Los Angeles at large is talking about the D-word after the Dodgers lost to the Phillies last night. But in Echo Park the D-word became the D-word when the team started winning. Because that is when the traffic started to become unbearable. One neighborhood list is clogged with posts about how the McCourt Dodgers organization has underperformed (throat clearing) on promises to control traffic in the neighborhood after it reopened the Scott Avenue gate. Lots of questions about why the MTA doesn't have special bus service. A report of beer bottles and condoms. A moment of truth that was all but scheduled a couple of years ago when the Dodgers attended community meetings and tried to quell residents' doubts about the extra tri-zillion cars that would be tiptoeing (ha!) through the neighborhood after big games, upon the reopening of the Scott Avenue Gate. (If you're new to the issue, the newest Dodgers owners opened a gate that had been closed for years, due to an uprising of local residents in the mid-'90s.)

On one list, a neighbor offered:

We're lucky if it's only broken beer bottles we find, there are usually a bunch of used condoms strewn around, too.

The McCourt Dodgers probably hoped the neighborhood would become acclimated in stages and then give up on ever having the Scott Avenue gate shut. The same way you hope a rival team will get acclimated to losing.

Chicken Corner is heartened to see renewed passion for a renewed padlocking of the dreaded gate.