Alissa Walker
Appearances
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
I can't really communicate how severe the situation was before the fires happened. We were plummeting into a deep fiscal crisis here at the city of L.A. The city does not have money to... Plan and implement basic fixes to sidewalks, bike lanes, parks, streetlights. There's a lot of trash everywhere. We don't have enough shade trees. You've seen our famous graffiti towers.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
We are in no shape to host millions of people here, let alone care for the people who use our city on a daily basis.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
There was this great quote from John Mulaney, who did this live variety show about L.A. last year, and he really explained, I think, how everybody in L.A. feels about the Olympics coming.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
So there's two things that are important to know about our mega event era here in L.A. One is you've probably heard this promise that it's a no-build games.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
The other part of it is not really happening, and that is these little infrastructural connections, including the transportation infrastructure, which we are scrambling to build out because, as you might have also heard, we're supposed to be having a car-free games.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Which is mostly a logistical way of explaining that we can't let people drive and park at all these venues as they move around to participate in the seven Super Bowls a day.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
So we have Metro, which is our regional transportation authority. They put forth a plan called 28 by 28 years ago, right after we got the bid. And they had a list of big transportation projects like subway extensions that were going to be completed before the Games happened.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Some of those are finished? Not all of them are finished. Some of them will definitely get finished. But what we've seen from Metro in particular is kind of a reprioritization based on reality.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
And the concern I think now post fires is that where the recovery money is getting spread around is are a lot of those infrastructure dollars going to have to go to places like, say, the Palisades to rebuild their many, many infrastructural challenges that they now have.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
There's definitely always been a big contingency of people who have said L.A. should not do this. The Nolympics. Nolympics is a global coalition, right? They're in many cities trying to show the harms of these mega events, which are documented. It's a real thing. The Nolympics groups kicked the bid out of Boston, and that's how L.A. got the games in the first place. So you can thank them for...
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
saying that their city shouldn't do it. And then LA was like, sure, we'll do it. No problem. But what I'm hearing now is a little bit different. There was some polling done over the summer that was like asking people, are you excited about the Olympics? And it was like a majority was excited. But then the second question was, do you think LA can produce a car-free Olympics?
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
And the answer was pretty much no. So there's this growing... I would say, concern that LA is not going to be able to pull it off, particularly in a way that is going to make the city better than it was before. You know, we were promised these permanent improvements to the city and that people everywhere would benefit from having these games here.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
And, you know, even some council members are expressing that they have doubts.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Well, that's funny because, you know, immediately the right wing pundits started to post on X that we should have the games taken away from us.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
That was really, I think, what prompted perhaps Newsom and other people here in L.A. to start to frame a recovery around the Olympics. But what's interesting is some sports are already moving out of the city of L.A. and the region of L.A. We have some sports going to Oklahoma City. That was already the plan before even before the fires. So will they be taken away from us? I don't think so.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
But they always do have a plan to disperse events as needed, find backup venues. I mean, there's always a plan.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
The word that I hear a lot, and it's, you know, as someone who writes about mega events, but also writes about climate disasters and writes about emergency preparedness, is that these claims that LA is a resilient city and they'll point to things like previous earthquakes or uprisings or the pandemic as evidence. And I don't think LA is a resilient city.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
We haven't planned in a way, both through our infrastructure or our policy, to absorb the great risk and the impacts of something like this. And the recovery so far has been let's put everything back the way it was before and hope that nothing like this happens again. And it will. We are facing so many issues. We can have some fun mega events. We can have some parties.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
We can bring some tourists here and let them have a good time. But let's prioritize helping the people who live here already who are going to be experiencing the trickle-down effects of this, even if they were not directly impacted for decades. A generation. And let's figure out how to make a city that works for everybody.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
My name is Alyssa Walker. I'm the editor of Torched, which is a newsletter that tracks the legacy improvements and policy decisions leading up to L.A. 's mega event era.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
I wouldn't say awkward, I would say prescient. And it's not what I was thinking when I named it that, but you know what? We also kind of knew this might have been a possibility.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
Yes, next year, L.A. is hosting World Cup matches along with other cities across the continent.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
That will be 40 days of fan festivals and watch parties all over the region. And then we have the Super Bowl in 2027.
Today, Explained
Rebuilding Los Angeles
It's so exciting. Yeah. The Super Bowl is coming. And then we have the Olympics and Paralympics for a month in 2028, which is supposed to be seven Super Bowls a day. Seven Super Bowls a day. Seven Super Bowls a day. We are basically bringing millions more people to a city that is having a real crisis when it comes to our infrastructure already.