A Lakers game at Crypto.com Arena, a U.S.C. game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a concert at the new Intuit Dome and a rivalry high school football matchup at SoFi Stadium added to the gridlock on L.A.’s freeways on Friday and Saturday. But that didn’t stop Dodgers fans from making their way to Chavez Ravine to see their team battle the Yankees in the first two games of the World Series — with the home team coming away with the win on both nights.
In a city not known for its alternative transportation methods, residents, who traveled from every corner of the county and beyond, found a new sense of unity as they walked alongside one another on the sidewalks of neighboring Elysian Park, sat side by side on Dodger buses leaving from Union Station and took advantage of free rides on the Metro.
“Like the true New Yorker I am, I took the Metro,” said Elliot Wechsler, 18, a student at Syracuse University, whose grandfather was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and instilled in his grandson a love of the Yankees after the Dodgers left for L.A.
L.A. is known as a vastly horizontal city built on freeways — a car culture with directional challenges that have been ridiculed on shows such as “Saturday Night Live” in the recurring skit “The Californians,” and written about in pop songs like the ’80s hit “Walking in L.A.” by Missing Persons.
But navigating the city without a car is not impossible.
Anticipating the crush of fans heading to Dodger Stadium, Metro Los Angeles posted a video on X of how to reach the stadium from the Chinatown station on foot. It detailed the 1.2-mile walk onto a pedestrian bridge that goes over the 110 freeway and a hike through Elysian Park, which connects the Echo Park, Westlake and Angelino Heights neighborhoods. The path has been a staple for locals and Dodger fans alike over the years. There is also L.A.’s metro bus — known by many as “the Dodger bus” — which offers fans free rides from Union Station with proof of a game ticket.
“Everyone in L.A. was complaining about the Metro being way too difficult and the 25-minute walk,” said Mr. Wechsler. “The Metro is the greatest thing in L.A. that no one really uses and it took me 30 minutes to get to Chinatown from Santa Monica.”
Late Friday afternoon, Mitch Hammock, 51, a farmer, and Breanna Scott, 36, a restaurant owner, rushed to park their car and quickly scanned for their electric scooters before they tackled the roughly 30-minute obstacle course from Chinatown.
“We just bought our tickets this morning,” said Mr. Hammock in his Yankees jersey, while Ms. Scott proudly wore Dodgers gear.
The couple had bought two $700 tickets to Game 1 and drove almost three hours from their home in the Mojave Desert. “It took us a minute to get here,” Mr. Hammack said. “Dead stop traffic with two car crashes and so we decided to get off the freeway to take side streets and found these scooters.”
The challenge included climbing a spiral ramp, crossing a pedestrian bridge over the freeway and walking uphill to the stadium’s front gates with less than 30 minutes to spare before the game started.
It was a path many fans trekked over the weekend.
Neil Soto, 41, came from San Bernardino to attend Game 2 with his family, with everyone dressed in Dodger blue. After an exhausting three-hour journey — an hour longer than normal — they arrived at the Chinatown pedestrian bridge.
“Normally we park inside for games but the traffic and the price for parking was crazy,” Mr. Soto said.
Parking is typically $30 at Dodger Stadium, but that increased to $70 for the World Series, with some of the passes being resold for close to $6,000 ahead of Game 1.
One resident found an entrepreneurial opportunity, offering his own shuttle service from the pedestrian bridge. Charging $20 per person, he drove fans up a hill on Stadium Way in a black golf truck.
Jon Calderon and his wife, Beatrice, debated paying for the service but decided to walk 30 minutes up the hill instead. The couple, both of whom are Yankees fans, had flown in from Texas on Friday and managed to attend both games in L.A.
“We drove from LAX, and I drove a rented car like a mad man and got to the stadium with 15 minutes to spare,” said Mr. Calderon, 58, a financial adviser who is originally from the Bronx. “In the El Paso Airport we met two Dodger fans and they didn’t have a ride to the game so we all rode together.”
Oliver Walsh and Nate Grose, friends on opposite sides of the rivalry (Mr. Walsh is a Yankees fan, while Mr. Gross is rooting for the Dodgers), parked nearby at the Highland Park Brewery where they pregamed before heading out on foot, walking for close to 40 minutes to the stadium.
“We both need to get our steps in,” said Mr. Walsh, 32. “If L.A. were New York, they would just call the Chinatown Metro station, the Dodger Stadium Metro.”
A common theme was people saying they had anticipated how hard it would be to drive, which led them to find other ways to the games.
“I knew L.A. was going to be a mess and I didn’t want to deal with it so I hopped on the train, the scooter and now walked,” said Damaris Parris, 46, a bartender from Azusa who was rooting for the Dodgers at Game 1. “People think we just sit in our cars here but we also get creative and walk from time to time.”
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