Maria Lemus doesn’t remember exactly when she heard about a proposed gondola between Union Station and Dodger Stadium, but it was likely at the back-to-school backpack giveaway or the Christmas toy giveaway.
“This is a great project,” she said.
The gondola’s team had been showing up at her family’s housing project, the 415-unit William Mead Homes, for “the past four or five years” to make the pitch for the 1.2-mile gondola over Chinatown and answer doubters’ questions.
The homes are less than a quarter-mile from Los Angeles State Historic Park, one of three stops along the route.
“They have been coming to community events,” she said. “They have given our kids scholarships. They have brought turkeys and baskets of food to our community for Thanksgiving. “
A company funded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt first proposed the gondola in 2018, selling the idea to politicians, the community and others as an alternative to the congested entry into the stadium that clogs neighboring streets.
After years of planning and community campaigning, the project’s developer, called Zero Emissions Transit, is hoping the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Thursday gives it the environmental clearance needed to move forward on the gondola.
Although Metro Chair and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had largely remained silent on the issue, she and board member Hilda Solis, along with two board allies, on Friday issued a list of 31 conditions they want to impose on the developers.
Their plan includes free rides for Chinatown residents, a regional bus program to the stadium that could compete with the gondola for riders, a community development package with a fund for residents displaced by housing costs, and a restriction on future development of the Dodger Stadium parking lots, which McCourt jointly owns with the Dodgers. Opponents believe the primary reason McCourt is pursuing the project is to eventually develop those lots.
“My goal is to ensure that the community comes first,” said Solis, who is a Los Angeles County supervisor. “This nonnegotiable directive included in my motion protects the community and ensures it is involved in formulating the community benefits.”
A spokeswoman for Bass echoed her sentiments, saying: “The mayor wants to ensure that the surrounding community will be served by this project and will be pushing for significant resources to support the most at-risk young people in the area and revitalize the Chinatown business district.”
The project’s environmental impact report estimated the seven-minute lift would cost $500 million to build and ferry 5,000 people an hour to games. It must still win approval from the Los Angeles City Council and other entities.
More than a hundred supporters and opponents are expected to show up at Metro headquarters Thursday, a reflection of the intense ground campaign both sides have been running. Nowhere has that been more clear than at William Mead, where long-standing political rivalries and residents’ fears of gentrification have all become entangled in the fight.
The specter of historic displacement hangs heavy here, where Latino families in Chavez Ravine were uprooted to build Dodger Stadium and a piece of the original Chinatown moved to build Union Station.
“This community is divided,” said Xóchitl Manzanilla, who has lived at William Mead for 32 years. “It’s a monstrosity what he wants to do,” she said, referring to McCourt. “This is an act of gentrification.”
Manzanilla, who teaches an art class at Los Angeles State Historic Park, fears the gondola will ruin the skyline views and attract luxury homes in an area where people are struggling to pay rent.
William Mead’s low-slung, garden-style brick homes sit along five blocks at the edge of downtown. Built in the 1940s, the two- and three-story buildings on the edge of Chinatown are squeezed between the state park, the Twin Towers jail, the Los Angeles River and railroad tracks.
More than half the largely Latino residents live below the poverty line, and many are families.
Even though the gondola will not cross above the housing project, both sides have been vying for residents’ support. The developer has been pouring resources into the community for years and showing up during holiday events.
The California Endowment, which unsuccessfully tried to block the project in court, has countered these efforts. It provided a $100,000 grant to community organizers who have been working in public housing and Chinatown.
Two of the biggest issues at Mead is scarcity of parking and redevelopment of the community. There are 279 parking spaces for residents, and when there are events at the park or stadium, residents can’t find a place for their cars. Residents are even more concerned about a proposal to develop the land into 1,600 units of mixed-income homes, up from the current 415 units of public housing. Although the the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles has said it will continue to ensure residents aren’t displaced, many are worried about changes that could further drive up already sky-high housing costs.
Opponents in the neighborhood say the gondola will do exactly that, while backers believe it will alleviate traffic on game days and prevent fans from taking up the precious street parking.
“This seems like something good,” said Ines Gomez, president of the resident advisory council at the homes. “It will reduce traffic.” She has five children and said the developer has supported the community, even providing a chance to see Dodgers games during an excursion to visit a mock-up gondola in a parking lot.
On Tuesday, Gomez attended a meeting at the homes with the area’s council member, Eunisses Hernandez, who opposes the project. And she left believing that Hernandez didn’t understand the benefits and made it about her. Hernandez, who has been the most outspoken public official on the project, said she just wants to protect a vulnerable community.
“For so long this community has been overlooked and underinvested in,” Hernandez said. “It’s easy to pretend you’re the good guy when you’re bringing all these things to a community that has been starved for so long.”
She opposes the effort by Solis, which she said only raised more concerns.
“This issue of parking won’t be solved by the gondola, but they’ve been sold the idea that the gondola is going to be transformative to their neighborhood traffic,” she said. “It’ll be transformative but in a way where there will be displacement.”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
