A sign of things to come

Unless you live in Los Angeles, you probably assume the Hollywood Sign is lit up at night all the time. The truth is that this only happens on very special occasions and/or when someone's writing a check, like on Wednesday night when the sign turned into an ad for Universal Studios' new ride: Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift.

The sign flickered to life thanks to projection mapping, where high-lumen projectors beamed animated graphics from the flat roof of a nearby Beachwood Canyon home. (If you poke around on Google Maps it’s pretty easy to figure out which one.) This wasn't the first time the sign got lit — the BET Awards did projection mapping first in 2022 — although it wasn't as easy to see what the sign was trying to tell us this time around. But the whole thing looked very cool!

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Eric Garcetti’s very last act as mayor was an executive directive that laid out specific requirements for lighting the sign, including where the revenue could be appropriated ("physical improvements to the neighborhoods nearest the sign to protect neighbors from the impact of visitors in their streets") and how often it could be done (no more than six times per year). Karen Bass promptly rescinded the executive directive before it would have taken effect, ostensibly to appease the sign-adjacent locals. But were people mad this week, as some influencers insisted? Not really. A survey of neighbors — who were alerted in advance — and quick scan of Nextdoor revealed few gripes. (Compare that to the meltdown happening on the other side of the hill over the ride itself.) I'm told payment was made to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, and I'll try to find out how much. The concern is always that drawing more attention to the sign might draw more people to the sign itself, but a fast and furious transformation that wasn't previously announced garnered mostly genuine delight.

Of course the bigger question is what this portends for our megaevent era. LA28's Casey Wasserman is obsessed with the Hollywood Sign as a symbol of the city; the Paris handover ceremony had Tom Cruise stapling Olympic rings to the Os, and he actually was shimmying down the W, although the sign itself was digitally altered in the wide shots. I earnestly hope that the full embrace of this new projection technology means we will be spared all misguided analog attempts to change the sign, like the infamous SAVE the POOD and RAMLYWUSE incidents. (The collective trauma we endured is why the Rams can never win the Super Bowl again.) But those were both somewhat civic-sponsored messages. The ease with which the sign has now drifted from landmark to billboard is a bit unsettling. (Yeah, yeah, I know it was originally, technically, a billboard. It was also, originally, lit up every night.) And then there's the fact that Universal is the global media partner of the IOC. I'm preparing for a total LA28 takeover. 🔥 

Prepare for impact

I know what they mean, but this part makes me laugh. The no-build games everyone! LOOK HOW MUCH OF IT IS THE CONVENTION CENTER AND THAT STILL DOES NOT REVEAL THE FULL COST TO US Also why is the Rose Bowl renovation funding listed under LA city? What other mistakes will I find in this?

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— Alissa Walker (@awalkerinla.bsky.social) September 15, 2026 at 12:35 PM

Yet another economic impact report on the games, this time from LA28 and LAEDC, which concludes the games will "generate between approximately $20.5 billion to $40.6 billion in economic output and support approximately 126,000 to 224,000 jobs." Obviously different methodologies, but strikingly different from LA County's report, which estimated $19 billion. And be sure to note just how much is being built for our no-build games. An LA28-helmed report should be taken with an entire saltshaker of salt — here's a good way to think about "economic impact," which is kind of impossible to measure — but I find it really funny that they can commission an entire report on projected revenue, but not release a line-item budget. Read more analysis from people much smarter than me: Neil deMause looks at the myth of increased output and how these models don't really account for the displacement of spending as locals flee town; while Rich Perelman compares the two economic reports and points out some pretty bad errors: "with such a wide spread of assumptions, bad data and very little hard data, the trumpeted figures on economic impact are headlines and for now, nothing more." 🦋

Safe streets advocates demanded an emergency declaration for traffic violence that they say Bass's office promised them in writing months ago. As part of its call-to-action on the steps of City Hall Tuesday, SAFE shared an open letter signed by over 1,200 advocates and an email from Bass's then-transportation director Tina Backstrom, who claimed the mayor was going to release an executive directive for traffic deaths around the start of the World Cup. (I've been told the city attorney held up the executive directive, because of course she did.) Backstrom has since left for a role at LAWA and Brandon Wilson is now the mayor's transportation director. As I've written before, this is not a great look for a city that's prioritizing safety improvements around venues. Fatalities are already 8 percent higher than the same time last year, car crashes remain the leading cause of death for LA kids, and this year has also seen an uptick in mass casualty traffic crashes. Then, later that day, there was another mass casualty traffic crash, as the driver of a speeding SUV plowed into a Metro bus in Chatsworth, killing two people, then a news helicopter covering the crash also crashed, killing three more people. 🦋

Mellody Hobson stepped down from the LA28 board after intense pressure from the Fair Games coalition, which used the opening of the Lucas Museum to stage a series of impeccable actions, from a Star Wars universe perspective. But resigning from LA28 isn't necessarily what the coalition wanted Hobson to do: they were hoping to have a conversation with her about how to use her powers for good for South LA. So grab your lightsabers because the coalition's planned Rebel Gala is still on for tonight, when the Lucas (are we calling it the Lucas?) will hold its VIP preview ahead of tomorrow's opening. 🦋

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As I was saying

Just when I thought we'd settled this debate. Streets for All made some very straightforward anti-palm content this week that seemed to upset hardcore palm fans. (Specifically, fan palm fans.) Esotouric responded with some very frond feelings: "Hating on palms is hating on LA." LA in a Minute — a perennial palm apologist — then cranked out a defense of palms as symbols of a city "shaped by transplants." Who is right? Me, of course. And if you become a paid subscriber to Torched, I'll put a stack of correct opinions in the mail for you.

What Torched subscribers are reading

• The state's grid emerged unscathed during our heat wave(s) thanks to major battery investments that will be key during the high-demand summer of 2028. Did you know we have a whole Games Energy Council working on exactly this?
• The LA Local looks at what's next for Inglewood after the city's development agreement with Stan Kroenke is declared void in court
• Behold, The California Oligarch Index
• "The city of LA leads in one thing: ICE kidnappings"
• SAJE's analysis of which local campaigns Airbnb is funding (I've also covered some of these donations and how Airbnb has become a major issue in the mayoral race; more on this topic soon)
• How much will LA's no-cost Olympics actually cost the city?
• Can mayoral candidates actually fix LA's problems?
• L.A. World takes a trip down Wilshire and wonders, as I have many times, if the D line will be open to Westwood in time for the Olympics. It's definitely going to be a nail-biter, but Metro has moved the opening date around many times. Also, I'm guessing Metro will open the extension station-by-station like the K line, meaning the final station to the VA could very possibly not open until after the games
• Smart Growth America's annual Dangerous by Design report shows the deadliest cities for pedestrians. Not only are two of the 10 most dangerous congressional districts in LA — Maxine Waters (CA-43) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) — these are also home to the highest concentration of LA28 venues
• Friend of Torched Jason Sisney joined the Keep the Flame Alive podcast (also friends of Torched!) to share how the California government works with LA28

Park it here

This week, at the end of a fantastic conversation about Billy Fleming's new book that I was so honored to moderate, the audience got a peek at the pitch for Measure PRK, the charter amendment on your November ballot that will increase the amount of funding that goes to LA city parks without raising your taxes, as Torched reported back in June. Thanks to the LA Forum and Terremoto for a truly magical evening under the toyon.

Today I'm headed out to the South Bay Transit Summit to moderate a talk on "Crowds, Culture and Connectivity: LA’s Megaevent Lessons." That's part of SoCal Transit Month; check out all the other activities happening through early October, including A Week Without Driving. And on Monday: that anti-palm rhetoric I promised. Me and Sam Bloch in conversation at Cal Poly Pomona's College of Environmental Design. Here's an Instagram flyer to share. Working on some longer stories and should be back to my pre-World Cup cadence soon. Thanks, as always, for your patience.