Editing Dodger Stadium (section)

===Construction===
In the mid-1950s, [[History of the Brooklyn Dodgers|Brooklyn Dodgers]] team president [[Walter O'Malley]] had tried to build a [[Brooklyn Dodgers proposed domed stadium|domed stadium]] in the New York City borough of [[Brooklyn]], but was unable to reach an agreement with city officials for the land acquisition, and eventually reached a deal with the city of Los Angeles. The land that would be used for Dodger Stadium had previously been seized from local owners and inhabitants by the city of Los Angeles, using [[eminent domain]] with funds from the federal [[Housing Act of 1949]]. The city had planned to develop the Elysian Park Heights public housing project, which included two dozen 13-story buildings and more than 160 two-story townhouses, in addition to newly rebuilt playgrounds and schools, and a college.

Before construction could begin on the housing project, the local political climate changed greatly when [[Norris Poulson]] was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1953. Proposed public housing projects such as Elysian Park Heights lost most of their support as they became associated with socialist ideals. Following protracted negotiations, the city purchased the [[Chavez Ravine]] property back from the Federal Housing Authority at a drastically reduced price, with the stipulation that the land be used for a public purpose. It was not until June 3, 1958, when Los Angeles voters approved a "Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball" referendum,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Podair |first=Jerald |date=2017-04-12 |title=How the Dodger baseball stadium shaped LA – and revealed its divisions |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/apr/12/dodger-baseball-stadium-shaped-la-and-revealed-its-divisions |access-date=2019-10-05 |work=The Guardian |location=London |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> that the Dodgers were able to acquire {{convert|352|acre|km2}} of Chavez Ravine from the city. Los Angeles forcefully evicted residents from their homes, mainly Hispanics. While Dodger Stadium was under construction, the Dodgers played in the league's largest capacity venue from [[1958 in baseball|1958]] through [[1961 in baseball|1961]] at their temporary home, the [[Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum]], which could seat in excess of 90,000 people.

Los Angeles–based [[Mike Davis (scholar)|Mike Davis]], in his seminal work on the city, ''[[City of Quartz]]'', describes the process of gradually convincing Chavez Ravine homeowners to sell. With nearly all of the original Spanish-speaking homeowners initially unwilling to sell, developers resorted to offering immediate cash payments, distributed through their Spanish-speaking agents. Once the first sales had been completed, remaining homeowners were offered increasingly lesser amounts of money, to create a community panic of not receiving fair compensation, or of being left as one of the few holdouts. Many residents continued to hold out despite the pressure being placed upon them by developers, resulting in the [[Battle of Chavez Ravine]], a ten-year struggle by the residents to maintain control of their property, which they ultimately lost.

Dodger Stadium was the first Major League Baseball stadium since the initial construction of the original [[Yankee Stadium (1923)|Yankee Stadium]] to be built using 100% private financing, and the last until [[Oracle Park]] in San Francisco opened in 2000. Ground was broken for Dodger Stadium on September 17, 1959. The tops of local ridges were removed, and the soil was used to fill in Sulfur and Cemetery Ravines to provide a level surface for a parking lot and the stadium. A local elementary school (Palo Verde) was simply buried rather than demolished, and sits beneath the parking lot northwest of third base. A total of {{convert|8|e6yd3}} of earth were moved in the process of building the stadium. A total of 21,000 precast concrete units, some weighing as much as 32 tons, were fabricated onsite and lowered into place with a specially built crane to form the stadium's structural framework. The stadium was originally designed to be expandable to 85,000 seats by expanding the upper decks over the outfield pavilions; the Dodgers have never pursued such a project.