HOME GAMES: An effort to remedy one of the most infamous modern injustices in California is running into resistance from an unexpected source. Activists who have long pushed for recognition and compensation for the families displaced to build Dodger Stadium are coming out against a proposal that would put them on a path to reparations. Buried Under the Blue, a community group that’s been advocating on behalf of the displaced people and their descendants, wants the legislation to specifically name the Dodgers, give the land back and force the team to pick up most of the cost of fixing the decades- old injustice. “This cannot be the cleansing of the Dodgers’ sin,” the group’s co-founder Vincent Montalvo said. Back in the 1920s, three neighborhoods in LA — Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop — were home to thriving Mexican and Mexican-American communities. For decades, the three neighborhoods, sometimes referred to as Chavez Ravine, were a place where generations of families bought homes and built wealth. That changed in the 1950s, when the communities were painted as slums and seized by the city to make room for Dodger Stadium. Assembly Bill 1950, first reported in Playbook, would start righting some of those wrongs by creating a detailed report of how the land was seized and who was displaced, and erecting a permanent monument to those communities. It would also create a task force to find a way to make reparations to those families, through monetary payments or other compensation like health care benefits, employment services or scholarships. Introduced by Los Angeles Democrat Wendy Carrillo, the bill carefully avoids using the word “Dodgers,” instead referring to a “private entity” that ended up building a stadium on the seized land. “Families were promised a return to better housing, but instead, they were left destitute,” Carrillo said in a statement. “For generations, Chavez Ravine stood as a beacon of hope and resilience, embodying the dreams and aspirations of families who built their lives within its embrace.” Montalvo has been fighting for this kind of recognition for years. His family owned homes in those neighborhoods for generations, with his mom being the last to be born there. While he agrees with “80 percent” of what’s in Carrillo’s proposal, it doesn’t fully address who is to blame. The government stole the land, he said, and then gave it to a corporation. Both of those entities need to be held accountable. First and foremost, he wants the land to be given back to its original inhabitants. Not the Mexican communities who were displaced in the 1950s, but the Kizh nation, who were there long before any Californians. “They should pick up 75 percent of the bill,” Montalvo said about the Dodgers organization. “I don’t want to blame the taxpayer, they had nothing to do with it.” The Dodgers are considered the second most valuable team in baseball, with an estimated $5.45 billion value, and raked in nearly $550 million last year. The team declined to comment. IT’S THURSDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to rbluth@politico.com. | 
