |
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The Los Angeles Dodgers have one of the largest Latino fan bases in Major League Baseball — a reflection of Los Angeles's population, but also of the team's active recruitment of Latino fans over the past half-century. |
In 1979, the team signed the star Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, setting off a craze known as "Fernandomania." The Dodgers also brought in the first full-time Spanish-language broadcast in the major leagues. Walking into Dodger Stadium these days, you're almost instantly met with the sound of Spanish. |
But there's an irony to the widespread Latino love for the team: The land that the stadium was built on, now commonly known as Chavez Ravine, was once home to hundreds of families, most of them Latino, who were displaced by the city in the 1950s. Now some of them want their land back. |
My colleague Jesus Jiménez recently reported on this tension and the growing call for reparations from descendants of the people who lived where Dodger Stadium was built. |
Jesus told me that he initially wanted to write about how the Dodgers had managed to cultivate such a huge Latino fan base — the crowds at Dodger Stadium are notably more diverse than at most ballparks — and how that love for the team extended far beyond the Southland. (Jesus said some of his relatives living in Mexico were die-hard Dodgers fans.) |
But as he began to report, he learned more about the displacement. The building of Dodger Stadium, now home to one of the richest baseball teams in the world, represents a painful chapter in history for many Los Angeles Latino families. |
"That prompted a new line of reporting: How does a team with one of the largest Latino fan bases in M.L.B. wrestle with the history of the land they play on? And can those displaced ever get their land back?" Jesus told me. |
The story of the displacement is not new, but the call for reparations has recently been bolstered by land-back movements that have gained momentum across California. |
"We know we're going uphill," said Vincent Montalvo, whose grandparents were born and raised in Palo Verde, one of the lost Chavez Ravine communities. Montalvo helped start Buried Under the Blue, a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise awareness about the residents of Palo Verde and the other two lost neighborhoods, La Loma and Bishop. |
Montalvo added, "But we also know this: There's a time right now in politics, both up and down the state, about reparations." |
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 | | Dancers and their supporters during a picket outside the Star Garden, a strip club in North Hollywood.Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times |
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- Union fight: A group of strippers and the North Hollywood club they worked at have reached an agreement that will pave the way for the dancers to join the century-old actors' and stage managers' union, Actors' Equity Association.
- Covid repercussions: People who were denied pandemic unemployment benefits are caught in the middle between a state employment agency and an appeals system with a dense backlog, making it hard to receive economic help, CalMatters reports.
- Wildfires: Almost 40 percent of forest areas burned by wildfire in the western United States in the last 40 years can be attributed to carbon emissions, The Los Angeles Times reports.
- Bird flu vaccine: Federal officials have granted emergency approval to a bird flu vaccine for use in California condors, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced.
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- Banker deflects blame: In his first public remarks since Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, the bank's former chief executive cast blame on regulators, the news media, his board of directors and even the bank's own depositors for its demise.
- Bridge closure: A restoration project for the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro could lead to traffic headaches for local residents lasting anywhere from nine months to three years, The Los Angeles Times reports.
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- S.F. reparations: San Francisco has proposed the nation's most ambitious reparations plan, including $5 million cash payments and housing aid aimed at bringing people back to the city.
- Fentanyl: A new advertising campaign that seeks to criticize San Francisco's response to its fentanyl epidemic has arrived in some of the neighborhoods that have been most affected by public drug markets, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
- Champion A: Vida Blue, who in his first full season with the Oakland Athletics in 1971 threw an unhittable fastball and became baseball's hottest player, died on Saturday. He was 73.
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 | | Mono Lake.Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images |
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Today's tip comes from Vivian Cruise, who recommends a visit to Mono Lake in eastern California: |
"One of my favorite places is Mono Lake, which is a saline soda lake in Mono County formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake, which make its water alkaline. The desert lake has an unusually productive ecosystem based on brine shrimp, which thrive in its waters, and provides critical habitat for two million annual migratory birds that feed on the shrimp and alkali flies. Towers of minerals rise from the lake as if they are stalagmites." |
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter. |
While there have been plenty of famous domesticated animals, we want to hear about any wild animals that became celebrities to you. Did you have a bird, a bear or a deer in your community that you got attached to? Tell us about it and why you became a fan. Email us at CAtoday@nytimes.com with your suggestions. |
 | | Megan Tennell |
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And before you go, some good news |
Friendship came naturally to Ande Flower and Veronica Savage, though romance was more difficult to foresee. Still, they persisted. |
"There will be dozens of people who will take your breath away," Savage said at the couple's wedding in Fair Oaks last month. "But the one who reminds you to breathe is the one you should keep." |
Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Soumya |
Briana Scalia and Isabella Grullón Paz contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com. |
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