Great Scott, What a Change!

The folks in and around Scott Avenue in Echo Park finally have it made.

Keiko Fowler goes to sleep peacefully around 10 p.m. Eduardo de la Garda no longer has to contend with speeding motorists taking over both sides of the street. Ramon Sanchez jogs. And some, like Ron Emler, invite friends over to their home any time they want to.

“I couldn’t have done that 10 years ago,” Emler, 58, said.

The change in the rhythm of life along Scott was a simple one. It occurred in 1996 when the Los Angeles Dodgers closed the Scott Avenue entrance into their 56,000-seat baseball stadium with its 17,000 parking spaces.

Since Dodger Stadium’s opening in 1962, the Scott area of Echo Park--a largely immigrant neighborhood that features towering palm trees, well-worn cottages and apartment buildings, and hilly terrain--had been a mini-freeway during the baseball season. Dodgers fans passing through may have enjoyed a glimpse of a diverse neighborhood they would not ordinarily have visited, but residents did not return the sentiment.

The conversation on Scott wasn’t about Dodger wins or losses. It was about the exhaust fumes the fans’ cars left. Or the noise they made. Or the trash they left.

Or the danger of just backing out of the driveway.

“If I tried to get out of my driveway around 6:30 [p.m.],” De la Garda remembered about game nights, “I sometimes had to wait 20 minutes for a car that would let me back out. It’s such a simple thing, but during baseball it was totally awful.”

The situation grew so intolerable for some that they moved away. But others, like Fowler, stayed because they loved the area too much despite the headaches--like ticket scalpers hawking their wares on her lawn and her brother accumulating an estimated $400 to $500 in tickets for parking in front of her home on days of Dodger games, when parking on Scott was restricted.

“I’ll stay forever,” Fowler vowed. “I’m not moving.”

The Scott entrance’s closing followed years of chronic complaining about the stadium traffic’s effect on the neighborhood. Traffic studies were conducted, but they seemed to result in very little getting accomplished. To some neighbors, it seemed that the popular Dodgers, who routinely draw 3 million fans a season, didn’t care about them.

Several years ago, when former team owner Peter O’Malley quietly began looking into the possibility of building a pro football facility next to Dodger Stadium in Elysian Park, the festering hostility in the surrounding neighborhoods boiled over at several public hearings.

Angry residents accused the Dodgers of indifference to the traffic, noise, trash and obnoxious behavior of fans. Six months of baseball was bad enough, said the residents, who vehemently opposed the very idea of a football stadium.

“The Dodgers found out they weren’t very good neighbors,” said Jeb Brighouse, a resident who is head of a group called Neighbors of Dodger Stadium.

Two lawmakers, who conducted the hearings, got the message. Los Angeles City Council members Mike Hernandez and Jackie Goldberg said they would not support a football stadium in Elysian Park unless their constituents did. And they didn’t.

The Dodgers quickly moved to make amends with their neighbors. They instituted programs to distribute free tickets to area schools and organizations and included local “hero” residents in pregame ceremonies. They distributed home game schedules to area residents.

It also didn’t hurt that talk about pro football in Elysian Park faded.

And the Dodgers closed the Scott Avenue entrance at the end of the 1996 season. They posted signs about the closure on nearby Glendale Boulevard, which in the past was a main conduit for traffic headed for Scott.

Rather than rehashing past complaints, Doug Duennes, the director of stadium operations for the Dodgers, said the new arrangement has been a positive one.

‘We’re Trying to Listen to . . . Our Neighbors’

Since the closing in 1996, “we have opened lines of communications with our neighbors,” he said. “We think the reaction since we closed the entrance has been very positive. We’re trying to listen to what our neighbors are saying.”

Fans accustomed to using the Scott entrance have adjusted with few reported problems, Duennes said.

So life is pretty good on Scott. It’s peaceful, bordering on the routine.

Occasionally, fans looking for a stadium shortcut still use Scott, but that doesn’t even come close to the gridlock that existed before.

“Hey, I can get out of my own driveway now, no problem,” De la Garda said.

On Glendale and Alvarado Street, which intersect Scott, the rush-hour crush to get home is no longer interrupted by fans trying to reach the ballpark. The kids behind Logan Street Elementary School even venture out on Scott to toss a baseball, something that was unheard of before the closure.

An outdoor eatery has taken hold near the intersection of Glendale and Scott, a sure sign to residents that things are looking up.

Although criticism of the Dodgers is fairly strident among neighborhood organizations, the sentiment on Scott seems mild.

“I’m not opposed to baseball,” said Fowler, whose home sits close to the now-closed entrance. “I’m not a Dodger fan, but I am not a Dodger hater. They do support the local schools.”

There are, however, still problems.

The pastor at St. Mark Ukrainian Orthodox Church--a regal structure that caps the hillside landscape along Scott--complains that parishioners on Sundays have a tough time making turns on nearby Sunset Boulevard because of Dodger Stadium traffic.

“We’re always trying to be cooperative,” Father Stephen Hallick said, “but we still suffer.”

The traffic situation is much worse on Solano Avenue, on the opposite side of Dodger Stadium from Scott. According to residents there, the seemingly unending stream of vehicles headed for the stadium has become even worse since the closing of the Scott entrance.

When asked about it, Alicia Brown, the head of a Solano residents group, groaned, “Oh, my God. The closing was very good for Scott, but where did the traffic go? It has to go somewhere. It now goes right by us.”

Duennes, other Dodger officials and city officials are aware of the traffic problems on Solano but have yet to come up with a solution.

Back on Scott, there are whispers about the future. The residents have heard the talk that the Dodgers might leave Chavez Ravine.

It’s a disquieting note, because many of the residents, who wouldn’t wish their past traffic problems on another neighborhood in L.A., wonder what could replace the ballpark if the Dodgers leave.

“If [the team moves], we would push for low-impact participant sports activities,” said Brighouse of Neighbors of Dodger Stadium. “Archery, driving ranges for golfers, horse stables, ramp areas for skateboarding. That’s healthy, and that’s what Elysian Park is for. It’s better than sitting on your duff, guzzling beer and eating Dodger dogs.”

Although another group, the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park, has been cautious in expressing any opinions about the Dodgers leaving. Sallie Neubauer, its president, said more recreational facilities to replace the ballpark would be welcome. “That would be a great addition to Elysian Park,” she said.

Fowler, for one, said she’ll miss one aspect of life next to the ballpark if the Dodgers leave.

“I’ll miss their Fourth of July fireworks,” she said.