What LA's tourism unions just did
By the time July 2028 rolls around, the people who are ensuring the largest gathering in U.S. history is running smoothly will be making the highest minimum wage in the country
What LA's tourism unions just did
By the time July 2028 rolls around, the people who are ensuring the largest gathering in U.S. history is running smoothly will be making the highest minimum wage in the country
Latest
Confronting LA's park crisis
LA's Park Needs Assessment provides a roadmap — or perhaps a well-shaded, native-planted pathmap? — for a department that's been asked to do more and more with less
Promises, promises
LA28's Impact and Sustainability Plan is a needed and long-overdue start, but omits more than it commits
The [your brand here] Olympics
Holding diving in the Palantir Pool will really give the sport a whole new meaning
The art of the deal
"LA28’s opaque finances and vague reassurances are not enough to protect the city from fiscal disaster"
Civic promise
What Angelenos need right now, more than ever, is a commitment to the spaces that we share with each other
Buses
Travel advisory
Sean Duffy's feigned hand-wringing on behalf of one federal department about the inconvenience of rerouting a few buses is simply revolting as another federal department is literally kidnapping people from bus stops
Everybody calm down
LA is a big city where many things happen in our multimodal, multitudinous region every single day
The waiting is the hardest part
LA officials keep saying the new bus shelter program is "for the Olympics." What we're installing isn't good enough for a Thursday afternoon
Olympic lanes
Before everyone spins Kathy Hochul's cowardice into a death knell for LA's congestion pricing dreams, it's important to know that there are lots of different ways to do road pricing
Trains
Trump derail train
It was always clear that Trump's democracy-dismantling project would be coming for the state's high-speed rail, something he openly denigrated throughout his last presidency
"If it hasn't broken ground by now, it's not happening"
It's time for paint, posts, and political will
How do we get there from here
What happened to 28 by 28 is what's happening to a lot of LA's Olympic-related goals at the moment: a flashy announcement got a lot of attention yet had no strategy to actually make it happen
LA under siege
The art of the deal
"LA28’s opaque finances and vague reassurances are not enough to protect the city from fiscal disaster"
The elephant in the room
Our elected officials keep trying to pretend this presidential administration isn't going to blow up our best-laid megaevent plans
Shade
Promises, promises
LA28's Impact and Sustainability Plan is a needed and long-overdue start, but omits more than it commits
Made in the shade
"We're trying to change the way that we as Angelenos think about our neighborhoods, so that we actually look around and say, where can there be more shade — in the same way that many of us have thought about trees"
Torched Talks with Edith de Guzman and Greg Pierce
Gather your questions about fire and water and join us on Tuesday, January 28 at noon on Zoom
The waiting is the hardest part
LA officials keep saying the new bus shelter program is "for the Olympics." What we're installing isn't good enough for a Thursday afternoon
Car-free games
RIP "car-free" games
If these games are still meant to be "transit-first" — why not announce a transit partner, first?
Dying to host the Olympics
During this week's budget hearings, councilmembers repeatedly asked if improvements around Olympics venues were taking precedence over obligations to their constituents to deliver safer streets
The transit-first (no, really) games
In the end, LA28 put the events where the public transportation will already be
Accessibility
Meeting our megaevent moment
A report from last month's UCLA Lake Arrowhead Symposium, intended to both illuminate existing challenges and light a path forward for progress, reveals deep frustrations and grave concerns about LA's megaevent planning
LA is making a plan
Executive Directive 9, signed today by LA Mayor Karen Bass, will force LA's infrastructure spending to align with a set of citywide priorities around climate, safety, and accessibility
Making concrete plans
Talking to UCLA's Juan Matute about this year's Lake Arrowhead Symposium and how LA can leverage megaevents to create lasting public benefits
"Kids are going to be disappointed that they can’t follow their dreams"
As LA officials gathered in Paris for the Olympics, a federal class-action lawsuit was filed against the city on behalf of four plaintiffs with mobility disabilities, including one 10-year-old child, who say they are "denied full and equal access to its parks and park facilities"
Supergraphics
When you can't find the words
When the news renders you speechless, you can always find a response that Corita already ripped from the headlines
An invasion of butterflies
"Somehow I saw in my head the sky and the ground sprinkled like confetti — sprinkled with all magical stuff that shimmered and that expressed joy"
Trump's games
The art of the deal
"LA28’s opaque finances and vague reassurances are not enough to protect the city from fiscal disaster"
The elephant in the room
Our elected officials keep trying to pretend this presidential administration isn't going to blow up our best-laid megaevent plans
Olympic wage
"Without these workers the games will not happen"
A sternly worded letter sent on behalf of over 30,000 hospitality workers to the Los Angeles World Cup Host Committee, along with the heads of the IOC, LA28, and FIFA, urges them to endorse the Olympic wage — or there might not be any games at all
The Olympic wage
“We’re demanding a new deal for the Olympics that includes family-sustaining jobs and affordable housing for workers"
Venue plans
The [your brand here] Olympics
Holding diving in the Palantir Pool will really give the sport a whole new meaning
The transit-first (no, really) games
In the end, LA28 put the events where the public transportation will already be
Bump, set, spike
Santa Monica mounted a sustained, publicly transparent campaign to challenge what LA28 was offering. And, in the end, that's probably what sent the organizing committee packing for other shores
Significant headwinds
On Friday we saw the first serious challenge of LA28's venue plan, which had gone largely uncontested by LA city leaders. And we saw an LA city councilmember openly accuse LA28 of making backroom deals to create that venue plan
Torched favorites
Heading into year two
LA got burned. By the fires, yes. But also by a self-induced fiscal catastrophe
Not the end, the beginning
After speaking with so many people this year who are working so hard to make this place actually work, I'm seeing another way to tell LA's megaevent story
Hot links
Where are LA's World Cup plans?
I'm forever ranting about how little we know about LA’s Olympics plans. But we know literally nothing about LA’s World Cup plans. It's next year!
Safe spaces
In the midst of a climate disaster, schools must become beacons of resiliency in every community
Expo Park is so not ready for its close up
The headlines that trumpet a "$350 million makeover" for Expo Park ahead of 2028 are flat-out misleading
Events
Torched turns 1: A week of talks and toasts April 21-25
In a time of great uncertainty, Torched will always be about people coming together for LA
Tour ATSAC on November 26
Join 🔥🔥 subscribers to see one of the most famous legacy improvements of the 1984 Summer Olympics
Torched Talks
Torched Talks with 'Shade' author Sam Bloch
Let's talk about trees — and much, much more — on Wednesday, August 6 at noon on Zoom
Torched Talks with sports politics scholar Jules Boykoff
It's an emergency Torched Talks! Join us Monday, June 23 at noon on Zoom
Torched Talks with LA Commons' Karen Mack
What's planned for arts and culture in 2028? Join us at Friday, May 23 at noon on Zoom
Answers to your burning questions
What if the world doesn't come?
If millions of international visitors do, in fact, come to LA, it will be at their own peril
Heading into year two
LA got burned. By the fires, yes. But also by a self-induced fiscal catastrophe
Can LA still host the Olympics?
The IOC doesn't care if LA holds its games or not. And perhaps more troublingly, the city of LA will happily brush aside its own emergencies in order to stage a megaevent
How Boston brought the Olympics to LA
"If your city has politicians telling you that the only way they're going to fix your transit system is by throwing a party for people from around the world, you go get yourself a better politician"