Not everyone in Echo Park thinks the Scott Avenue gate should remain closed. One reader, Chris Peiffer, who says he moved to EP to be near Dodger Stadium, calls for the gates to open:

Dodgers Stadium is a national and a municipal treasure whose existence in Echo Park predates the vast majority of the residents. They knew it was there when they moved in. I myself moved to Echo Park last year to be as close to it as possible.

I think it's a shame that the Scott gate is closed, and that the only pedestrian entrance is on Elysian.

This is a public resource, and these are public streets. Are you also sympathetic to the Malibu homeowners who put up fences and do their best to thwart beach access? Do you rejoice when you see a gated community?

Your huffy provincial homeowner's hysteria is disheartening and hypocritical, given your past views on the blog. A vibrant public ceremony where 50,000 Angelenos from all neighborhoods and walks of life come together in common interest 80 times a year in a public space? We should be proud and happy it exists at all, let alone within walking distance.

Well, without getting my feathers in a ruffle, I'd like to point out that I am not suggesting that the Dodgers fly away to Chicago. Just that tens of thousands of drivers not pour through a residential, two-lane street that has been closed for over a decade. As for homeowner's hysteria: I felt this much MORE strongly about Scott Avenue traffic when I was RENTING a home on Sargent Place off of Scott. Also, the Scott Avenue resident who sent me the note I posted earlier today, says she also is a renter. Renters have the right to a livable neighborhood, too. The push to close the Scott Avenue gates happened before the big gentrification of Echo Park.

Peiffer calls the stadium a public resource, and I call it one, too. But safe neighborhoods and informed communities are a public resource also.

All auto traffic said and hopfeully moved, I think it's cool that Peiffer moved to the neighborhood to be near the Dodgers. Echo Park has always attracted people of passion.