The short answer is no. The long answer is… it could be, but it’ll probably take longer than four years. One of the best things about Los Angeles is also it’s achillies heel. The city is sprawling, freeways and some roads can go for miles, Wilshire and Ventura Blvd. span over 15 miles each.
The Olympics won’t be in a centralized location, everything will be spread out from the Sepulveda Basin in Encino all the way down to the waterfront in Long Beach. If you’ve been to the great city of Los Angeles you’d know that not every part of the city is treated evenly.
One of the most drastic changes in apperence and cleanliness happens right on the other side of the 110 freeway. The immediate blocks east of the freeway in the downtown area around LA Live and the Convention Center are pretty clean. But the other side of the freeway doesn’t look as nice. There is trash on the streets, buildings are in need of a fresh coat of paint, and some of the sidewalks are busted.
I’m not sure how or why Los Angeles has so many cracked and broken sidewalks and why they always take so long to fix. In the past the city has cited staffing shortages in response to their lengthy timeline of completion for various services. But first impressions are everything and with the eyes of the world upon the city we only get one chance to make a good one.
Los Angeles to many is a “dream” city, and a “dream” destination. It’s everything that people see in movies and it’s also everything that they don’t. But when people visit, the stains of the city don’t go unnoticed. In recent years and with the magnification of social media, people have called out the city for not being what has been portrayed for years. Tourists feel “duped” when they visit some of the famed sights like the Hollywood Walk of fame.
So how do we fix Los Angeles’ image? It starts by cleaning up the streets, literally and metophorically. A recent statistic states that Los Angeles is home to 1/3 of the national homeless population. And when you think about it wouldn’t you want to live where the weather is better most of the year in comparison to many other cities. Not to mention the beach, so I get it, it’s where people want to be of all income levels.
A perfect plan to eradicate homeless won’t happen overnight or in the next four years, but they need to figure out something, and fast. They also need to physically clean the streets, sweep, power wash and pick up trash… on a regular basis. Some areas of the city like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and West Hollywood look Olympic ready but they won’t host any events.
The city planned on the Metro being ready for the Olympics but that also looks like it’s not going to be fully completed. Los Angeles Metro has dropped the ball for many years and they continue to do so. Even if they do complete the plans that were approved in time the other question is will the Metro be a safe mode of transportation?
Buses and trains alike have been in drastic decline reguarding safety even before the pandemic. It’s a shame that a service which should be better run to better service the Los Angeles population. Most people don’t want to take the Metro for safety reasons, Metro has tried to address the problem but has failed time and time again.
And on top of apperances and public transportation issues, is Los Angeles ready for such a high influx of people? Los Angeles is a major tourist city, so we’re used to getting a few ten thousand people daily. During peak tourist season in 2019 Los Angeles welecomed 50 million visitors, about 1 million people a week, and about 130,000 people a day.
While the Olympics will bring some joy and festivities to the city, it will also cause a major disruption to many people’s everyday lives. The people who aren’t worried about who wins gold, but who are just worried about making it to the next day, and keeping their bills paid. These are the people who rely on the failing public transportation system that Los Angeles has. This year Paris welcomed about 15 million visitors for the 2024 Summer Olympic games.
A simple Google search will tell you that Los Angeles is home to about 3 million people, and Los Angeles County is home to about 9 million people. If the numbers are the same as Paris, that would mean LA is going to see 5 times the amount of people it’s used to. If you think traffic is bad now… just wait.
While I personally don’t think Los Angeles is ready to host the Olympics in the next four years, I hope they don’t wait until the 9th hour to really start cleaning up the city. Like what happened in 1984 when the city used its police force to “sanitize” the city before the start of the games. You can’t arrest your way out of a problem especially one as nuanced as homelessness.
