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≡ LOS ANGELES IN TURMOIL ≡
What has happened to Los Angeles?
A career Democrat legislator in California and the U.S. House of Representatives, Karen Bass, was elected Mayor of Los Angeles in 2022 by 55-45% over billionaire developer Rick Caruso, with the main focus on rampant homelessness across the city.
While making some inroads on the homelessness problem, the world that Bass and Los Angeles lived in was turned inside out:
● November 2024: Republican Donald Trump swept the national Presidential election, and along with Republican majorities in the Congress changed the national political calculus for California and Los Angeles, both with substantial majorities of Democratic voters.
● January 2025: Devastating, wind-blown wildfires destroyed much of the Palisades area of Los Angeles and large parts of Altadena, a separate town northeast of L.A.’s downtown, between 7-31 January.
● May 2025: The City’s financial difficulties were highlighted, with a projected $1 billion budget deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year, leading to hundreds of layoffs. On 24 June, the City Council declared a “fiscal emergency” even though it approved a $14.1 billion budget, up from $12.9 billion for 2024-25.
● June 2025: A series of round-ups by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, resulted in mass demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles and elsewhere, that turned into riots in the downtown area, resulting in the deployment of the California National Guard and even a small number of U.S. Marines by the Trump Administration to protect Federal property and ICE agents. Between 6-15 June, the Los Angeles Police Department made 575 arrests, mostly for failure to disperse and looting.
Hardly tranquil. None of this directly impacted the work of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee, working on the planning of both Games. But the chaos around the Games continued:
● On 14 May, the City Council approved a four-stage, mandatory minimum-wage increase for workers at hotels within the City of 60 or more rooms and for those working at Los Angeles International Airport to $22.50 per hour in July 2025, $25.00 in July 2026, $27.50 in July 2027, and $30.00 in July 2028. This was dubbed the “Olympic wage” for its $30 minimum to be installed just two weeks prior to the 2028 Olympic opening, but was vigorously criticized by business groups, noting the local tourism business has not even rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.
● On 27 June, a coalition of airlines, hotels, tourism and other business groups submitted more than 140,000 signatures on a petition to place the “Olympic wage” ordinance on the June 2026 municipal ballot. A total of 92,998 valid signatures are required and the Interim City Clerk announced:
“As a result of the filing of the referendum petition, Ordinance No. 188610 is suspended and will not take effect while the petition is being reviewed to determine if it contains a sufficient number of valid voter signatures.”
So, the July 2025 wage increase to $27.50 did not take place today. Labor groups decried the signature-gathering effort as invalid and have asked for the referendum effort to be thrown out.
But the ordinance may come up for a vote on 2 June 2026 in what promises to be an ugly labor vs. business showdown, and on the same ballot that the mayoral primary will be held. Bass is already a declared candidate; Caruso may also run again, but has not committed yet.
On top of all this, the Federal government is turning up the heat in Los Angeles:
● Last Thursday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a harsh letter to Bass concerning the ICE protests and riots, where people could not access public transit as stations were shut due to the violence. Included was this:
“The weak leadership you have shown in these critical times does not inspire confidence in your ability to represent one of the Nation’s largest cities as it hosts one of the world’s biggest events, the FIFA World Cup 2026 and the LA 2028 Summer Olympics (collectively, the LA games), where millions from around the globe are expected to visit Los Angeles. Based on your slow action to quell the riots, the Department of Transportation is deeply concerned about your ability to keep the commuting public safe and to handle the transportation logistics needed for the LA
games.”
● On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department chimed in:
“Today, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and the Los Angeles City Council over policies that Los Angeles enacted shortly after President Donald J. Trump’s reelection to interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of its immigration laws.
“Not only are Los Angeles’s ‘sanctuary city’ policies illegal under federal law, but, as alleged in the complaint, Los Angeles’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities contributed to the recent lawlessness, rioting, looting, and vandalism that was so severe that it required the federal government to deploy the California National Guard and the United States Marines to quell the chaos.”
This follows similar actions against “sanctuary” laws in New York and New Jersey, and is not related to the 2028 Games at all.
And none of these actions, disasters, lawsuits and more would be newsworthy for The Sports Examiner is they weren’t happening in the Olympic host city for the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad in 2028.
But they are.
New International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) was asked about the L.A. situation in her news conference last week, and cited the commitment the IOC has repeatedly received from all levels of government for the success of the Games.
Where does all of this go?
¶
Observed: As someone who lived most of my life in Los Angeles, the turmoil of the last decade, and especially the damage that the harshly-imposed conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic caused, has been depressing.
It’s clear now that the Trump Administration has made California – and Los Angeles – one of its prime targets in its legal and political policy initiatives and this will continue to play out over time. In that sense, the 2028 Games are still pretty far away, and the Secret Service is already involved in the long-lead security planning for the event, in coordination with local law enforcement.
But the Duffy letter gave the barest hint of a possible view that aspects of the Games which are up to the public authorities may be better planned, managed, coordinated or even handled by the Federal government and not by those already in Southern California.
No one is saying anything yet. But as Trump himself has said that the Federal government will do everything in its power to ensure the success of the 2028 Games, it would be unwise to doubt that resources will be brought in … but in a manner and time of the administration’s choosing.
The LA28 organizers are not yet being directly impacted by this; they haven’t put on any events and won’t until 2027. But they are going to be, as business, labor, the City and the Trump Administration continue to clash, with no end in sight.
As Engineer Montgomery Scott memorably said to Dr. Gillian Taylor in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home:
“Hold on tight, lassie. lt gets bumpy from here.”
Rich Perelman
Editor
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