We don't need to learn from Paris

If you want to get a handle on what the Paris Olympics were like from an infrastructural perspective, Slate's Henry Grabar somehow wrote a story on this topic every single day of the games. He covered everything from scaffolding to sewage, cycling to accessibility, and he also interviewed me about Los Angeles's plans as the baton passes to a city that, as many people kept pointing out, looked a bit, let's say, less buttoned-up.

I chatted with Henry from his perch in the very well-appointed media center, where he'd been running into LA elected officials, including Council President Paul Krekorian, who said they were going to "classes" every day to learn about how to do an Olympics back here in LA. Henry asked what I thought they should be learning, and I challenged Krekorian in particular to study how Paris had made great strides to reduce car-dependency and bring those ideas back to LA. (Although Krekorian will be termed out of office in less than four months and that's not a whole lot of time to apply that Olympic knowledge, unless he's moving on to a different related role.)

But after Henry and I hopped off our Zoom, I started to question the value of dispatching our electeds on the equivalent of an IOC semester abroad. Paris is a very different city in so many ways; there is truly no comparison. But, most importantly, for better or for worse, LA created the contemporary Olympics. Car-free games? No-build games? We did it 40 years ago. What could we possibly learn about that we didn't invent first?

Los Angeles Goes to Olympics School

The four-year sprint to get L.A. ready for the Games has already begun.

SlateHenry Grabar

Of course many of LA's electeds did have official duties to fulfill, and I surely can't fault them for going; who can resist the allure of bottomless Bordeaux? But the more I thought about it, now I firmly believe our leaders should have been in LA, explaining to constituents what the hell is happening here in four years. Because as you can clearly see from the social media chatter — no one seems to know.

While the city held a few LA viewing parties at rec centers — some of the same rec centers, I should note, that are named in a new federal class-action lawsuit filed against the city on behalf of four plaintiffs with mobility disabilities — the Paris games represented a real missed opportunity to talk to communities about what they want, and what this all might mean for them. Why weren't there "LA28 up next" kiosks all over the region with the latest information about venues and volunteering? Instead of keeping the closing ceremony concert a secret in Long Beach — I mean "Venice Beach," I mean Long Beach — leaders might have turned a gathering like that into a town-hall like event.

Instead, it's hard for Angelenos to find facts. The clear example of this is when Mayor Karen Bass held a press conference in Paris where she announced that LA was planning a "no-car games," causing approximately five million international reporters to lose their collective minds. There's actually no official plan outlined anywhere, and LA28's transportation page is comically vague. And what a moment to drop an explainer during the closing ceremonies — as the flag traveled via foot, mountain bike, and skateboard around the city.

This should be a time when leaders are able to articulate a clear vision for 2028 that's all LA, not a comparison to Paris. Unfortunately, a different narrative has taken hold — one filled with outdated information, rampant cynicism, and tired stereotypes which have spun out of control. Maybe LA's leaders will learn from that. 🔥

Back to school

The Olympic flag is here — can we send it back? No, the flag as was not, in fact, deposited in Beachwood Canyon by Tom Cruise on his way to the Scientology Celebrity Center, it flew on a special Team USA-branded A350 Delta flight home to LAX. Now LA residents are paying $500,000 to install it in City Hall, something loyal Torched readers first knew about on July 26. The LA City Controller's office picked up this news, as did Fox LA, and the Los Angeles Times reported on the outrage that gifts from sister cities are being moved to make way for the display. On purely vexillological merits, though, what a great design.

The Intuit Dome opened yesterday with a Bruno Mars concert and Steve Ballmer was characteristically "FIRED UP" to cut the ribbon on his $2 billion baby. Traffic of a different type clogged entrances when the venue's proprietary app, which uses facial recognition, went down moments before showtime. LA28 has talked about using a similar ticketing system for the games. Also at the Kroenke-Ballmer Sportsplex™, techno playing in American Airlines Plaza could be heard nine miles away, leading Inglewood to ban outdoor concerts. How's that going to work for the Olympics? Then again, what does anyone expect when you plop venues in acres of asphalt?

The gondola keeps going up, not away. One of two legal challenges against the Dodger Stadium gondola failed in court this week as a judge spiked a petition by the LA Parks Alliance that argued its environmental review was flawed. "We are committed to pursuing every legal avenue to prevent this gondola project from coming to fruition, including filing an appeal," said LA Parks Alliance co-founder Jon Christensen. Side note, but it's almost 2025 and I feel like there's absolutely no way this is happening by 2028?

Expo Park is becoming more of an actual park thanks to $351 million in state funding to convert a surface parking lot along MLK. While many Expo Park museums are undergoing major capital improvements, the park itself, which is the spiritual heart of the games, is an infrastructural mess, which I wrote about in my Lucas Museum preview in the first issue of the Los Angeles Review of Architecture. Hope there's more money coming from somewhere to implement the 2020 master plan — help us, George, you're our only hope!

LA invests "heavily" in criminalizing homeless people, "which causes human suffering and makes many unhoused people disappear from sight, while doing nothing to solve houselessness," according to the Human Rights Watch report "You Have to Move!" The damning 337-page report argues, as I did a few weeks ago, that homelessness is, in fact, criminalized in LA, despite claims to the contrary. Bass called the report "cynical" and said, "What I’m trying to prevent is the shuffling of people." LA CAN is having a debrief on the report tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. in Skid Row.

The LA28 allegations

During the games, a story dropped alleging LA28 chair Casey Wasserman has had "serial" affairs with employees, including an LA28 employee (who denied the allegations). In addition, the story questioned LA28 expenditures in contracts with Gavin de Becker & Associates, a security agency to which LA28 paid $1,065,945 in 2022 per financial filings. And because LA28 has to disclose all contracts over $1 million to the city, we also know that LA28 paid Gavin de Becker & Associates approximately $1,103,744 in 2023.

The fallout cost Wasserman at least one client, Billie Eilish, who bailed Tuesday, but not until after she performed at the closing ceremonies, despite knowing about the allegations beforehand. And while this is all getting a bit far afield from LA legacy improvements, I'm reporting on it because this is an example of something that's worth watching for in the future — a Wasserman client was being promoted in an Olympics-related deal.

And apparently such deals also extend to frenemies? In another report, Wasserman had been reportedly feuding with Ari Emanuel, whose Endeavor agency holds an exclusive IOC contract for booking VIP experiences in Paris this summer and in LA in 2o28. Anyway, that feud is reportedly over now; in what would have made a great Entourage season finale, apparently they all flew to Paris and made up. I love how the Olympics brings everyone together.

What Torched subscribers are reading

Having the "car-free games" thrust in the global spotlight resulted in some extraordinarily bad reporting. The New York Times mixed up LA's rail lines and still hasn't fixed it (the Azusa-to-Long Beach A line is the world's longest, not the East LA-to-Santa Monica E line) and said what riders want are "better-lit subway cars." (Seriously, what?) My other favorite was the local TV news "I-Team" that tried to "investigate" how many 28 by 28 projects would not be finished by 2028 — which Metro itself reported was happening months ago. Anyway, don't waste your time; instead, enjoy these Torched-approved reads.

• The LA Times' Ryan Fonseca has an excellent newsletter about LA's "car-free games" promise with important historical context that basically every other reporter seemed to miss. I was so happy to be interviewed for this alongside ACT-LA director Laura Raymond and Metro's chief innovation officer Seleta Reynolds
• Another good take on "how LA could see a sorta car-free Olympics" by TimeOut's Michael Juliano (Torched is also mentioned in this one, thank you!)
• Lisa Kwon in Teen Vogue writes about why young people are tuning out of the Olympics this year, despite being heavily courted by the games
• Somewhat relatedly, Alexandra Lange has a look at how interest in skate parks spiked after the last Summer Olympics
• Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin have a series of Olympic dispatches up at The Nation, but I found this one to be most relevant to LA: "The Olympics Have Turned Paris Into a Panopticon"
• This was a nice NY Times piece celebrating LA trees with a good amount of palm slander but I should note that the canopy only looks like this in the city's wealthiest neighborhoods
• More good palm slander in this LA Times argument for planting natives in time for 2028
• The excellent podcast Well There's Your Problem dropped a two-parter (1,2) on the Olympics
• As I mentioned last month, the new podcast State of Play is highlighting displacement around the Olympics and has two new LA-focused episodes
• Also in the last roundup I mentioned Sammy Roth's plea to kick big oil advertising out of Dodger Stadium. Now a huge coalition of powerful Angelenos are pressuring Mark Walter to ditch Phillips 66. You love to see it!
• And a general reminder that I've got a list of Torched-recommended books up at Bookshop (where I earn a small commission if you buy one). Recent additions: No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch after my interview with Chris Dempsey, a leader of the movement to block Boston's bid

Going for the gold

I WON ON JEOPARDY, BABY. Thank you to Erik Abriss, Pallavi Gunalan, the awesome folks at Zebulon, and the tormented brain of Devon Manney, who also debuted a new mascot for 2028 onstage. It was also great to see so many of you at the meet and greet before the show. Thanks for coming out on not just a school night, but on the literal first-day-of-school night.

Later that week, I became the face of controversy at the opening of the new Hollywood Boulevard bike lanes. CicLAvia is doing its Hollywood route on Sunday and you can check out this scandalous cycling infrastructure for yourself. Speaking of infrastructure, on Monday night, the City of LA Bureau of Infrastructure Inspections — not an actual city department, I should note — will be conducting an inspection of LA28 venues.

Want to hang out again sometime soon? I'm planning some fun events for the fall. Be sure to upgrade to a paid subscription so you get an invite to the Torched launch party. 🔥