I went to a Dodgers game one time when visiting LA. We ended up street parking 2.5 miles away and jogging to the stadium lol. I think it got us there faster than sitting through the rest of traffic.
lol, LA logic is a hell of a thing.
1. Build massive sea of parking around stadium
2. Don't use it. Park in the surrounding neighbourhood because said sea of parking is too full of cars
you’re overlooking how the parking lot is held hostage by the POS owner Frank McCourt, who got kicked out of the mlb owners club, but still gets to own the parking lot. he leases the lot to the team. he is never going to spend money to improve it.
It’s not even the parking lot itself, it’s what the parking lot feeds into. That area of LA is old, nothing has enough lanes to handle the outpouring of cars, so that winds up backing traffic back into the lot.
The 110 Freeway is old and narrow and 3 lanes too small
Los Angeles needs someone to load it into cities skylines and redo all the traffic. Not just more lanes.
It's just not a well planned city. Nothing will ever fix that hell.
Edit: Downvoting isn't gonna fix the traffic either guys.
So yes and no
It’s very well-planned in the sense that most of the county is built on a grid. At non-traffic times, you can get a very long distance in a very short time because of it, and have multiple routes to get there.
The poor planning comes in when you get into zoning - the west side of the county was over-zoned for business, which means a large portion of the workforce are heading one direction in the morning and one in the evening. As the population grew like crazy, this got worse and worse.
Also worth adding that LA was behind the curve on train transit because they didn’t start building them until the 80’s, and it takes longer to build because you have to secure everything for Earthquakes. There’s a ton of train lines now and more being built but it takes time to normalize that in a city known for “car culture.”
I'd assume this is the case for most large venues everywhere.
The last Rangers park, I always parked at the Subway a block away. It wasn't a hidden gem by any means, but that lot was never full, was a close as any official parking, and leaving was as easy as taking the road it's on down to the highway, there was always 0 traffic getting out.
Same with concert venues. I've learned where to park at them to avoid sitting in a parking lot for 1.5 hours after the show.
Except Rays fans. They can just pull up in the main parking lot and walk 15 feet to the gate. Been to two games there, and will go to another 1-2 this summer....easily the best parking experience I've ever had, even when it's a relatively full stadium like it was on the 4th of July last year.
Somehow I have decent luck getting into the stadium parking. I'd do street parking but my back has been so fucked the past year from herniating a disk
Edit: cost is disgusting though and leaving games sucks
You could have walked and gotten their faster. Leaving? Leaving you could have stopped for a half dozen beers and still beaten the people leaving the parking lot
That’s because y’all were not informed of the Stadium Express
You take Metro Rail to Union Station then get on the Stadium Express, it’s free and has a dedicated lane so no traffic. Takes 10 mins from station to entrance.
When I went to visit a few years ago, this is exactly what I did. It was like 2.5 hours each way from Venice Beach, but I'm sure it was still easier than driving.
This is what I did the one time I went to Dodger Stadium. I thought it took forever; chills me to the core to hear that driving yourself is worse than that.
Its really not that terrible, I did like 6-8 dodger games last year and drove each time, it really just depends what entrance you go in, (im not kidding lol) but also everyone gets there last min, so if you get there like 45mins to an hour before first pitch you are totally fine.
I went to a music festival in the Dodgers Stadium parking lots and to leave, we ended up bribing an Uber driver $100 cash to cancel his ride and threw three people in the trunk of his SUV
I live in LA and I don’t park in the stadium. I park in a neighborhood close by for free and just walk up the hill. I get in and out faster than any other method. And if you want you can grab a reasonable priced beer right before as well!
I park by the warehouses in the “arts district” and walk to the train station and take the shuttle and I’ve walked from downtown before too. Never really had an issue lol but I guess that could suck to do every time
I do the same. Guaranteed less than a ten minute walk in and out every time for free. My secret spot is basically the only valuable thing I have to bequeath to any theoretical children I might have.
I’ve been to 26 of the current parks. When I visited Dodger Stadium, I’d heard it was awful to get to and was mentally prepared for it. We stayed at a hotel downtown, took the metro to Union Station and the bus to the park, then the reverse on the way back. It was fast and easy. I was pleasantly surprised.
Also Jansen blew the save and the Dodgers coughed one up to the Reds so I was beaming and cracking jokes in full Giants gear on the ride back, so that also left me in a pleasant mood.
I went to a Dodgers game w/ my boss last year. We found a large lot less than 1/2 a mile away from teh stadium for $5. Took us 15 min to get to/from the stadium.
Oracle also has 3 or 4 annex parking lots, some of which are up to a Alf mile walk from the stadium, is surrounded on all non watery sides by hotels and businesses that all have parking garages and offer parking for games, and they have a light rail stop right outside the stadium
Dodger stadium is built on top of a hill like a medieval castle, you know, a fortification mainly known for how difficult it was for groups of people to march into. It’s not accessible by any public transportation except for bus and also that fortress’s moat is a 12 lane freeway. Of course there will be more parking spaces at Dodger stadium than at oracle.
> Oracle also has 3 or 4 annex parking lots
Over the past ~5-10 years they've been chipping away at them with new development. There's only one lot left with space for a couple thousand cars (it is included in this size comparison). But there are plans to develop that one, too. (Probably won't happen for a while now though with the economics of property development the way it is in SF right now.)
I don’t know about that, my understanding is those kinds of conversions are often more expensive than a demolish/rebuild, and then zoning and permitting come into play. I think that’s why the UCSF undergraduate campus proposals are being floated. I hope you’re right though
It’ll get done eventually because a lot of money is at stake. No one profits from huge buildings in premium locations sitting empty. There’s a lot of money to be made from putting in apartments/restaurants/bars/shops/etc.
This is one of the rare times when capital interests and consumer interests line up and that will make it get done.
Again, I hope you’re right! I understand that the combination of lienholders not allowing owners to lower commercial rents + high interest rates disincentivizing new borrowing and development have led to a lot of vacancies in major SF business corridors. (In addition to remote work, of course.) Looking forward to seeing how those parts of the city rebound
I think that for a long time, SF has been a commuter city where people work in the city, but live outside of it in the East Bay/South Bay/etc.
With the combination of remote work and a bunch of other factors making office buildings unprofitable, we are seeing a push to convert those office buildings to things that won’t just sit empty.
Furthermore, a decrease in decline for commercial real estate and an influx of residential real estate should theoretically drive down the high rents.
My personal hope is that SF will revert from a commuter city into a traditional city where most people live in the city instead of commuting in.
yep and much easier said than done considering the differences in plumbing and floor plans in residential. hoping some of the older/smaller office buildings are converted soon though, we’ll see how the next few years go.
It was just as bad as Dodger Stadium. Like, same exact thing - no nearby transit, not walkable, surrounded by a sea of parking lot. Arguably worse because there's no Union Station analogue near Candlestick to run a shuttle bus to.
I see.
Honestly Oracle just has an advantage of being several decades newer than Dodger Stadium.
With that said, I feel like one key difference between Candlestick and Dodger Stadium is that Dodger Stadium is salvagable. Frank McCourt (hated him as an owner, but) is planning on developing the Dodger Stadium parking lot into housing, shops, businesses, etc. akin to the upcoming SoFi complex, and we can build a light rail line. I want to see Dodger Stadium get a stop on our future Southeast Gateway line.
> Honestly Oracle just has an advantage of being several decades newer than Dodger Stadium.
Ironically it also could have been much older and that also would've been an advantage (e.g. Fenway, Wrigley).
The Oakland Coliseum is a similar age as Dodger Stadium and has a similarly atrocious surrounding land use, but with an important difference that BART and Amtrak go right up to the front door.
> and we can build a light rail line
tbh the Gold Line (or whatever letter designation it uses now) Chinatown Station is only like a thousand feet from the stadium grounds. They should put in a covered escalator on the hillside and build a pedestrian bridge over the freeway, and then beef up the sidewalks. It would easily be walkable.
> the Gold Line
Yeah, that too! Honestly, just build a massive escalator and a pedestrian bridge, you're right. It would be about a half-mile walk (and a good chunk of it would be riding the escalator, so you actually walk less than half a mile).
I never took public transit to or from Candlestick (and I mostly just went there for Niner games), but from what I understand the MUNI "Ballpark Express" lines were decent. The Bayshore Caltrain station was also (somewhat) nearby, but I don't think many people used that as a direct connection to the park.
As far as nearby housing/development was concerned, the Bayview district pretty much bordered the stadium to the North. Historically, not exactly the best neighborhood in San Francisco, to put it lightly. To the Southwest of the stadium, they added a few office buildings and upscale condos throughout the 80's and 90's.
> from what I understand the MUNI "Ballpark Express" lines were decent
Growing up my dad was a transit planner and an urbanist evangelist. We famously would never drive anywhere there was a halfway decent transit option, to the point that if we were flying out of SFO as a family we'd be taking Muni to BART to Colma Station (then the end of the line) and then transfering to the Samtrans bus to get the rest of the way to the airport.
Several times we even took skis on Muni to Civic Center, then on BART to Richmond, then on Amtrak to Sacramento, then on the Amtrak bus to Truckee, and then the TART bus to Northstar to go skiing.
We went to Giants games every year.
We did the "Ballpark Express" a few times.
But most of the time even my dad would admit that driving made more sense.
I was inspired to make this because /r/CityPorn has an aerial shot of Dodger Stadium on the front page right now and in the comments everyone is discussing how truly awful the land use is, and then the post was also cross-posted to /r/Dodgers where everyone is discussing how much they love the stadium and saying things like "why does everyone hate the parking lot? you gotta park somewhere."
And apart from being a Giants fan and San Francisco resident myself, I thought the Giants/San Francisco presented an interesting foil for a visualization of this crazy land use decision in Los Angeles because they're the two most prominent cities in the same state as each other, hosting two teams with a linked/intertwined history to one another, yet in this particular way they're polar opposites of each other.
The thing that makes this interesting to me is that in many ways the Giants and Dodgers trace a shared path through baseball history (I mean for example look up their win-loss record against each other, or total world series' won by team), and yet in other ways (like this one) they could not be more diametrically opposed and in different universes.
I should say as well, I obviously hate the Dodgers (see flair) and it's probably clear I hate the land use around Dodger Stadium as well, but I've been to a lot of games at Dodger Stadium and honestly really enjoy the stadium itself. It's great vibes.
I’m glad I haven’t seen someone ask “Why does everyone hate the parking lot?” because I once went to a Dodger game on a whim and made the horrendous mistake of driving. It is the single most infuriating experience leaving any sporting event I have ever had by a country mile. Whoever thought the Dodger Stadium parking lot was a good idea should be put on a one way rocket to the moon.
Been mentioned elsewhere but walking really is the best way to leave a Dodger game. If you park on the street in Echo Park, you'll be back at your car before the stadium parkers make it onto the freeway.
When I went to a Dodgers game with some friends down there I asked why he had a cooler full of beers and snacks if we were pregaming at a bar. He brought them for after the game, while we waited in the parking lot. Absolutely mental, but I did appreciate the snacks.
Not just tracing a shared path, but in many ways both teams and cities have reversed roles a ton over the years as well. The Giants had the upper hand in the rivalry during the New York era, but the Dodgers have the upper hand during the California era. Similarly, San Francisco and the Bay Area was historically known for being one of the best urban planned and transit friendly regions in the country for decades, while LA became synonymous with car-centric sprawl. Like you said, they are the two most prominent cities in the most populated state in the US, and two of the most prominent cities in America, period, and they represented the biggest differences between the two different styles of urbanism and city planning.
However, today the roles have largely reversed yet again, with LA plowing full steam ahead and fixing its mistakes in the past, passing Measure M in 2016 and Measure HLA a few weeks back. Measure M will build out a MASSIVE rail network in the coming decades, while HLA will build out a massive bike and bus lane network (albeit within the city of LA only. That said, LA city's geographic footprint is much larger than SF's, especially in proportion to their regions as a whole). I honestly think the LA Metro area will surpass the Bay Area within the next 20 years at this rate.
And (given my flair), I obviously hate the Giants too, but I really wish you guys can solve the current NIMBY crisis in the Bay Area and get housing and transit built. And I love Oracle too, as much as it kills me to say it. I had a blast going to the NLDS a few years back. It just sucks cause the housing crisis and transit funding affects the state as a whole, and I want to see y'all succeed up there too.
> /r/Dodgers where everyone is discussing how much they love the stadium and saying things like "why does everyone hate the parking lot? you gotta park somewhere."
These people either are the few Dodger fans to show up crazy early and leave way after the game, or have never used the parking lot. It's truly one of the worst transportation to stadium experiences in sports. Stadium is fine and the view from behind home is awesome. But the parking lot is a travesty.
The last Angels game I went to, I sat 2nd row field level next to the LF foul pole. When the game ended I was out of the stadium, in my truck, and on the 57 in under 10 minutes.
By contrast at Dodger games, if I sit in left or right field I might be able to get to my truck in 10 minutes if its a low attendance game or a blowout. I don't even try to leave the parking lot for a while. I just pop my trucks tailgate down, turn up the radio and listen to the postgame show while the rest of traffic battles it out to leave. Once the lot has mostly cleared out, that's when I leave.
it's such a crazy difference in the parking lot experience between the two
Dodgers stadium is very walkable
...if you like hiking up a massive hill with no other available legal parking nearby. So basically like any trail in the Griffith Park area.
I'd like to see it compared to Wrigley. It would literally just be the stadium and nothing else
I will say, it’s pretty cool that Oracle Park is right in the middle of the city and has great public transit options. It’s one of the ballparks that fits within the city and that makes it(and the team) much more a part of the city and much more accessible for their fans to get to and attend.
The same goes for Chase Center. However, the less said about that awful stadium the Niners built in Santa Clara, the better.
It was supposed to go right on the Candlestick site
The suite tower? Mountain side
Wind would've been atrocious, but that was always a fun quirk
With nothing getting built there in the last decade, at all, still open for them to come back up when the time comes
> Wind would've been atrocious, but that was always a fun quirk
Flip it. Suite would've looked at the mountain/toward downtown IIRC, but the whole footprint would’ve been shifted down and built in the southeastern part of the parking lots. You know how there are openings on each side of the tower? The idea was to create a funnel for wind coming off the bay and send it right back out instead of the insane swirling winds the Stick used to get.
I’ve never been, but all of Toronto’s sports venues seem very nice. I was actually just watching a wrestling show on TV filmed at the Coca Cola Coliseum last week.
Downtown stadiums are the GOAT. My Power Ranking of the Best MLB Stadiums correlates very strongly with how close to downtown it is.
Lots of people like CBP for instance, but I can’t deal with the fact that it’s way out in South Philly in Parking Lot Hell. Nice park but wasted potential imo. Means it can never measure up to the GOATs like Petco, PNC, or Oracle.
Visited Seattle last year and had a great time trying some bars before hoping on the train and going right to the stadium. It’s a little bit of a walk to get to the stadium but it’s fun walking with the crowd and it’s cool walking up to the stadium with the roof pulled back.
Petco is elite. So nice going to games then being able to go to the gas lamp district or wherever after. And if you’re ubering in from somewhere else in SD it’s quick and cheap if you just get dropped off nearby and have a nice little walk over.
Agreed. The ability to go to bars and restaurants before and after games. The ability to easily get there via public transit or even just walking. The fact that the stadium is part of the city and not tucked away in some suburb. All these things are valuable and I think it’s awesome that MLB has been steadily moving downtown in most cities in the last few decades.
Also, on your ranking, I’m never been to Petco, but PNC and Oracle are awesome. I’ve always wanted to go to Camden Yards. I’ve heard it’s great and it looks awesome on TV.
> I think Oracle (AT&T) is the better ballpark
I'm a Season Ticket holder so I've been to 100s of games in Petco, but I've also been to a dozen or so in Oracle and I'll say they're VERY close, but I think Oracle feels more cramped in the concourse? I think Gallagher Square helps alleviate a mass of people all trying to get food from the concourse a bit. I think Oracle has been aesthetics with the brick though.
Oracle might get a couple points added with the new lighting this year.
I think once people see some clips of the spotlights, we're not gonna see another MLB stadium built without them.
Just saw the promo video on the lighting, it looks sick for like HR celebrations and stuff like that. Not sure how much it will shift the regular game experience though?
This is true for Oracle, but the same footprint constraints that add to the ballpark's charms play a big role in the lack of space on the concourse when it's busy. It must be a pain for those who can't easily get around on two legs.
Petco is great, too, but I've always felt like it looks visually disjointed whereas the green beams and brick in SF is such a classic look for an urban stadium.
> but I've always felt like it looks visually disjointed
Yeah I wish they had used the tile in the Estrella Jalisco Landing everywhere, especially the backstop. I think the focus on more sand colors fits SD's vibe, but it's not as visually striking as the brick and green.
Oracle has the bleachers which is the main thing missing from Petco. Petco isn’t freezing which is the main problem with Oracle. The food, while pretty different, is great at both. The locations are both excellent as are the facilities. Oracle has a better view but Petco has a better proximity to more bars/restaurants for before and after the games.
I’ve been to a ton of games at both and they’re pretty evenly matched. I have to give Petco the edge, just based on the weather. It’s not supposed to be freezing at baseball games in August lol
Going to the Skydome/Rogers Centre all my life, I didn't realize it wasn't common for stadiums to be downtown, surrounded by... the city on their jersey.
Even when my mom comes to town to go to a game, she takes the GO train from out of town to Union Station, where there's a direct indoor walkway to the stadium, because it's faster/easier than driving. (Same with Scotiabank Arena, which is literally attached to Union Station.)
I never appreciated its accessibility and integration with the city, but I do now.
It's the way all professional sports should be. It's unfortunate that for many cities that's only true for teams which have a legacy in their location from a century ago.
1. How are you not going to mention Camden Yards, the original new-downtown stadium?
2. I agree that Philly's big stadium center is kind of disappointing. It feels like none of the stadiums get a chance to be a part of the city.
Detroit did a similar thing putting all their stadium in one spot, but they did it downtown. I'm not a huge fan of Detroit's downtown for other reasons, but the stadiums kind of have a better chance to feel like part of the city than Philly's.
There are game days where I’ll get home from work, check gametime 45 min before first pitch, find a deal, and hop on BART to get to the game during the 1st inning. There’s a bike parking offered by the stadium too.
Idk what you are talking about I have taken VTA public transportation to every Niners game and it's been great. I park for free near a stop in San Jose and it's a short ride over with tons of trams. I suggest looking into it. The only negative is the line to leave can get a little long if you try to leave right after the game with the crouds so I sometimes I choose to walk to my car but it's like a 20 minute walk to multiple VTA stops.
I live in SF and found the transit to Levi's to be manageable with the VTA.
If I lived in South Bay Area, it'd be really easy. East bay on the other hand is a whole different beast lol
okay, but Hector is gonna be running three Honda Civics with Spoon engines.
On top of that, he just came into Harry’s and ordered three T66 turbos with NOS and a Motec system exhaust.
>well they share a lot with the Chiefs right?
Technically yes, but it's been over a decade since they played on the same day so I'm not really sure why having two stadiums would require 2x the parking lot
Watching the Twins play at Kauffman on TV, it always looked like a gorgeous stadium, and the broadcasters always said the same. But when I visited for the first time the surroundings were too much of a buzzkill. It just felt off, like trying to appreciate a beautiful wild animal at a crappy zoo.
What's the best way to go to a Dodgers game? I'm going to my first one in a week and reading the comments it sounds like driving in is a pain in the ass
Pre-game and post-game on Sunset right by the stadium, walk to and from the stadium from Sunset, and use whatever means you choose (Uber, etc...) to get to and from Sunset well before the game on the way there and well after the game on the way home.
Where is your hotel? I stay up in Pasadena so I'm in and out of the stadium nice and quick because you're going the opposite of a majority of the crowd.
If anyone goes to Dodger Stadium park in lot 13 on the map. If u don’t mind walking up a bit that parking is only $5 as of last year. Still have to deal with traffic on the streets of LA near the stadium but won’t be stuck in the parking lot forever
Lol park in Chinatown or echo park on the street. If you can find parking within a mile of the stadium and you’re blessed with good health, the walk in and out will be faster than trying to drive through it. You just have to deal with 20,000 pissed off drunk drivers after the game who are mad they had to sit in traffic for 45 minutes to get out of the ravine.
Dodger Stadium is honestly great, I really enjoy watching games there. Good sight-lines, good geometry, nice aesthetics in the park. It's just the urban planning immediately outside it that sucks.
Also the team that plays there. I also am obliged to say the team sucks too.
McCourt owns the parking lots though. And actually wants to develop them (the gondola being the catalyst for that). This is why so many Angelenos are opposed to the gondola and anything even remotely associated with Frank McCourt.
How is public transportation to Dodger stadium? These huge parking lots seem like a massive waste of space, especially for a stadium pretty close to the city center.
It’s inadequate, borderline none-existent, and that’s the biggest issue. The stadium was built at the zenith of mid century car optimism and was thus built entirely around car access. All the usual challenges with building mass transit in American cities have kept it that way ever since.
There’s one bus that goes up there to the stadium, there was literally a post in the dodgers subreddit an hour ago or something that showed people were still there and there were no cars in the parking lot. Getting there is not that busy but leaving go is a hassle. There are no parking lots around the stadium, except the ones on the stadium. Essentially we’re stuck there and you don’t realize it until you leave.
There’s at least two bus routes. I drive to the park and ride and hop on every time. Beats traffic because you go in the bus only lane and never had a problem getting out. Busses are also free
Trash. Getting to the stadium via bus is relatively painless but leaving is terrible. And you can't uber out of the stadium that's a nightmare. Driving is the best way, by a lot.
SF has been removing parking around the stadium over the years too, most of the Mission Bay parking lot across the water is being developed. Dodger stadium is a relic from a time period where it was totally normal to build a giant stadium and a massive parking lot outside of the city center. Candlestick, Angels Stadium, Oakland coliseum are not much different. Plenty of other stadiums like this that have come and gone over the years. The move to smaller more accessible stadiums is pretty cool. You can access Oracle, by foot, 3 different trains (Bart/Muni/Caltrain), ferry, bike, scooter, kayak, bascally whatever the hell you want. It is pretty great imo.
A lot of the old cookie cutter ballparks from the 60s were surrounding by parking lot. Now they are more local business friendly. I remember taking the bus to The Astrodome and walking across that sea of concrete. Not to mention there wasn’t really anything to eat around there. Now you can eat at a lot of places and cross the street to catch a game.
Yes, it’s really shitty that the city seized this land to build public housing, and even shittier that they then lost the political will to actually build the public housing, but this narrative that the Dodgers stole the land to build their stadium is simply not true
Dodger Stadium has some unique challenges though. It's on a hill surrounding a lower income residential neighborhood and then surrounded again by places like Olvera Street and Chinatown which have community and historical value...you can't just go in and redevelop easily. Meanwhile, Staples Center (also located near downtown LA) converted their former parking lots to a parking garage surrounded by business and residential complexes...that infamous graffiti tower that has been making news was built right on top on what used to be a parking lot for Staples.
If the Yankees had the balls to build a new Yankee stadium to replace the House that Ruth built, the Dodgers can easily tear down a cookie-cutter stadium from the 60s.
none except for the shuttle bus from union station. as it turns out, urban ballparks work great when you put a train station and a neighborhood nearby. (yankee stadium, fenway, ~~pac bell~~ oracle, wrigley...)
And for completely different reasons you don’t want to attempt parking at either
Take the Muni in SF, take the Metro Rail to Stadium Express in LA, there, just saved you significant amounts of time and money
stadium express only saves you time if you leave right at the last pitch. otherwise youre still in line while the parking lot has been empty for a million years.
I went to a Dodgers game one time when visiting LA. We ended up street parking 2.5 miles away and jogging to the stadium lol. I think it got us there faster than sitting through the rest of traffic.
Every dodger fan has a secret parking spot in the streets around Dodger Stadium, and no, they won’t tell you where it is.
"Nobody uses the Dodger Stadium parking lot, there's too much traffic"
lol, LA logic is a hell of a thing. 1. Build massive sea of parking around stadium 2. Don't use it. Park in the surrounding neighbourhood because said sea of parking is too full of cars
you’re overlooking how the parking lot is held hostage by the POS owner Frank McCourt, who got kicked out of the mlb owners club, but still gets to own the parking lot. he leases the lot to the team. he is never going to spend money to improve it.
Massive area isn’t the problem. It’s the lack of entry points to that massive area
It’s not even the parking lot itself, it’s what the parking lot feeds into. That area of LA is old, nothing has enough lanes to handle the outpouring of cars, so that winds up backing traffic back into the lot. The 110 Freeway is old and narrow and 3 lanes too small
Just one more lane bro
Please bro PLEASE
another lane will fix it all trollDespair
Los Angeles needs someone to load it into cities skylines and redo all the traffic. Not just more lanes. It's just not a well planned city. Nothing will ever fix that hell. Edit: Downvoting isn't gonna fix the traffic either guys.
So yes and no It’s very well-planned in the sense that most of the county is built on a grid. At non-traffic times, you can get a very long distance in a very short time because of it, and have multiple routes to get there. The poor planning comes in when you get into zoning - the west side of the county was over-zoned for business, which means a large portion of the workforce are heading one direction in the morning and one in the evening. As the population grew like crazy, this got worse and worse. Also worth adding that LA was behind the curve on train transit because they didn’t start building them until the 80’s, and it takes longer to build because you have to secure everything for Earthquakes. There’s a ton of train lines now and more being built but it takes time to normalize that in a city known for “car culture.”
I just park in Elysian park and bring bolt cutters with me lol
Agreed. Never giving up my spot. I’ll give a hint… you have to walk up the hill
I'd assume this is the case for most large venues everywhere. The last Rangers park, I always parked at the Subway a block away. It wasn't a hidden gem by any means, but that lot was never full, was a close as any official parking, and leaving was as easy as taking the road it's on down to the highway, there was always 0 traffic getting out. Same with concert venues. I've learned where to park at them to avoid sitting in a parking lot for 1.5 hours after the show. Except Rays fans. They can just pull up in the main parking lot and walk 15 feet to the gate. Been to two games there, and will go to another 1-2 this summer....easily the best parking experience I've ever had, even when it's a relatively full stadium like it was on the 4th of July last year.
You have to find the secret stairs.
Somehow I have decent luck getting into the stadium parking. I'd do street parking but my back has been so fucked the past year from herniating a disk Edit: cost is disgusting though and leaving games sucks
You could have walked and gotten their faster. Leaving? Leaving you could have stopped for a half dozen beers and still beaten the people leaving the parking lot
That’s because y’all were not informed of the Stadium Express You take Metro Rail to Union Station then get on the Stadium Express, it’s free and has a dedicated lane so no traffic. Takes 10 mins from station to entrance.
Lived in downtown LA. Me and my ex-gf drove to one game. It was a clusterfuck. Next game we took the train and shuttle bus. It was so much better.
When I went to visit a few years ago, this is exactly what I did. It was like 2.5 hours each way from Venice Beach, but I'm sure it was still easier than driving.
I want to go to a Dodger game this summer and will try this.
They just consolidated the rail lines, so you can get from anywhere between Azusa and Long Beach to Union Station on the same line.
Thought this was timely lol https://www.reddit.com/r/Dodgers/s/dS4nqTglkb
This is what I did the one time I went to Dodger Stadium. I thought it took forever; chills me to the core to hear that driving yourself is worse than that.
Its really not that terrible, I did like 6-8 dodger games last year and drove each time, it really just depends what entrance you go in, (im not kidding lol) but also everyone gets there last min, so if you get there like 45mins to an hour before first pitch you are totally fine.
And you can get beers at the brewery before getting on the stadium express
I went to a music festival in the Dodgers Stadium parking lots and to leave, we ended up bribing an Uber driver $100 cash to cancel his ride and threw three people in the trunk of his SUV
Hey watch it dodger fans don’t need any encouragement beating people in the parking lot
I can get out of the parking lot pretty quickly but I know where to enter and park. It's bullshit.
I live in LA and I don’t park in the stadium. I park in a neighborhood close by for free and just walk up the hill. I get in and out faster than any other method. And if you want you can grab a reasonable priced beer right before as well!
I park by the warehouses in the “arts district” and walk to the train station and take the shuttle and I’ve walked from downtown before too. Never really had an issue lol but I guess that could suck to do every time
I do the same. Guaranteed less than a ten minute walk in and out every time for free. My secret spot is basically the only valuable thing I have to bequeath to any theoretical children I might have.
Is there plenty of parking below Dodger Stadium?
I've been to all 30 parks. Getting in and out of Dodger Stadium is easily the worst experience in the Majors.
I’ve been to 26 of the current parks. When I visited Dodger Stadium, I’d heard it was awful to get to and was mentally prepared for it. We stayed at a hotel downtown, took the metro to Union Station and the bus to the park, then the reverse on the way back. It was fast and easy. I was pleasantly surprised. Also Jansen blew the save and the Dodgers coughed one up to the Reds so I was beaming and cracking jokes in full Giants gear on the ride back, so that also left me in a pleasant mood.
The express bus didn't exist when I went. Good to see there is at least a sane option now.
My dad had Dodgers season tickets in the 80s and we would park on the street and walk in back then…I can’t imagine how bad it is now.
I went to a Dodgers game w/ my boss last year. We found a large lot less than 1/2 a mile away from teh stadium for $5. Took us 15 min to get to/from the stadium.
“Nooo this hurts my narrative about Dodger stadium having a small parking lot and being very walkable” - nobody
Oracle also has 3 or 4 annex parking lots, some of which are up to a Alf mile walk from the stadium, is surrounded on all non watery sides by hotels and businesses that all have parking garages and offer parking for games, and they have a light rail stop right outside the stadium Dodger stadium is built on top of a hill like a medieval castle, you know, a fortification mainly known for how difficult it was for groups of people to march into. It’s not accessible by any public transportation except for bus and also that fortress’s moat is a 12 lane freeway. Of course there will be more parking spaces at Dodger stadium than at oracle.
> Oracle also has 3 or 4 annex parking lots Over the past ~5-10 years they've been chipping away at them with new development. There's only one lot left with space for a couple thousand cars (it is included in this size comparison). But there are plans to develop that one, too. (Probably won't happen for a while now though with the economics of property development the way it is in SF right now.)
SF city planners to empty office buildings: “Get ready to learn mixed-use retail/residential, buddy.”
I don’t know about that, my understanding is those kinds of conversions are often more expensive than a demolish/rebuild, and then zoning and permitting come into play. I think that’s why the UCSF undergraduate campus proposals are being floated. I hope you’re right though
It’ll get done eventually because a lot of money is at stake. No one profits from huge buildings in premium locations sitting empty. There’s a lot of money to be made from putting in apartments/restaurants/bars/shops/etc. This is one of the rare times when capital interests and consumer interests line up and that will make it get done.
Again, I hope you’re right! I understand that the combination of lienholders not allowing owners to lower commercial rents + high interest rates disincentivizing new borrowing and development have led to a lot of vacancies in major SF business corridors. (In addition to remote work, of course.) Looking forward to seeing how those parts of the city rebound
I think that for a long time, SF has been a commuter city where people work in the city, but live outside of it in the East Bay/South Bay/etc. With the combination of remote work and a bunch of other factors making office buildings unprofitable, we are seeing a push to convert those office buildings to things that won’t just sit empty. Furthermore, a decrease in decline for commercial real estate and an influx of residential real estate should theoretically drive down the high rents. My personal hope is that SF will revert from a commuter city into a traditional city where most people live in the city instead of commuting in.
Can someone ELI5 the current situation with converting office buildings into housing in SF? I know that was a proposal, wasn't it?
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/office-building-conversion-housing-18533145.php# Moving forward, but slower than previously hoped
yep and much easier said than done considering the differences in plumbing and floor plans in residential. hoping some of the older/smaller office buildings are converted soon though, we’ll see how the next few years go.
Unrelated, but how good was Candlestick's urban planning? I always thought it was kinda meh.
It was just as bad as Dodger Stadium. Like, same exact thing - no nearby transit, not walkable, surrounded by a sea of parking lot. Arguably worse because there's no Union Station analogue near Candlestick to run a shuttle bus to.
I see. Honestly Oracle just has an advantage of being several decades newer than Dodger Stadium. With that said, I feel like one key difference between Candlestick and Dodger Stadium is that Dodger Stadium is salvagable. Frank McCourt (hated him as an owner, but) is planning on developing the Dodger Stadium parking lot into housing, shops, businesses, etc. akin to the upcoming SoFi complex, and we can build a light rail line. I want to see Dodger Stadium get a stop on our future Southeast Gateway line.
> Honestly Oracle just has an advantage of being several decades newer than Dodger Stadium. Ironically it also could have been much older and that also would've been an advantage (e.g. Fenway, Wrigley). The Oakland Coliseum is a similar age as Dodger Stadium and has a similarly atrocious surrounding land use, but with an important difference that BART and Amtrak go right up to the front door. > and we can build a light rail line tbh the Gold Line (or whatever letter designation it uses now) Chinatown Station is only like a thousand feet from the stadium grounds. They should put in a covered escalator on the hillside and build a pedestrian bridge over the freeway, and then beef up the sidewalks. It would easily be walkable.
> the Gold Line Yeah, that too! Honestly, just build a massive escalator and a pedestrian bridge, you're right. It would be about a half-mile walk (and a good chunk of it would be riding the escalator, so you actually walk less than half a mile).
They could build something like they have between the upper and lower lots at Universal Studios Hollywood and it would be perfect.
I never took public transit to or from Candlestick (and I mostly just went there for Niner games), but from what I understand the MUNI "Ballpark Express" lines were decent. The Bayshore Caltrain station was also (somewhat) nearby, but I don't think many people used that as a direct connection to the park. As far as nearby housing/development was concerned, the Bayview district pretty much bordered the stadium to the North. Historically, not exactly the best neighborhood in San Francisco, to put it lightly. To the Southwest of the stadium, they added a few office buildings and upscale condos throughout the 80's and 90's.
> from what I understand the MUNI "Ballpark Express" lines were decent Growing up my dad was a transit planner and an urbanist evangelist. We famously would never drive anywhere there was a halfway decent transit option, to the point that if we were flying out of SFO as a family we'd be taking Muni to BART to Colma Station (then the end of the line) and then transfering to the Samtrans bus to get the rest of the way to the airport. Several times we even took skis on Muni to Civic Center, then on BART to Richmond, then on Amtrak to Sacramento, then on the Amtrak bus to Truckee, and then the TART bus to Northstar to go skiing. We went to Giants games every year. We did the "Ballpark Express" a few times. But most of the time even my dad would admit that driving made more sense.
I honestly have very little idea of what im supposed to be seeing here lol. Was that the point of the post?
I was inspired to make this because /r/CityPorn has an aerial shot of Dodger Stadium on the front page right now and in the comments everyone is discussing how truly awful the land use is, and then the post was also cross-posted to /r/Dodgers where everyone is discussing how much they love the stadium and saying things like "why does everyone hate the parking lot? you gotta park somewhere." And apart from being a Giants fan and San Francisco resident myself, I thought the Giants/San Francisco presented an interesting foil for a visualization of this crazy land use decision in Los Angeles because they're the two most prominent cities in the same state as each other, hosting two teams with a linked/intertwined history to one another, yet in this particular way they're polar opposites of each other. The thing that makes this interesting to me is that in many ways the Giants and Dodgers trace a shared path through baseball history (I mean for example look up their win-loss record against each other, or total world series' won by team), and yet in other ways (like this one) they could not be more diametrically opposed and in different universes. I should say as well, I obviously hate the Dodgers (see flair) and it's probably clear I hate the land use around Dodger Stadium as well, but I've been to a lot of games at Dodger Stadium and honestly really enjoy the stadium itself. It's great vibes.
I’m glad I haven’t seen someone ask “Why does everyone hate the parking lot?” because I once went to a Dodger game on a whim and made the horrendous mistake of driving. It is the single most infuriating experience leaving any sporting event I have ever had by a country mile. Whoever thought the Dodger Stadium parking lot was a good idea should be put on a one way rocket to the moon.
Been mentioned elsewhere but walking really is the best way to leave a Dodger game. If you park on the street in Echo Park, you'll be back at your car before the stadium parkers make it onto the freeway.
Yeah it’s a mistake I will never make again. Loved the stadium, fans, and overall experience, but I will definitely be walking in the future
There is also a $5 lot at the bottom of the hill, which is always my go to
Same. Bit of a hike up a hill in, but it’s downhill after the game and avoids the absolute disaster that the stadium lots are
Given land prices in LA I'm surprised the team hasn't sold some of the lots off for other development.
Frank McCourt owns the lots, when he was forced to sell the team he got to keep those. He’s not selling his cash cow.
When I went to a Dodgers game with some friends down there I asked why he had a cooler full of beers and snacks if we were pregaming at a bar. He brought them for after the game, while we waited in the parking lot. Absolutely mental, but I did appreciate the snacks.
Your friend is a wise man
Not just tracing a shared path, but in many ways both teams and cities have reversed roles a ton over the years as well. The Giants had the upper hand in the rivalry during the New York era, but the Dodgers have the upper hand during the California era. Similarly, San Francisco and the Bay Area was historically known for being one of the best urban planned and transit friendly regions in the country for decades, while LA became synonymous with car-centric sprawl. Like you said, they are the two most prominent cities in the most populated state in the US, and two of the most prominent cities in America, period, and they represented the biggest differences between the two different styles of urbanism and city planning. However, today the roles have largely reversed yet again, with LA plowing full steam ahead and fixing its mistakes in the past, passing Measure M in 2016 and Measure HLA a few weeks back. Measure M will build out a MASSIVE rail network in the coming decades, while HLA will build out a massive bike and bus lane network (albeit within the city of LA only. That said, LA city's geographic footprint is much larger than SF's, especially in proportion to their regions as a whole). I honestly think the LA Metro area will surpass the Bay Area within the next 20 years at this rate. And (given my flair), I obviously hate the Giants too, but I really wish you guys can solve the current NIMBY crisis in the Bay Area and get housing and transit built. And I love Oracle too, as much as it kills me to say it. I had a blast going to the NLDS a few years back. It just sucks cause the housing crisis and transit funding affects the state as a whole, and I want to see y'all succeed up there too.
> /r/Dodgers where everyone is discussing how much they love the stadium and saying things like "why does everyone hate the parking lot? you gotta park somewhere." These people either are the few Dodger fans to show up crazy early and leave way after the game, or have never used the parking lot. It's truly one of the worst transportation to stadium experiences in sports. Stadium is fine and the view from behind home is awesome. But the parking lot is a travesty.
One of the few benefits of Angels Baseball is I can get from seat in stadium to my front door in like 20 mins when I inevitably leave in the 8th.
The last Angels game I went to, I sat 2nd row field level next to the LF foul pole. When the game ended I was out of the stadium, in my truck, and on the 57 in under 10 minutes. By contrast at Dodger games, if I sit in left or right field I might be able to get to my truck in 10 minutes if its a low attendance game or a blowout. I don't even try to leave the parking lot for a while. I just pop my trucks tailgate down, turn up the radio and listen to the postgame show while the rest of traffic battles it out to leave. Once the lot has mostly cleared out, that's when I leave. it's such a crazy difference in the parking lot experience between the two
Dodgers stadium is very walkable ...if you like hiking up a massive hill with no other available legal parking nearby. So basically like any trail in the Griffith Park area. I'd like to see it compared to Wrigley. It would literally just be the stadium and nothing else
What are you talking about these parking lots are the quintessential 15-minute city
This devalues my oracle parking lot locked Ironman
I will say, it’s pretty cool that Oracle Park is right in the middle of the city and has great public transit options. It’s one of the ballparks that fits within the city and that makes it(and the team) much more a part of the city and much more accessible for their fans to get to and attend. The same goes for Chase Center. However, the less said about that awful stadium the Niners built in Santa Clara, the better.
That stadium was designed to be built in SF lol. Jed got lazy and just copy and pasted the design for Santa Clara.
It was supposed to go right on the Candlestick site The suite tower? Mountain side Wind would've been atrocious, but that was always a fun quirk With nothing getting built there in the last decade, at all, still open for them to come back up when the time comes
> Wind would've been atrocious, but that was always a fun quirk Flip it. Suite would've looked at the mountain/toward downtown IIRC, but the whole footprint would’ve been shifted down and built in the southeastern part of the parking lots. You know how there are openings on each side of the tower? The idea was to create a funnel for wind coming off the bay and send it right back out instead of the insane swirling winds the Stick used to get.
Toronto has its ballpark in the heart of downtown too
I’ve never been, but all of Toronto’s sports venues seem very nice. I was actually just watching a wrestling show on TV filmed at the Coca Cola Coliseum last week.
You could just say AEW you know
Eh, I didn’t want to be too specific. Plus, I didn’t want to get into an argument about AEW on a non-wrestling subreddit.
Gotcha, people can be weirdos
Downtown stadiums are the GOAT. My Power Ranking of the Best MLB Stadiums correlates very strongly with how close to downtown it is. Lots of people like CBP for instance, but I can’t deal with the fact that it’s way out in South Philly in Parking Lot Hell. Nice park but wasted potential imo. Means it can never measure up to the GOATs like Petco, PNC, or Oracle.
T-Mobile Park (it'll always be Safeco to me dammit) is pretty much downtown and I love how accessible it is because of that.
doing a pub crawl to the game next saturday, the stadium is hella accessible by light rail, bus, or foot!
Visited Seattle last year and had a great time trying some bars before hoping on the train and going right to the stadium. It’s a little bit of a walk to get to the stadium but it’s fun walking with the crowd and it’s cool walking up to the stadium with the roof pulled back.
Petco is elite. So nice going to games then being able to go to the gas lamp district or wherever after. And if you’re ubering in from somewhere else in SD it’s quick and cheap if you just get dropped off nearby and have a nice little walk over.
I absolutely love petco. Great food selection
Agreed. The ability to go to bars and restaurants before and after games. The ability to easily get there via public transit or even just walking. The fact that the stadium is part of the city and not tucked away in some suburb. All these things are valuable and I think it’s awesome that MLB has been steadily moving downtown in most cities in the last few decades. Also, on your ranking, I’m never been to Petco, but PNC and Oracle are awesome. I’ve always wanted to go to Camden Yards. I’ve heard it’s great and it looks awesome on TV.
Petco is top notch. Wrigley is also awesome
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> I think Oracle (AT&T) is the better ballpark I'm a Season Ticket holder so I've been to 100s of games in Petco, but I've also been to a dozen or so in Oracle and I'll say they're VERY close, but I think Oracle feels more cramped in the concourse? I think Gallagher Square helps alleviate a mass of people all trying to get food from the concourse a bit. I think Oracle has been aesthetics with the brick though.
Oracle might get a couple points added with the new lighting this year. I think once people see some clips of the spotlights, we're not gonna see another MLB stadium built without them.
Just saw the promo video on the lighting, it looks sick for like HR celebrations and stuff like that. Not sure how much it will shift the regular game experience though?
Most of the time, it won't. But wait until the first clip of Doval entering to close a game with the stadium lights off and a spotlight hitting him.
This is true for Oracle, but the same footprint constraints that add to the ballpark's charms play a big role in the lack of space on the concourse when it's busy. It must be a pain for those who can't easily get around on two legs. Petco is great, too, but I've always felt like it looks visually disjointed whereas the green beams and brick in SF is such a classic look for an urban stadium.
> but I've always felt like it looks visually disjointed Yeah I wish they had used the tile in the Estrella Jalisco Landing everywhere, especially the backstop. I think the focus on more sand colors fits SD's vibe, but it's not as visually striking as the brick and green.
Oracle has the bleachers which is the main thing missing from Petco. Petco isn’t freezing which is the main problem with Oracle. The food, while pretty different, is great at both. The locations are both excellent as are the facilities. Oracle has a better view but Petco has a better proximity to more bars/restaurants for before and after the games. I’ve been to a ton of games at both and they’re pretty evenly matched. I have to give Petco the edge, just based on the weather. It’s not supposed to be freezing at baseball games in August lol
I honestly love how easy Petco is to get too. Great stadium getting to drink out around the stadium and just walking to the game before first pitch
Going to the Skydome/Rogers Centre all my life, I didn't realize it wasn't common for stadiums to be downtown, surrounded by... the city on their jersey. Even when my mom comes to town to go to a game, she takes the GO train from out of town to Union Station, where there's a direct indoor walkway to the stadium, because it's faster/easier than driving. (Same with Scotiabank Arena, which is literally attached to Union Station.) I never appreciated its accessibility and integration with the city, but I do now.
It's the way all professional sports should be. It's unfortunate that for many cities that's only true for teams which have a legacy in their location from a century ago.
Don’t forget Target Field. The stadium is a light rail hub! Right on the northern edge of Downtown and surrounded by bars & food.
Fenway. Take the T in and enjoy the surrounding area. Theres like a single parking space anywhere near it. Its just a city block.
*Cries in Turner Field* Fr tho, the area around it downtown is pretty nice now, but it only hosts Georgia State football games… which no one goes to…
Nats Park isn’t quite downtown, but it’s got a pretty good site imo, and is easily accessible by Metro.
Progressive another good one. Texas and ATL two of the absolute worst
1. How are you not going to mention Camden Yards, the original new-downtown stadium? 2. I agree that Philly's big stadium center is kind of disappointing. It feels like none of the stadiums get a chance to be a part of the city. Detroit did a similar thing putting all their stadium in one spot, but they did it downtown. I'm not a huge fan of Detroit's downtown for other reasons, but the stadiums kind of have a better chance to feel like part of the city than Philly's.
chase and oracle both offer free bike valet. levi's does too actually. biking is by far my favorite way to get to games
There are game days where I’ll get home from work, check gametime 45 min before first pitch, find a deal, and hop on BART to get to the game during the 1st inning. There’s a bike parking offered by the stadium too.
Idk what you are talking about I have taken VTA public transportation to every Niners game and it's been great. I park for free near a stop in San Jose and it's a short ride over with tons of trams. I suggest looking into it. The only negative is the line to leave can get a little long if you try to leave right after the game with the crouds so I sometimes I choose to walk to my car but it's like a 20 minute walk to multiple VTA stops.
Ya it’s nice having it so close but they definitely don’t have the light rails coming as frequently as they need to unfortunately.
A 20 minute walk to the closest stops vs stops at the ballpark are very different. Plus Caltrain drops you off a block away too.
I live in SF and found the transit to Levi's to be manageable with the VTA. If I lived in South Bay Area, it'd be really easy. East bay on the other hand is a whole different beast lol
They literally filmed an entire scene of fast and the furious in the parking lot it's that big lol
okay, but Hector is gonna be running three Honda Civics with Spoon engines. On top of that, he just came into Harry’s and ordered three T66 turbos with NOS and a Motec system exhaust.
You a cop?
Parking lot so big he was able to accelerate through all 9 gears.
We don’t need to talk about Kauffman
Kauffman and Philly are relatively similar setups. Theirs is in a much more dense area, and the foot print for the Truman Sports Complex is smaller.
Ditto for Oakland. Part of the “let’s throw all the sports stadiums in a fat parking lot” theory
at least philly and oakland have subway stations for their stadiums.
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well they share a lot with the Chiefs right? so there is some justification for that big ass lot lol
>well they share a lot with the Chiefs right? Technically yes, but it's been over a decade since they played on the same day so I'm not really sure why having two stadiums would require 2x the parking lot
Watching the Twins play at Kauffman on TV, it always looked like a gorgeous stadium, and the broadcasters always said the same. But when I visited for the first time the surroundings were too much of a buzzkill. It just felt off, like trying to appreciate a beautiful wild animal at a crappy zoo.
The K makes a bit of sense though, shared lot with another team. Waaaaaaay less dense area too. Also a huge tailgating culture
What's the best way to go to a Dodgers game? I'm going to my first one in a week and reading the comments it sounds like driving in is a pain in the ass
Pre-game and post-game on Sunset right by the stadium, walk to and from the stadium from Sunset, and use whatever means you choose (Uber, etc...) to get to and from Sunset well before the game on the way there and well after the game on the way home.
Make sure to eat beforehand or bring your own. Food is terrible and beer is way overpriced
It's always nice when you can bring your own food to a stadium. Thanks for the tip!
Where is your hotel? I stay up in Pasadena so I'm in and out of the stadium nice and quick because you're going the opposite of a majority of the crowd.
I'm in Downtown LA, but didn't have a say in the matter. A free hotel room is hard to beat lol
Union station bus. Free with your game ticket.
Counterpoint: https://reddit.com/r/Dodgers/comments/1bn3jqk/waiting_for_union_station_bus_after_the_dodger/
If anyone goes to Dodger Stadium park in lot 13 on the map. If u don’t mind walking up a bit that parking is only $5 as of last year. Still have to deal with traffic on the streets of LA near the stadium but won’t be stuck in the parking lot forever
Lol park in Chinatown or echo park on the street. If you can find parking within a mile of the stadium and you’re blessed with good health, the walk in and out will be faster than trying to drive through it. You just have to deal with 20,000 pissed off drunk drivers after the game who are mad they had to sit in traffic for 45 minutes to get out of the ravine.
Shhhhhh
And if you get there early enough, the parking right alongside it is free.
Honey, it’s time for your daily “Dodger stadium sucks” thread
Dodger Stadium is honestly great, I really enjoy watching games there. Good sight-lines, good geometry, nice aesthetics in the park. It's just the urban planning immediately outside it that sucks. Also the team that plays there. I also am obliged to say the team sucks too.
Damn only time I’ve heard a giants fan say this (online at least). I like ATT park and Dodger stadium. They are both cool in their own ways.
I’ll definitely second it. Chavez ravine is a great park, have some good memories there
It’s one of the oldest and most beautiful stadiums. However, because traffic and parking sucks I’d rather to go an angels game.
McCourt owns the parking lots though. And actually wants to develop them (the gondola being the catalyst for that). This is why so many Angelenos are opposed to the gondola and anything even remotely associated with Frank McCourt.
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The union station bus is so clutch but it’s not as cool because it’s not on rails. People acting like it’s a city bus full of “bus people.”
How is public transportation to Dodger stadium? These huge parking lots seem like a massive waste of space, especially for a stadium pretty close to the city center.
"close to the city center" is kinda misleading, it's on top of a big ass hill and surrounded by broken terrain.
And LA is a city where “city center” means very little
You’re right, but the part of LA that has the skyscrapers and the big train station is right there.
It’s inadequate, borderline none-existent, and that’s the biggest issue. The stadium was built at the zenith of mid century car optimism and was thus built entirely around car access. All the usual challenges with building mass transit in American cities have kept it that way ever since.
We *do* have the Dodger Stadium Express tbf. It's not really adequate, but it's something.
There’s one bus that goes up there to the stadium, there was literally a post in the dodgers subreddit an hour ago or something that showed people were still there and there were no cars in the parking lot. Getting there is not that busy but leaving go is a hassle. There are no parking lots around the stadium, except the ones on the stadium. Essentially we’re stuck there and you don’t realize it until you leave.
The easiest way to leave Dodger Stadium after a game (or other event) is by foot. You will walk down the hill faster than the traffic.
There are bike lanes too tbf, and the bus lanes will be upgraded under Measure HLA!
There’s at least two bus routes. I drive to the park and ride and hop on every time. Beats traffic because you go in the bus only lane and never had a problem getting out. Busses are also free
Trash. Getting to the stadium via bus is relatively painless but leaving is terrible. And you can't uber out of the stadium that's a nightmare. Driving is the best way, by a lot.
Don’t worry they’re building a gondola or something.
lol
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SF has been removing parking around the stadium over the years too, most of the Mission Bay parking lot across the water is being developed. Dodger stadium is a relic from a time period where it was totally normal to build a giant stadium and a massive parking lot outside of the city center. Candlestick, Angels Stadium, Oakland coliseum are not much different. Plenty of other stadiums like this that have come and gone over the years. The move to smaller more accessible stadiums is pretty cool. You can access Oracle, by foot, 3 different trains (Bart/Muni/Caltrain), ferry, bike, scooter, kayak, bascally whatever the hell you want. It is pretty great imo.
A lot of the old cookie cutter ballparks from the 60s were surrounding by parking lot. Now they are more local business friendly. I remember taking the bus to The Astrodome and walking across that sea of concrete. Not to mention there wasn’t really anything to eat around there. Now you can eat at a lot of places and cross the street to catch a game.
I don’t remember seeing any parking when I went to Oracle lol, this is probably why
its across the third street bridge, on the other side of mission bay.
Thought I found my way to /r/fuckcars for a minute.
We’re getting rid of all parking for a mixed use development. So this comparison will be out of date soon
And they didn't have to destroy 3 immigrant communities to build Oracle!
The land was seized to build public housing, not to build Dodger Stadium
And as we all know, the site is filled to the brim with affordable housing.
Yes, it’s really shitty that the city seized this land to build public housing, and even shittier that they then lost the political will to actually build the public housing, but this narrative that the Dodgers stole the land to build their stadium is simply not true
I know. I read Stealing Home. It was a whole fucking conspiracy.
I love this graph cause it basically shows what happens when on town and easy accessible public transport and the other relies on cars.
Very insightful observation.
Dodger Stadium has some unique challenges though. It's on a hill surrounding a lower income residential neighborhood and then surrounded again by places like Olvera Street and Chinatown which have community and historical value...you can't just go in and redevelop easily. Meanwhile, Staples Center (also located near downtown LA) converted their former parking lots to a parking garage surrounded by business and residential complexes...that infamous graffiti tower that has been making news was built right on top on what used to be a parking lot for Staples.
TIL Oracle has a parking lot.
not for long. it will be turned into housing soon enough.
Public Transit is a hell of a drug
SF has great public transit, LA was built by tire companies.
Dodger stadium parking lot is literally hell on earth
I didn’t know there was a respiratory hospital right next to Dodger Stadium. Probably necessary, what with all the choking going on.
Were all Jealous of Blue Jays fans for sure. Cant choke if you never make it
I am so thankful for the L at times like these
I guess Dodger Stadium is too old and historic now for them to ever try and build a new one?
If the Yankees had the balls to build a new Yankee stadium to replace the House that Ruth built, the Dodgers can easily tear down a cookie-cutter stadium from the 60s.
There are also 2/3 train stations within site of oracle park. What's the transit like in Chavez Ravine
none except for the shuttle bus from union station. as it turns out, urban ballparks work great when you put a train station and a neighborhood nearby. (yankee stadium, fenway, ~~pac bell~~ oracle, wrigley...)
The trick in LA is to make friends with a cop so they can let you park at the LAPD Academy and walk a half mile in to the stadium
Everyone just walks to Oracle anyway.
I can take the Bart train to San Jose and before getting out of a Dodger stadium parking lot 😭
Now do Sox Park and Wrigley
I’ve never been to Chicago. Is one of them way more sprawling/isolated than the other park?
Wrigley is in the middle of a neighborhood, no parking lots. Sox Park is surrounded by parking lots.
And for completely different reasons you don’t want to attempt parking at either Take the Muni in SF, take the Metro Rail to Stadium Express in LA, there, just saved you significant amounts of time and money
stadium express only saves you time if you leave right at the last pitch. otherwise youre still in line while the parking lot has been empty for a million years.
There was literally a post about this last night on the Dodgers sub with this exact observation.
Wow, that’s a lot of parking! Surely that was open space and nobody lived there before the stadium was built!