Opinion asked designers, artists and architects how the land in Chavez Ravine should be used:
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I have been living in Elysian Park for more than 10 years, close to the stadium. It is a predominantly working-class neighborhood where artists, filmmakers and writers also live. The problem here is not one of connecting the stadium with downtown--by adding hotels, shopping streets and amusement centers--but of connecting it to the park.
Elysian Park is the oldest park in the city. With the help of the Dodgers and their extra land holdings, it could be made into an oasis for the center city, offering walks, bike paths, roller-skating areas, swimming pools, ponds and amphitheaters for theatrical and musical events. It could feature a wonderful arboretum with fantastic landscaping and fountains.
The expanded park could be modeled after Central Park in New York or Golden Gate Park in San Francisco; or, closer to home, the grounds at the Huntington Library come to mind. Los Angeles has a surplus of malls and urban shopping streets, but it lacks compelling nature areas.
This could be a joint public and private project to revitalize downtown: a nature park area, well-maintained and secure, open for all people to walk through and enjoy.
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