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Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story — Transcript

by Jordan Mechner · 3,024 words · 439 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00I had to scream that all those hills had
0:24been leveled the house is torn down I
0:27saw it in my dream and exactly the way I
0:31saw it that's a way it happened this is
0:34the tragedy of my life absolutely I was
0:39responsible for uprooting I don't know
0:43how many hundreds of people from their
0:45own little Valley than having a whole
0:47thing destroyed it's sort of taken on a
0:50mythical sense in people's memories and
0:54then with the feeling that it was
0:55unfairly taken from them so it's no
0:58wonder that that people have strong
1:00feelings about it
1:02he said please your sons and baseball
1:05team let's go to the Dodgers as a family
1:08I'll never go again I hated it I didn't
1:12enjoy it it was like dancing on a grave
1:17[Music]
1:181962 and Chavez Ravine a few miles from
1:22downtown Los Angeles baseball fans crowd
1:25the bleachers of the brand-new Dodger
1:27Stadium to welcome their team from
1:29Brooklyn the stadium sits on 170 acres
1:32of freshly cleared land land that chests
1:3512 years earlier was home to over 300
1:37families the neighborhoods of La Loma
1:40palo verde and bishop the neighborhoods
1:43of Chavez Ravine
1:46[Music]
1:53me myself I loved it there I loved it
1:57because we used to run up and down the
2:00hills and we know every little trail
2:02around there in the neighborhood I don't
2:06think anybody when I move out of your
2:07neighborhood when you've been them in
2:08there so long and you know everybody
2:10like a big family Elysian Park was our
2:14playground you know the whole park was
2:16right next to it we have to go down
2:19there and swim naked in the LA River we
2:22used to make dams you know with rocks
2:25you know make holes and then swimming
2:28that dirty water we won a lot of
2:30trophies there in Elysian Park believe
2:32me we did football you name a baseball
2:35basketball we were good we will get to
2:38the playground play the opponent they
2:40would come up with a brand new uniforms
2:42and here we look like those goddamn East
2:44Side kids you know raggedy-ass kids
2:47playing baseball that other team you
2:48know he said how could these guys beat
2:50us there were great times for me
2:52beautiful time the processions the
2:58lighted candle the men would dress like
3:02Roman soldiers they had this big drum
3:05boom boom boom got through the hill
3:09it was unbelievable when I seen all
3:11these pictures I was really surprised
3:15and I never seen anybody with that
3:17camera who would take these pictures
3:20nobody wouldn't go up the hill and take
3:22pictures and nobody could afford a
3:24camera I was just I was looking for a
3:28kind of a postcard view of the Los
3:30Angeles I had a friend who had a car and
3:33we drove around looking and found this
3:36hill and walked up the hill and but then
3:40they looked down the other side of that
3:42hill I was standing on and and there was
3:44this community below me looked like a
3:46village dirt roads and I was just going
3:50up the roads and and people walking
3:52around
3:56but he'll still exist right there he
3:58proceeded up and top with it so I was I
4:00was up there someplace when I took the
4:03shot yeah he was up I'm up I speak
4:07yolibeth I made photographs in 48 and
4:16most of them in 1949 and I had very
4:20little luck and in showing them or
4:22getting anybody to even look at them
4:25[Music]
4:48fifty years later Don found a publisher
4:51who thought his photograph should be a
4:53book and for the first time they were
4:55seen by the people of Chavez Ravine got
4:59a card table a couple of chairs with a
5:02box full of photographs from 1949 and a
5:07crowd formed around and who were
5:09exclaiming and some burst into tears
5:14it was quite marvelous it was pentagram
5:17Oh every time I see a bouquet I feel
5:20like crying okay I could see the house
5:22where I was born like my daughters were
5:23going there my daughter was born my wife
5:26[Music]
5:34when I was a kid nice to model airplanes
5:37kite nice to fly went up a hill it was
5:39so clear many years back you could see
5:41cloud del rey santa monica and st. peter
5:44just the city hall was the titleist
5:45building and it was very nice up to me
5:48it was just like a little ranch my
5:51grandchildren I'll take him up there for
5:53Isis dad was he born up here says yeah
5:55and they see the pictures on a book it
5:57says Jesus poor kids I said yeah that's
5:59the way it was in those days you know at
6:02Birth put it and hand-me-down clothes
6:05and books and what-have-you but uh you
6:09know what we were happy we're happy
6:10people I used to make like sleds out of
6:13cardboard boxes from Kelvinator or
6:16gaffers sattler and that the stoves or
6:20whatever it came in and just slide down
6:21it was like a toboggan except it wasn't
6:24grass 20 minutes to get up there again
6:28that was a recreation when I seen all
6:32these pictures and I was excited about
6:35seeing him but then I was kind of mad
6:39resentful about what happened when we
6:43had to move out in July 1950 the city of
6:49Los Angeles sent letters to the
6:50residents of Chavez Ravine notifying
6:53them that they would have to sell their
6:54homes to make way for low income public
6:56housing Frank Wilkinson of the City
6:59Housing Authority led the project
7:03our city was the first city in the
7:05nation to get the first hundred and ten
7:07million dollars billion dollars in
7:09today's money for public housing in LA
7:11what we were going to build ten thousand
7:14units in Chavez Ravine was one of the
7:17prime places we found simply because it
7:19was predominantly vacant so you could
7:22build without displacing so many people
7:25it was something that really hit him
7:30hard you know something like that that
7:33happened I mean it's when they're gonna
7:35throw you out they were forcing us out
7:37really and they would tell us you don't
7:41sell we're gonna condemn your property
7:44you won't get anything out of it so that
7:46scared us a lot of people think the
7:50Housing Authority as a public entity has
7:53the right to buy your home they'll pay
7:57you a fair market value and then you are
8:01required to sell that's the power that
8:03we had and I prepared a certificate to
8:06every family so I visited there and I
8:08visited all those people saying when the
8:10project is built you and your family
8:12will be the first priority together you
8:14can pick the part of the project you
8:15want living that never happened
8:17they never build anything like that they
8:20did went ahead and build a Dodger
8:21Stadium and Richard Nitro and Robert
8:26Alexander were picked as the architects
8:29for the site and they worked for months
8:31designing writing doing beautiful plans
8:34as we had playgrounds Church fueled
8:37everything we were completely idealistic
8:41I'm feeling that what we were offering
8:43was better good for the city of LA but
8:46good for the people who were being
8:48displaced we were gonna have first crack
8:51at moving into those projects now if you
8:54could imagine a hundred acres of lush
8:56green beautiful hills and a handful of
8:59Mexicans living there with vegetable
9:01gardens and a few pigs and goats and a
9:04little church and you know being all
9:06condensed in a little postage sized
9:09tenement it just doesn't make any sense
9:11it simply doesn't wash
9:13we were ripped off
9:15my dad made a mistake you know the guys
9:19from the city came and knocked on the
9:20door and they offered him 9600 so my dad
9:25said wow you know I really made some
9:29money you know I've made a killing
9:30that's what he thought so when we moved
9:33out of there and my dad had to buy
9:36another house
9:37they were 9,600 there were 15 17 18
9:42thousand dollars they didn't want to
9:46move
9:46they didn't want to lose their friends
9:48they didn't want to lose their homes
9:50that they built from nothing some people
9:56didn't move you know the story about
9:57what happened there but the majority the
10:00people moved when they got their initial
10:02papers because they didn't think that
10:04there was a way to fight it our
10:09community our Vario was well represented
10:12in world war ii and some of our GIS
10:15veterans were coming home from the wars
10:17and at that time that we're getting the
10:19news that the people were gonna be out
10:22rooted from the neighborhood and I
10:24remember my uncle meeting with some of
10:27these war veterans in front of my
10:29grandma's house it says there's a bunch
10:32of what they're trying to do to
10:33our parents and to us our government was
10:37good enough to take us out of our
10:39neighborhood to fight a a war we come
10:42home to what to find out that they're
10:45gonna outdo us from my neighborhood does
10:47a bunch of bull
10:49[Music]
11:04[Music]
11:05meeting over the leisure park with the
11:09city officials and community people and
11:13my grandma got up you know and she says
11:16he says you don't have no right to in
11:18Spanish right he says you know I have no
11:20right to buy us out or kick us out of
11:22our neighborhood none of my kids learned
11:24of my credential were raised and born
11:26here and then she says besides you
11:30bastard
11:31my son died for my property can you
11:35replace my son then she started crying
11:38that was it it was very sad that we had
11:41to move away cuz we were like a big
11:43family and a lot of my friends were
11:49there too my cousins and the one that
11:53really heard me a lot was my grandmother
11:56she we work very closely my father
12:01bought property out in Lincoln Heights
12:03and she couldn't go with us because we
12:06were too many
12:10I remember looking at my house I knew I
12:14wasn't gonna see it again I just looked
12:17at it once and I can I reduced to look
12:20at it again because I knew I was gonna
12:22break down my mother was already all
12:25broken and she needed somebody to be
12:28strong for her my father built that out
12:32I was born there
12:35it had a vine growing and it covered all
12:40the roof in the in the front and in
12:42spring it looked like it was wearing a
12:45white crown so we moved away it was gone
12:53and you know I've never felt about any
12:58other house the way I felt about that
13:01one
13:04[Music]
13:07by August 1952 palo verde la loma and
13:11bishop had become ghost towns the city's
13:14acquisition of the land designated for
13:15the housing site was nearly complete
13:17condemnation proceedings were underway
13:20against a few property owners who still
13:22held out it was in one of these hearings
13:25that the Elysian Park Heights housing
13:27project was dealt an unexpected blow we
13:31had a tremendous support for the program
13:33pretty well finished engineering and the
13:34architecture worked the only people who
13:36were opposing it or what is commonly
13:39called the real estate Lobby was headed
13:41up by the apartment house owners
13:42association and other people like that
13:45they called it creeping socialism they
13:48were trying to discredit it every way
13:50every way they could had petitions and
13:52initiatives to try to kill the program
13:55we should have been more suspicious than
13:58we were as I remember it was a very
14:03large site it was vacant land but the
14:06owner of that property was a prominent
14:09business person downtown LA and he
14:13demanded I think $100,000 and we were
14:17fighting for them over value he wanted
14:19as much as he could get when out of
14:22nowhere this Reuter for the property
14:26owner turned to me and said now mr.
14:31Wilkinson I want to ask you what
14:37organizations political or otherwise
14:41have you belong to this is 1931 he
14:46didn't say are you a communist
14:48he said what have you belong to I just
14:50turned to the judge and said I refuse to
14:53answer that question everyone any lawyer
14:56would admit is it done irrelevant and
14:58immaterial if that man had said that
15:00word I would still be here today and the
15:03project would have been built but my
15:06lawyer said nothing not a word he's just
15:08pale white he told me later Frank if I
15:12had objected to that question people
15:15would have known that I mean he was the
15:17communist cuz I have
15:18check to that place I said what about me
15:21he said well you have a problem to one
15:25of the top communist agents assigned to
15:28operation abolition his Frank Wilkinson
15:31recently convicted for contempt of
15:34Congress for refusal to answer questions
15:37concerning his communist party
15:39membership and activities I listened to
15:42this interview closely because in it you
15:44will hear Frank Wilkinson a communist
15:47agent explain his communist jargon in
15:51the committee hearings today you were
15:52called an international communist agent
15:54are you a communist until they have
15:56resolved this matter and declared these
15:59kind of questions under compulsion to be
16:02illegal and unconstitutional I've
16:05refused to answer the questions away
16:07from the committee just as I refused to
16:09answer them correctly to the committee
16:11what I've been told that was fired you
16:18know I'm out destroyed destroyed
16:21neutralized this way the FBI list says I
16:24was successfully neutralized me crews of
16:28television people arrived at the
16:29courtroom walked in to take pictures of
16:31those being mayor Bowen was removed he
16:36would have been a shoo-in
16:36in 1953 if this was very important the
16:39press at the time another paper
16:41crusading against the mayor powerin was
16:43wiped out and the new mayor Norris
16:45Poulson came in and started the
16:47negotiations to turn the site not back
16:51to the people but to turn over to Walter
16:53O'Malley and the bushland Dodgers we
16:57spent millions of dollars came ready for
16:59it and the Dodgers picked it up for just
17:01a fraction of that it it was just a
17:04tragedy for the people and for the city
17:09it was a most hypocritical thing he was
17:11possibly happen the city promising you a
17:14decent home for refusing to answer the
17:17questions of the house on American
17:18Activities Committee Frank Wilkinson
17:20spent a year in jail it was the
17:23beginning of Frank's own legal battle
17:24against the FBI which had targeted Frank
17:27as part of a deliberate effort to
17:29destroy the nation's public housing
17:31grams our lawsuit started in 1980 lasted
17:3712 years it's lost hope and love the law
17:39firm who represented me cost him a
17:41million dollars in pro bono money it was
17:44an ACLU test case and we finally won our
17:47winning that we get a hundred and thirty
17:49two thousand pages on my life from 42 to
17:5380 and in the Hearst destroyer
17:57self-esteem
18:07Here Come Mario Mario
18:13so right Louganis party
18:16[Music]
18:27so locator losses good
18:33little Sargeras babies
18:36[Music]
18:58Sallu llama yeah buddy
19:03[Music]
19:38see that trees over there yeah it's just
19:41this hill right they don't get down see
19:43in the stadiums see this hill and for
19:46the stadium sit
19:46we're looking right there down at the
19:48bottom the parking that they had a lower
19:58the hill so they can have room for the
20:01stadium see so they Lord they lowered
20:05the hill and that dirt covered the whole
20:08valley the pull of ready school it was a
20:14Grammar School it was a two-story
20:15building they took the roof off the
20:19school you know on the floors and
20:21everything and just left the walls and
20:24they just fill it with dirt and
20:25eventually covered it so in a thousand
20:30years somebody's gonna start digging
20:32they're gonna find a school now
20:37when I saw the bulldozers moving the
20:41land I said you know I'm never gonna go
20:43see a Dodger game though I was a Dodger
20:46fan I went to one reunion and they
20:52handed the Dodgers olive branches
20:54symbolically
20:55I was two months old when the Dodgers
21:00moved to Los Angeles just wanted to
21:03clarify I was I was two months old and
21:05and honestly when we started working
21:08with the community I didn't understand
21:11what took place 40 years ago I didn't
21:14understand what happened in the
21:15communities here and and I think the
21:18lack of understanding on the part of the
21:21Dodgers was was perceived as a lack of
21:23caring what what kind of crap is that we
21:27give you a olive branch it just
21:29pisses me off
21:31that's a beautiful steel I love the
21:33Dodgers I'm a fan of them now always
21:40hopefully someday I was working safe to
21:41steal there's a helper character who
21:44never made it
21:50what is well what if they would succeed
21:53it with a project that they want to put
21:54there
21:55you think we will still be there that I
21:58have some but you know it is that
22:00something that we'll never know all we
22:03know is that we were uprooted from our
22:04neighborhood and we went our separate
22:07ways the really sad thing is that so
22:13many of us don't know each other we've
22:16all gone and we've done our things but
22:18it's like on a vacuum it's like we lost
22:20our brothers we lost our sisters
22:22so there's generations of people that
22:24will never know that they did know each
22:27other
22:30a lot of time passed I think it's about
22:35a dozen years and by then Dodger Stadium
22:38is built I was in town working
22:40photographing on assignment and I
22:43thought I would go visit the old
22:44neighborhood I was driving up these
22:47roads and I kept running into Dodger
22:49Stadium and I just couldn't figure it
22:51out and I thought there it must still be
22:54there if I could find the right Road to
22:56get in but I never could find the right
22:58Road
23:00[Music]
23:32you

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