The past week's soggy, soupy, 70 percent dew point days had all of Los Angeles face down over the nearest AC vent. Even though today is supposed to de-humidify significantly, right after I hit send on this newsletter, I'm headed to the splash pad to recover. But the energy-sapping heat was one of many severe impacts from Hurricane Marie, which didn't even make landfall but still managed to deliver some serious destruction.
While not surprising to any Surfliner commuter, Marie's storm surge ate away at the LOSSAN rail corridor, the second-busiest in the country, once again spiking Metrolink and Amtrak service between LA and Orange County indefinitely. This is a key infrastructural element to reliably deliver a regional transit-first games, but unfortunately the fix we really need wasn't accelerated for 2028. This latest disruption is also right around where LA28 is planning to have surfing in two years, at a location so transit-accessible they put an Amtrak train in the rendering. But maybe we'll just have to use even more buses instead.
But a hurricane canceling a 30,000-person megaevent demonstrates the future that's coming for us. "Significant beach erosion" south of the pier led Santa Monica to scrap the inaugural Ocean Way Festival scheduled for September 26 to 27. Load-in for the music festival was supposed to start this week, but now there isn't enough sand to safely accommodate the crowds. "The surf took the beach we planned this on," wrote Mayor Caroline Torosis.
All that sand that's no longer there is also where a certain city might have, on another timeline, hosted beach volleyball in 2028. I can't imagine ten years ago that this type of disruption was even on the radar of LA28 organizers. The unbearable heat will remain a persistent challenge, but I ask again: what's the plan if a tropical storm rolls through two summers from now? 🔥
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Bacon-wrapped hot dogs should be the official meal of the games, obviously. From LA28's food and beverage program presentation this week
LA28 is looking for food trucks and street vendors to apply for the "LA28 L.ocal A.uthentic Program," where hundreds of local businesses will be selected to provide food items during the games. A few more details were revealed at LA28's First Fridays event where LA28 food and beverage director David McCallum talked about how each venue or venue zone will have customized menus and when local businesses apply they will have to make the case for why they're the best to represent that neighborhood. "Nothing has been done on this scale" when it comes to using local trucks, carts, and vendors to manage an Olympic and Paralympic food program, McCallum said. Vendors will get additional training and mentoring leading up to the games. LA28 is also taking applications for its Celebrate Two Eight "live sites" (the same thing as watch parties or fan zones) and opening round two of its sustainability grants. 🦋
LA County's long-awaited economic impact report finally dropped outlining risks, opportunities, and goals for the games. The report — by HR&A Advisors, who did a similar analysis for Santa Monica — has some great recommendations, including some interesting analysis on how traditional tourism hubs aren't necessarily well-connected to venues, while "pass-through" areas will see a lot of foot traffic but don't have traditional tourism infrastructure to capture spending. There's a whole section on the threats of displacement which I haven't seen much talk about from officials elsewhere. "Unite the region" is also a worthy legacy concept. But isn't two years out a bit late for any of this to be put forward? 🦋
C-I-P! C-I-P! We got a C-I-peek into LA's infrastructure plans for 2028 and beyond as recommendations for the city's Capital Infrastructure Program were presented at a joint public works and transportation committee meeting. The 29 projects for 2028 are still moving forward first, but the next step is implementing a project intake process and scoring criteria for prioritization. The presentation was preceded by reports from various city agencies on El Niño preparedness, and, as I noted earlier, particularly after LA's wild weather weekend, the overlapping priorities and jurisdictions seemed to underline the critical need for getting our act together sooner than later. (Apparently, right now, potholes get filled in an average of seven days, HMMMM.) 🦋
🚧 Construction unions who work on Caltrans projects are pushing back on the three-month building moratorium for the summer of 2028 that officials have talked about for at least a decade. These moratoriums are also built into the construction plans for the convention center and LAX 🦋
170,000 pages of documents released by Zohran Mamdani's administration unequivocally show that New Yorkers were lied to about air quality after 9/11, with some devastating parallels to our recent fires
A fantastic Carolina Miranda review of the Lucas Museum's art collection: "On the whole, it’s a lot of cheesecake. Men are depicted as muscled and strong; the women as helpless and scantily clad. Elsewhere, a gallery devoted to 'Motherhood' showed numerous paintings of women cradling infants. (There was no such gallery devoted to fatherhood.)" And Carolina also reviewed the museum itself, where she zeroed in on the same focal point that I struggled with: "Prominently placed on one rise is a large bronze of Jabba the Hutt being strangled by Princess Leia in the revealing harem costume from Return of the Jedi (an ensemble that actor Carrie Fisher despised)"
What a fantastic evening spent in such stellar company. My sincerest thanks to everyone who (safely) braved a heat advisory, Everywhere LA for being such lovely hosts, and special cheers to the bartenders at the Streamliner sidebar for whipping up a Jungle Bird tiki cocktail that perfectly evoked the parrots in the historic tile. Don't want to miss out next time? Become a paid subscriber today. More photos to come!
And because the party never stops... here's where you'll find me next:
Saturday, September 19: South Bay Transit Summit, moderating a panel on yet more transportation megaevent lessons
Monday, September 21: At Cal Poly Pomona's College of Environmental Design I'll be in conversation with Torched favorite Sam Bloch where we'll talk shade, of course. Details coming soon. And don't miss Sam in conversation with another Torched favorite, Edith de Guzman, the previous day at Studio-MLA
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
