Spring breaking

Greetings from LAX where I can report nonexistent TSA lines and no ICE. That gave me plenty of time to peruse the zombie restaurants and art installations at the Tom Bradley terminal. In addition to the timeline nod to 1984's inflatable gates, I loved this re-creation of Paul Tzanetopoulos's studio as he concepted the airport's beloved untitled kinetic light installation.

Don't worry, despite the fact that the pylons have been relocated to build the LAX-pressway, Tzanetopoulos is working with LAX to re-install the artwork.

I'm headed to Paris with a long list of your recommendations, thank you! Should you find yourself in France next week, please check out the details for a Torched happy hour at the end of this newsletter. À bientôt! 🔥

Dude, where's my bus?

Metro's major outage stretched into a second week. An update on the "unauthorized activity" went out to employees, but there's been no additional information shared with riders, who are still dealing with sporadic real-time updates and an inability to load their TAP cards. As Metro employees explained to me, the ongoing network issues are actually being created by the security team turning various systems on and off in an attempt to test how safe it is to restore full service. So if something doesn't work, try again in a few hours; Apple Wallet and real-time updates both were online long enough to get me home Monday! How much longer will this last? Metro employees are starting to get access to their workspaces restored, so that's a good step forward. There were similar attacks on other California cities and I'm also seeing chatter about a potential ransom attack on the city of Los Angeles, although nothing has been confirmed. Update: Liz Chou confirms the city is investigating “unauthorized access to a 3rd party transfer tool.”

As I rode around testing arrival data, I also got freshly mad about our expensive new LA city bus shelters, most of which showed incorrect route information — like, the wrong bus line entirely! — or simply blank screens. What's the point of these if we can't use them to communicate with bus riders? In general, a bad two weeks for core passengers and anyone else who wanted to try transit as gas prices skyrocketed. Although I guess you technically really don't have to pay? 🦋

Where's that city services agreement again? Still being negotiated, apparently, but a report from LA's city attorney hints at what seems to be a major point of contention: apparently the current draft agreement would allow the "surplus" to go directly into an LA28 legacy fund — including the "wealthy backers and investors of the LA28 organization" — before fully reimbursing the city? The letter proposes other changes to the draft agreement but this one really caught my eye: "Provide transparent audit rights and procedures in response to the heightened risk exposure to the City and especially given the recent claims against LA28's chairman, Casey Wasserman." For the past year whistleblowers have been trying to raise the alarm about how the city services agreement could leave LA on the hook for up to $1 billion. Now it seems like City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto really wants to be on record saying the city is about to sign what Torched readers know is a bad deal. 🦋

Our Olympic lanes will be Bluebell lanes, according to an LADOT report to LA's transportation committee this week. Dan Mitchell confirmed that the temporary network of dedicated lanes known as the Games Route Network will use the light blue color from LA28's just-released "superbloom" palette because it's the one color "we have not deployed on the streets or the freeways." What you'll start to see over the next two years, and hopefully longer, if we can keep them: overhead signs on the freeways (blue was also used in 1984!), signs on the street, even pavement markings — there are about 15 miles of city-managed streets on the Games Route Network and half will have these dedicated lanes on them. Councilmember Heather Hutt seemed to be confused about why the pavement needed to be a different color, maybe someone can talk to her about what bus lanes do. 🦋

More essential reading

LA is not a bloomin’ desert

The official look and feel for the games shows, once again, that LA28 doesn’t really understand our city

TorchedAlissa Walker

Downtown’s forward motion

The goal is to improve the downtown experience by 2028 by “linking key locations with safer, cleaner, and greener streets, parks, public spaces, and transit hubs”

TorchedAlissa Walker

What Torched subscribers are reading

• "There are Metro signs leading you back to the station from Dodger Stadium, but none leading you along the route there. The Dodgers actually would prefer you did not take that route, or at least the last part of it." Bill Shaikin, the best chronicler of our baseball traffic challenges, has a story on why it's so hard to walk to Dodger Stadium and how a group of transit advocates tried to make it a little better during last year's playoffs. Thanks for letting me tag along!
• I enjoyed reading Nate Berg's inside look at LA28's visual identity for Fast Company (which includes some very nice Torched quotes!)
• The Athletic's Henry Bushnell breaks down what it will cost to attend a World Cup game
• "A Fiscal Analysis Of Los Angeles City’s Road Infrastructure (Or The Economic Case For Street To Plaza and Park Conversions)." Okay, this headline is basically clickbait for me but the analysis by Colin Warn delivers: we can't afford to maintain our streets as spaces for cars, why not turn them into places for people?
• The LA Local's Isaiah Murtaugh answers the most megaevent-relevant election question: "Yes, Inglewood Mayor James Butts is running for a 5th term"
• Parker Molloy on how the IOC's new sex-texting policy isn't necessarily anti-trans and may end up hurting girls and women who aren't trans the most
• And Reo Eveleth on the history of Olympic sex tests and why they don't work (also be sure to listen to their essential podcast on the topic, Tested)
• Could LA's public bathroom situation get any more depressing? Thanks to Maylin Tu for staying on the beat

Une flâneuse en France

Me and my feet are headed to Paris! If you'll be there, too, join me, fellow Torched subscribers, plus a few special guests for happy hour on the Hotel Pulitzer's lovely patio.

L'apéro avec Torched
Thursday, April 2
4 to 6 p.m. (although I'm sure we'll be lingering after 6)
Le Patio du Pulitzer
23 rue du Faubourg Montmartre 75009

I'll see you there. And a huge thank you to the Hotel Pulitzer Paris for having us!