Hands off Dodger Stadium

San Francisco Chronicle book critic David Kipen is a native of Los Angeles and a fan of the Dodgers. He crossed jurisdictions to pen a piece in the LAT Sunday Opinion section warning prospective Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to keep the stadium sacred - and to open the parking lots to downtown commuters.

I have faith in McCourt, and for two reasons. First, I'm a Dodger fan. Without faith, what would be the point?

Second, and more important, there's a way for McCourt to make a mint and still leave Dodger Stadium right where it belongs. It all comes down to this: What does downtown L.A. need much more than a ravine full of new condos? Easy parking at nonextortionate rates.

And what does Dodger Stadium have in abundance, 20 hours a day for 90 days a year, and around the clock for the other 275? Empty parking spaces, 16,000 of them, readily accessible from three freeways. Just think about the congestion that would take off downtown's many delightful one-way streets.

Speaking of downtown, in an LAT op-ed piece today Marjorie Gellhorn Sa'adah advises people thinking of buying into the downtown-living trend to realize they are moving into a non-stop movie set -- and the film crews take precedence.

Trendy tenants be forewarned. With your city views and granite countertops comes this: In your first year here, there will be permits written for 7,500 days of filming in two City Council districts that contain downtown. That's 20 years of filming in one year, which is exactly what it will feel like.

You will complain, which will get you elected building captain, like you need a purgatory do-over of student council.

You will chuck your Thomas Bros. Guide and instead carry the L.A. Garment & Citizen, a free local paper that lists the week's filming locations...It all hinges on your willingness to live with hovering choppers, the sound of gunfire, Klieg lights in your bedroom window.

Update 1:40 p.m.: Also, the Downtown News runs a piece on the five-year anniversary of Tom Gilmore's Old Bank District revival, credited by many with juicing the residential trend downtown.