In practice, PST is a smaller-scale version of our upcoming Cultural Olympiad, the IOC-mandated arts festival that's run concurrently to the Olympics since the 1950s. In 1984, LA made it our own with a customized name — the Olympic Arts Festival — and a two-month, 400-performance program that asserted LA's cultural capital status on the world stage. "The Olympic Arts Festival in 1984 had very positive repercussions for Los Angeles that were beyond what anyone could have imagined at the time," says Aaron Paley, longtime cultural festival producer and co-founder of the newly formed nonprofit Los Angeles Tomorrow. It's a feat local arts leaders are eager to repeat. But Paley says he approached LA28 about the Cultural Olympiad in 2018, when LA had won the bid with an unprecedented ten years to plan. And LA28 representatives said to him: "Could you come back in five years?"
So here we are. Six years, in fact. In June, Maria Arena Bell was appointed as the Cultural Olympiad director. A series of listening sessions initiated by the county in partnership with the city are now underway. But despite coalition letters requesting clarity on the outreach, vision, and fundraising strategy for the Cultural Olympiad, there's still nothing public from LA28. There's not even a page on the LA28 website, aside from a release about Bell's appointment.
Last week, councilmembers filed a motion to "request LA28 to report on the status of planning for the Olympic Arts Festival for the LA28 Games, including how the Festival will engage the broadest range of performing arts centers, museums, galleries, and other types of venues throughout the City of Los Angeles." And there's another motion (actually two motions; one is more megaevent-agnostic) to "request LA28 to develop at least 28 locations throughout the City, in every Council District, including, but not limited to, non-city owned spaces, where viewing party locations and activations can be hosted to serve Angelenos." The second motion also asks that the city and LA28 "identify funding sources, public and private" for these spaces. This is something that the city of LA needs to get working on yesterday, particularly with the World Cup in less than two years. Prolific Olympics-chronicler Rich Perelman notes that during the 1996 Summer Olympics Atlanta failed to plan and program such spaces, and local parks exploded into "ambush marketing sites."
But before we ask LA28 to stick two pins marked "culture" in every council district map, the city of LA needs to have a serious discussion about funding its existing public spaces. The councilmembers who introduced these motions can't even maintain the parks we have. What is the plan to clear billions of dollars of backlogged maintenance to get our civic and cultural hubs in shape to actually use them? And when one-third of LA residents aren't within a 10-minute walk of a park, shouldn't we actually use this opportunity to create a lot more public spaces? Here's a chance to have a broader conversation about the role gathering places play — and can play long after the games — across the entire region.
Perhaps most important to think about, as we tap our personal PST itineraries into Google Maps over the next few months: we need to also start coordinating walking, biking, and transit access to all these cultural destinationsnow — or our "car-free" plans for the next few summers will fall catastrophically short. 🔥
This is the "transit-first" Torched news roundup. Subscribe to Torched and you'll always have something to read on the bus
Seasons change
The last time it was 100, the Grand Park splash pad was LA's hottest club
During our last heatwave I wondered: what if the grid fails in 2028? The next day, so many people lost power, some for three days. The Hollywood Bowl had to cancel a show! Can you imagine the lights going out in the middle of an Olympic event? LADWP tried to say the number of customers without power was "relatively low." However, as LAist so elegantly phrased it: "the hottest neighborhoods, including areas with fewer trees and green space that help cool concrete, have been hit with the most outages." Now another round of dangerous heat is upon us. The Long Beach marathon will start a half-hour earlier on Sunday. Last month a runner died after running a Disneyland half-marathon where he complained about holding the event in a heatwave.
Over at the CNBC Games Plan Summit, Mayor Karen Bass talked about homelessness and had a good explanation of LA's "car-free" goals. We also got some behind-the-scenes: Tom Cruise was paid nothing for the closing ceremonies — because Olympics run on volunteers! — and it sounds like the city turned the Hollywood sign webcams off to do the stunt? LA28's Casey Wasserman was then asked onstage about allegations of "serial affairs" and he reiterated that he would not step down: "I’m going to do my job and do it till the end." The Wrapreported that LA28's chief legal officer Tanja Olano resigned in the wake of this response. And the following week, LA28's senior VP of human resources Kristina Guillen also left. That's four top-level staff departures just this year. I'm surprised there's not more reporting from local outlets on this. Or maybe I'm not.
So maybe we can do this "car-free" thing after all? A Bloomberg survey of vehicle-miles traveled finds that only 10 out of the 100 most populous U.S. cities have kept driving below 2019 levels. Who's #1? Los Angeles, baby, with a 17 percent decline in average daily VMT over the last five years. Now pair that with another encouraging stat: Metro's ridership is up for the 21st straight month. Even more intriguing is Metro's analysis of what's driving overall growth: leisure ridership, especially on the weekends. "Metro provided special event support to nearly 50 transit-accessible events at large venues and entertainment parks in the LA region." It sounds like a lot of smart Angelenos already know to leave the car at home.
🚧 Finally, the RFP is out for 2028 active transportation projects for the city of LA! These projects will improve walking and biking conditions around venues and along transit corridors. This is what I've been calling for: our chance to fill in those gaps
🚶🏾♂️ The city is pedestrianizing Chick Hearn Court between Crypto.com Arena and the rest of LA Live, which can serve as a model for creating car-free zones around other venues
🚇 In related news, labor groups are suing Metro over a subway car contract, which could affect service in 2028. But tucked into the end of the story is the greater concern, as articulated by UCLA's Juan Matute: "Metro can use the compressed timelines of delivering transportation services and infrastructure to its advantage to constrain procurement choices"
🌳 As mentioned earlier, CicLAvia founding director Aaron Paley and ARUP alum Katherine Perez have co-founded the nonprofit Los Angeles Tomorrow, with landscape architect Ruth Siegel as deputy director. The goal: "to facilitate and accelerate community-powered public space improvements and activations across LA County in advance of a series of international events to be hosted here"
🏐 Santa Monica is reportedly "very close" to finalizing its beach volleyball agreement with LA28 — here's a live shot of the negotiations — which could potentially cost the city over $12 million. There's a study session with public comment on the issue on October 8. One very possible outcome here is that we may see a city independently analyze, publicly debate, and ultimately reject LA28's demands
⚽ Pasadena still hasn't finalized its own deal with LA28 — but they are officially hosting an additional upcoming FIFA match. In 2025, the Rose Bowl will be one of 12 venues hosting the FIFA Club World Cup (these are club teams, not to be confused with the 2026 World Cup). The Rose Bowl hosted World Cup matches in 1994
👮🏻♂️ Jim McDonnell is the new LAPD chief, picked by Bass as a "steady hand as the massive security challenges of the World Cup and the Olympic Games loom on the horizon"
💸 And clearly nothing to worry about here but an urgent assessment by City Controller Kenneth Mejia says the city of LA is even more broke
Mon dieu!
At the end of the Paralympics, Paris's RATP changed the names of six Métro stations to famous — and not necessarily subway-adjacent — LA neighborhoods in what was called a "transit handover." (Our Metro only changed the exterior of the Mariachi Plaza E line station, which was kind of weird.) On one hand, these kinds of things are extremely dumb and I personally don't think we should spend staff time doing them. On the other hand, this rules because Beverly Hills, which fought the subway for decades, does not want any Metro station to be named "Beverly Hills."
I need to bestow some kind of special award upon this Financial Times columnwhich comes to a Caruso-esque conclusion that Olympics-goers will need Blade Runner air taxis to avoid LA's crime-ridden subways. Genuine kudos to LA28 VP of transportation Sam Morrissey for calling the author out on this narrative to his face: "More people are dying in traffic collisions on our roads every day than they are on transit," he says. "So I push back on the idea that it's not safe." Correct. Now read these stories instead...
How Paris's athlete village was retrofitted for Paralympic athletes. This made me think about better lighting as an important accessibility feature
New York's Open Streets program is closing 71 streets outside schools for "students to play without worrying about speeding cars." Sounds like a great Olympics legacy investment to me
One more Steve Lopez on MacArthur Park, where he reports that the slide on the new playground I wrote about has been damaged by fire. This isn't just a MacArthur Park thing; playground vandalism happens all over the city and it's a real issue when your parks department has no money. A playground that was burned to the ground in Pan Pacific Park took a year to replace and only happened with private funding; thanks Television City
LA's new council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson made his first speech, which closes with an Olympics vision
Finally, here's Unrig LA's debate tracker — this election is important because the people you elect in November will be in office for all seven LA megaevents concluding with the Paralympics in August 2028!
What a night! Thanks to Torched fans for making it out to the launch party. Huge thanks also to Thunderbolt, the best bar in LA, for hosting us! If you missed grabbing your stickers, don't worry, subscribers will get a separate email with a form to fill out so I can get them to you. And if you missed the party — be sure to become a paid subscriber so you can come to next year's event!
Coming up Monday is the next Torched Talks where I'll be speaking with Chris Torres about the Festival Trail concept — a proposed 22-mile non-vehicular corridor that's gaining grassroots momentum. Join us October 7 on Zoom at 3 p.m. Here are all the details. See you then!
There are hundreds more public spaces just like MacArthur Park all over the city that won't ever get this level of attention because they're not catty-corner to a famous business
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"
