Victory laps
How can LA come together when officials are so averse to people spontaneously gathering that the city's first reaction is to take more public space away?
Before you know it, LA’s opening ceremonies will be here — but they’re not going to be where most Angelenos will expect them to be
The 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games begin today in Paris with the opening ceremonies staged along a heavily militarized (and possibly poop-free) Seine. Before you know it, LA’s opening ceremonies will be here — but they’re not going to be where most Angelenos will expect them to be.
You’d be forgiven if you thought LA's opening ceremonies would be at the Coliseum. That’s where the opening ceremonies in both 1932 and 1984 were held. It’s also where most LA28-related announcements happen, like last week’s visit from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Even the LA28 venue page for the Coliseum notes that it is "the first venue in history to host the Track and Field competitions and the Opening Ceremony in three Olympic Games."
But the 2028 opening ceremonies are set to be held at SoFi Stadium, a detail which seems to have eluded many elected officials until recently. And with all the hand-wringing about LA losing events to other cities, it’s providing yet another opportunity for everyone to gripe about how LA28 should really be using a beloved city venue that’s always been associated with the games. I mean, it's got the rings right there on it!
The way the opening and closing ceremonies were originally described to me — years ago — was more of a simulcast situation, with crowds at both SoFi and the Coliseum. The plan, shown in this slightly creepy 2017 visualization, describes an "unprecedented citywide celebration" that "unites two iconic LA venues" with Coliseum spectators tuned into what's happening at SoFi using a "virtual-reality experience," just to remind you how old this idea is. But now it sounds like the Coliseum is playing a much smaller supporting role. On LAist’s AirTalk earlier this month, LA28 organizing chair Casey Wasserman said the "opening will progress through the city, the torch will go through the Coliseum, and the parade of nations will be in SoFi, and then we will reverse that with the closing ceremonies at the Coliseum." And when you ask the mayor of Inglewood, the opening ceremonies are all SoFi, according to the Daily News:
Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. reflected on the change from holding the opening ceremonies at the Los Angeles Coliseum to holding the ceremonies at SoFi, including the entrance of the torch relay and the lighting of the perpetual flame: "That will be an iconic, historical event and Inglewood will be enshrined in the legacy of the Olympic games."
I thought for sure that the perpetual flame atop the Coliseum's peristyle would remain the terminus for the torch relay, as it was on July 28, 1984, creating a lovely bit of visual continuity. But instead it sounds like the torch will be relayed from the Coliseum to a new SoFi cauldron, seven miles away, during the show. Oddly, the SoFi venue page doesn't say anything about the opening ceremonies, and the June venue release hedges: "LA28’s plans for Opening and Closing Ceremonies are unchanged, with parts hosted at both" the Coliseum and SoFi. So perhaps like other proposed venue changes, these decisions are also pending approval. For Coliseum-heads, maybe there's a glimmer of hope. 🔥
Secretary Pete rode the E line, signed a giant $77-million check to electrify buses, and, most importantly, said we're getting more Metro Bikes! And the same day he appeared in Long Beach, Exposition Park and East LA, Rachel Uranga dropped a bombshell of a story at the LA Times that Representative Maxine Waters had recently sent Buttigieg a letter asking him to block the Olympics-related project he'd awarded the most money to so far: the 1.6-mile people mover to SoFi Stadium which has received over $1 billion in federal funds. Interestingly, the Inglewood people mover was not mentioned in Pete's remarks.
High-speed rail by 2028 is chugging right along. The Brightline West high-speed train from Rancho Cucamonga to Vegas has signed labor agreements with California's high-speed rail authority to connect their projects through the High Desert Corridor. Meanwhile, the state's entire 463-mile route from LA to SF has been approved. There's a lot more that needs to happen to get these trains to LA — including some necessary Union Station adjustments — but Brightline West has also said it will work with Metrolink to electrify the corridor for a one-seat ride to downtown LA.
The LAX people mover will open in 2026. (Yes, 2026.) After delay after delay, and an additional $550 million in costs, the opening for the LAX people mover is confirmed for January 2026. Also confirmed: the LAX Metro station that will eventually connect the people mover to the K/C lines will open in November 2024. Does this mean the shuttle to the C line Aviation/LAX station relocates there for a year? Funnily enough, when I flew out of LAX earlier this month my shuttle was playing a video promoting the people mover that was inexplicably plastered with old LA28 graphics. The video also noted that "construction begins in 2018, with completion in 2023."
We now have a Metro-riding Metro board chair. Remember when I said that Metro board members making decisions for the Olympics should actually be riding transit? Newly minted Metro board chair Janice Hahn spent an entire day last week riding transit and documenting the entire thing: leg 1, leg 2, leg 3 including Secretary Pete. And yesterday she did it again. What's very important to note here is that Hahn wasn't just riding for photo ops, she's taking transit to perform official duties, hitting multiple destinations in one day. If she can do it, any Metro board member can! Replies to her tweets last week demanded Hahn "try it without a security detail" but I confirmed that aside from the Secretary Pete ride-along, Hahn was only accompanied by her communications deputy, Esteban García, who she introduces in the thread. She even reported Flamin' Hot Cheetos spills!
The Sixth Street Bridge's "ribbon of light" went dark due to copper wire theft — less than six months after the bridge had served as a backdrop for the announcement of an LAPD copper wire theft task force. (Just spitballing here, maybe instead of giving money to LAPD we should give money to the underfunded street lighting department?) Reminder that our beleaguered bridge was designed to be the centerpiece of LA's Olympic legacy. "This will be, in many ways, what everybody sees in 2028 when they come to the Olympics," former LA mayor Eric Garcetti said in 2022. "I am sure it will be part of the torch relay when the Olympics come." Maybe they can light it with torches?
"We’re going to make damn sure these games benefit our communities." Campaign Hometeam is a brand-new coalition launching today focused on holding the Olympics accountable: "City leaders and the LA28 organizing committee made big promises about the benefit to the city and its communities in exchange for hosting a global party. Campaign Hometeam is a new coalition of organizations working to ensure these promises are kept." Speakers at today's rally at Jesse Brewer Park in Expo Park at 12 p.m. will include Jovan Houston, LAX employee and SEIU-United Service Workers member, who I spoke with about the Olympic wage in May.
Not feeling the LA28 logo? Old Navy is now selling an 1984 Olympics shirt, or, rather, an "IOC Heritage© Loose T-Shirt." On the shirt is the "Stars in Motion" logo by Robert Miles Runyan, but why oh why are the graphics distressed? Call me back when Old Navy produces a shirt based on the 1984 design work of Deborah Sussman.
Sussman-inspired graphics were present at the LA84 Foundation's 40th anniversary gala where Councilmember Heather Hutt renamed the intersection for the foundation adjacent to its West Adams mansion. Across town, Casey Wasserman, the original 1984 Boy, commemorated his star-studded 50th with Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom, and Doug Emhoff just days after the presidential debate. I wonder what the conversations in that valet line were like?
If you're in need of more nostalgia, at Drinks with Broads, Go Fug Yourself's Heather Cocks has a close read of the official 1984 Olympic Games book. And over on Instagram, the Los Angeles Public Library photos account has posted some images I hadn't seen before from previous Olympics. Where 1984 had a jetpack, 1932 had doves. You can see all the images at #ArchivesGoForGold.
Every four years, journalists catch a very specific strain of Summer Olympic fever, scrambling to reheat the same lukewarm takes on how LA "saved" the games in 1984. Steer clear of those and peruse these Torched-approved reads instead.
It's baaaaaack! Join me at Zebulon on Monday, August 12 — the day after the "handover" — to watch as I defend my 3x LA Jeopardy champion title! Here's everything you need to know about the latest installment of the silliest game show in town. Get your tickets today, share the flyer on Instagram, and come early for a Torched meet and greet at 6:30 p.m. before doors open at 8 p.m.!