The Olympics Are Coming to Los Angeles in 2028: How This Could Affect the City—and Its Real Estate
Now that the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games wrapped up over the weekend, people are already looking ahead to the next Summer Olympics, which will be held in Los Angeles in July 2028.
This will be the third time the City of Angels has hosted the event—but the last time was four decades ago, in 1984.
Preparations are already underway to get L.A. in shape for the many millions who will attend. In particular, how will this city unsnarl the traffic jams its infamous for? Apparently by making this Olympics a “no-car games.”
“We’re already working to create jobs by expanding our public transportation system in order for us to have a no-car games,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a press conference on Saturday. “And that’s a feat in Los Angeles, because we’ve always been in love with our cars, but we’re already working to ensure that we can build a greener Los Angeles.”
Bass told reporters she plans to borrow 3,000 buses from across the country to help make this happen, and she will be asking businesses to allow their employees to work from home during the 17-day Olympics to avoid gridlock.
According to the LA28 organizing committee, no one will be told they cannot drive to a competition, but public transportation could be an easier option.
Angelenos have mixed emotions
“As a sports fan, I am very excited about the Olympics and would love to go to some events, but I am wary of the logistics and transportation issues,” says Stacy Walter, a transcriptionist in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita.
Although Walter has lived in Los Angeles for 12 years, she says she has used public transportation only about a dozen times max.
“Each time, it was less than stellar,” she admits. “I got to where I had to go, but safety was always on the back of my mind.”
Indeed, safety is another issue that Bass is attempting to address now by cleaning up the city streets. By the 2028 Olympics, reports warn that Olympians could be greeted by 30,000 homeless.
“It would be awful if that were the case, but I want you to know that we’re going to do everything to make sure that it’s not,” Bass told NBC Los Angeles. By the Olympics, “the goal is a dramatic reduction in street homelessness.”
Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered state agencies to dismantle homeless encampments. But Bass worries that would just result in shuffling the homeless from one area to another until there is more permanent housing built, so she has not acted on the order yet.
