After a challenging year, city embraces cause for celebration

You didn't have to be watching the seventh game of the World Series to know that the Dodgers clinched backto-back wins.

- By TERRY CASTLEMAN, RUBEN VIVES AND BILL SHAIKIN

FANS CELEBRATE in downtown Los Angeles after the game Police said seven people were arrested including one who allegedly rode her bicycle into a police horse

This is Los Angeles, after all.

So sounds of fireworks exploding seemingly in every direction gave it away. The team couldn't see the light show from Toronto, but they were hard to miss across the L.A. Basin.

And soon, the streets of downtown Los Angeles, Echo Park, East L.A. and elsewhere were crowded with fans celebrating.

"It's crazy out here, back to back," said Dodgers fan Steven Gomez of L.A. as he watched a firework explode overhead in Echo Park. "L.A. never gives up, man. Like Kobe said, the job isn't finished." Gomez emphasized that nobody throws a celebration quite like his hometown. "This is L.A. We love all coming out together as a community," he said.

In a year of unprecedented upheaval across the city -the January firestorms, summer immigration sweeps fans and city leaders alike took the Dodgers' victory with extra symbolism this time.

"With the wildfires, we needed this too," Magic Johnson, co-owner of the Dodgers, told KCBS-TV after the victory in Toronto.

"This [helps] bring our city back closer together." Police said seven people were arrested on various charges after the game. One person was arrested on suspicion of battery of a peace officer, and a woman was arrested on suspicion of injuring an animal after she allegedly rode her bicycle into a police horse, said Officer Norma Eisenman of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Division.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism of a Metro bus, one on suspicion of failure to disperse and another on suspicion of possession of fireworks, police added, without providing locations or times.

But the celebrations brought a rare air of bipartisanship at least for a few moments Saturday night.