Central Los Angeles : Residents Oppose Football Stadium

Hundreds of residents who live in the neighborhoods surrounding Dodger Stadium packed a public meeting Wednesday night to voice their opposition to the possibility of a football stadium on Dodgers property.

The meeting, held by City Council members Jackie Goldberg and Mike Hernandez, was the third in a series discussing the potential impact of a second athletic arena in the Elysian Park area. All but a small number of those who attended appeared to be opposed to a stadium.

National Football League officials have been considering four locations in the Los Angeles area to build a new stadium--El Segundo, Hollywood Park, Anaheim and Elysian Park--since the league announced in December that it would not consider any existing venues for one of its teams.

Many residents say they are vehemently against the idea of a second stadium, contending that one major athletic stadium is bad enough with all the traffic, noise and pollution they say accompanies every baseball game.

“My constituents have informed me that they have not seen the Dodgers as particularly good neighbors,” Goldberg said at the meeting.

Dodger spokesman Robert Graziano said club president Peter O’Malley is interested only in putting together a “feasibility analysis” of a stadium.

Responded Sally Neubauer, president of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park: “This is not a small group of people and they are real people with real concerns. They don’t need a ‘feasibility study’ to tell you how they feel.”

Hernandez aide Morrie Goldman on Thursday pledged a thorough scrutiny of any proposal.