Community Tries to Gain Back Respect

Cora Alvarez, having lived a full 81 years in Solano Canyon--which hugs the hillsides around Dodger Stadium--can hardly recall a day when she and her neighbors have not been under siege from some public works project or sports stadium.

About the only time she didn’t worry was before the Great Depression. That’s when the tightknit village was the quintessential Los Angeles melting pot, a home to immigrants from Mexico, China, Italy, Japan, Ireland, Germany and Czechoslovakia.

“It used to be beautiful,” Alvarez said. “We were like a big family. But everyone is hungry for this area. First it was President [Franklin] Roosevelt. He wanted to build a housing project. Then it was the Dodgers who came in and took over. Then Mr. Murdoch wanted to build a football field, which didn’t happen, thank God. Now we’re just hanging, waiting to see who comes along next.”

Their latest attack comes in the form of a Pasadena Freeway widening project that is creating traffic snarls and noise in their enclave.

On Saturday, residents held a daylong conference to plan a neighborhood public relations campaign and examine their history of community indignities. The goal, according to the Solano Community Assn., is to gain the respect the neighborhood deserves.

Residents complain that the state is cutting down trees and vegetation that screen the neighborhood from the highway where it crosses the canyon. They also say the two-year construction schedule will prove unnecessarily annoying to residents.

“People don’t see us as a neighborhood,” said resident Alicia Brown, 73. “Every morning there’s a queue of cars who are using us as a shortcut. Instead of sitting on the freeway, they sit in our neighborhood and fill it with fumes. We don’t get any respect.”

During their gathering, some 80 residents and local historians discussed the history of Chavez Ravine, a collection of three barrios that were buried under Dodger Stadium, forcing entire neighborhoods to leave.

The conference, arranged through a grant from the California Council for the Humanities, featured slides of those neighborhoods long since covered by the stadium: Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop, as well as emotional recollections from residents.

Although eight-block Solano Canyon escaped leveling, its 700 residents say they have long lived with the flood of stadium-related traffic. Some residents said that adults and children carry Dodger game schedules so they know when to avoid the streets.

During the event, the group discussed how the construction of the Figueroa tunnels more than 50 years ago displaced scores of residents and a proposed housing project in the 1950s caused more to be forced from their homes. The housing was never built.

Public agencies have claimed that their projects have been in the interest of many, and Dodger officials have attempted to improve the traffic flow through Solano. Still, many folks remain angry.

One such resident is Virginia Pinedo-Bye, 54, who noted that her extended family has been forced to move three times by public transportation projects. Pinedo-Bye tearfully recalled opening day at Dodger Stadium, a chaotic spectacle that included a sea of sports fans who could not locate the stadium’s front gate. Pinedo-Bye said she expressed her emotions that day in 1962 by hurling tomatoes at the stadium.

“Everyone was excited about opening day, but I was really angry,” Pinedo-Bye said. “I was angry they had taken the homes of my friends.”

Solano Canyon’s newfound political activism has made some politicians take note. At Saturday’s conference, City Councilman Mike Hernandez’s chief of staff said their activism would help the councilman work on their behalf.

“The stronger the community is, the stronger a voice he has when he’s dealing with the bureaucrats,” Ed Reyes said.

But some longtime residents remain skeptical. They say they have seen too much land lost to the stadium and the government.

“There have been some smart kids who helped us along the way, and that’s why we’re still here,” said Rita Ruiz, 75. “In the end though, I think they’re still going to come and get us. They’ll take it all sooner or later.”