Keys to success: Educators told LAist the keys to helping students succeed, regardless of their race or ethnicity, lie in examining data on mental health, test scores and other academic outcomes, while also building programs that incorporate student and family feedback and showing students models of success that they can relate to.
Long Beach’s approach: The Long Beach Unified School District has turned to students and their families for feedback on how to address academic disparities between Black students and their peers. The district’s Black Literary Societies are based on their 19th century predecessors where free Black people gathered to discuss reading, writing, and current events. In the program’s second year, Lovett said participation has almost doubled to more than 100 students.
“I think the conversations have changed, but the outcomes haven't,” said Keli Redd, an English teacher in the Antelope Valley who’s worked as an educator for nearly two decades.
Redd and other educators are now working through how to improve outcomes for Black students as the federal government under the Trump administration seeks to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“We're not ignoring anyone,” said Pamela Lovett, Long Beach Unified School District’s excellence and equity coordinator. “We are setting high benchmarks for all of our kids, but we're committed and know that not everyone needs the same thing to get to the benchmark. We are going to have different approaches to make sure that we address student needs.”
Educators told LAist the keys to helping students succeed, regardless of their race or ethnicity, lie in examining data on mental health, test scores and other academic outcomes. They also include building programs that incorporate student and family feedback and showing students models of success they can relate to.
The educators we spoke with were a few of the 800 people who gathered in downtown Los Angeles for a conference this month about advocating for Black students. The College Board, best known for designing the SAT and Advanced Placement (AP) courses, has organized the A Dream Deferred conference since 2005.
“I feel motivated to spread awareness about the problem, but also what to do about the problem,” said Kimani Norrington-Sands, an L.A.-based licensed clinical psychologist. “I think that we can all make a change if we're all aware of what's going on.”
Norrington-Sands worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 13 years and her responsibilities included staff trainings on suicide prevention.
Kimani Norrington-Sands is a licensed clinical psychologist. She said her work is also influenced by her father's death by suicide.
(
Courtesy Kimani Norrington-Sands
)
Norrington-Sands offered these tips for schools:
Train all school staff, from educators to custodians, to understand how trauma influences students.
Create a process to identify students who are struggling with mental health.
Provide support not only to students, but their and families.
“I see wellness as a form of resistance,” Norrington-Sands said. “This is how I'm resisting all the oppression, is to raise awareness and to help people all over the country.”
“What shifted in the conversation is we need to stop thinking we know,” said Lovett, the district coordinator. “Because obviously, what we know is not working if we're still getting the same results and that we need to do a better job of listening.”
The district created a program that convenes Black students from throughout the district to discuss literature based on the community’s feedback.
Pamela Lovett is the excellence and equity coordinator at the Long Beach Unified School District and says interest is growing in the Black Literary Society program.
“The whole focus was learning ways that they can advocate for themselves, that they can improve their conditions, that they get help, not only themselves, but also those that were enslaved,” Lovett said.
In the program’s first year, about 70 students unpacked School Clothes, a book that examines the educational experiences of Black writers, political leaders and others.
“We had a diverse range of learners,” Lovett said. “Not all of our kiddos…were A students, not all of those kiddos were in our most advanced courses.”
Students who met at lunch, afterschool and on the weekends presented their learnings at the end of the year. A smaller group visited several of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that the subjects in the book attended.
“[The students] understood that if they set goals and helped each other, that they were going to be more likely to achieve their goals,” Lovett said. “[They’re] really mirroring the students that they were studying.”
This school year, Lovett said Black Literary Societies participation has almost doubled.
Changing the narratives about Black students
Jarvis Givens said he was disoriented by the Black education narratives he was presented as a student at UC Berkeley.
“They expected me to be familiar with the experience of feeling alienated in schools, narratives about the school-to-prison pipeline, and having terrible experiences with teachers,” Givens said. “That wasn't my experience.”
Jarvis Givens grew up in Compton, attended UC Berkeley and is now a professor of education and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. His work often highlights lesser-known narratives of excellence in Black education. “It's important for more than just how we think about the past,” Givens said. “It's about how we create opportunities for young people to become different versions of themselves and to have opportunities to see different versions of themselves in the present and in the future.”
(
Courtesy Jarvis Givens
)
Givens attended academically strong schools near his home in Compton where the majority of educators reflected the largely Black and Latino student body, including King/Drew Magnet High School in Watts.
Now as an author and professor of education and African and African American studies at Harvard University, Givens excavates lesser-known narratives of excellence in Black education.
One example from his book Fugitive Pedagogy, is Black schools that succeeded in the Jim Crow South despite the oppressive conditions.
“All of these schools that cultivated all these important leaders, like Angela Davis, Martin Luther King Jr.,” Jarvis said. “They all went to segregated schools. They were not leaders who just fell out of the sky.”
He also authored School Clothes, the book incorporated into Long Beach Unified’s Black Literary Societies.
“It's forcing [students] to think about their own experiences in the present day in more critical ways and realizing that they too are becoming something, someone,” Givens said.
Becoming a mentor, building a pathway to challenging classes
Keli Redd has been an educator in Los Angeles County for 17 years and has spent the last two teaching English at Palmdale High School.
She left the conference thinking about how her school might build a pathway to AP African American Studies, a course where students can earn college credit. (Black students are underrepresented in AP classes.)
Redd’s daughter takes the class at another high school.
Redd said she's started to hear her colleagues discuss the definition of equity more often on campus. "Some of them start with quoting it or repeating it, or even mimicking the mantra, but that's how it starts to settle in," Redd said. "That you are literally giving students what they need, when they need, however long they need it."
(
Courtesy Keli Redd
)
“She comes home from this class and we spend an hour over dinner just talking about the things that come up in her class,” Redd said. Those topics have included the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, inequities in healthcare for Black women and Henrietta Lacks, whose tumor cells, taken without her permission, are a foundational part of medical research.
“Thinking on the spot, generating an idea on the spot, and then having to defend something that you have followed — I think it's a really cool way to infuse research outside of the English classroom,” Redd said.
Redd, who also serves on her school’s equity team, said that despite support from administrators, momentum has slowed; fewer of her colleagues show up for meetings and training.
“I can't tell you why when there is money behind this, when there is a whole district wide initiative — our principal is a major champion of equity,” Redd said.
Still, there have been victories in the last few years. Each member of the equity team is mentoring anywhere from two to 20 students outside the classroom. Redd meets with 15 students weekly to review their grades and connect them to resources like tutoring.
“I'm just a small part, but my voice, plus your voice, plus their voice, it adds up,” Redd said.
In the more than two months since the Department of Justice released its latest batch of files on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors have not brought any new charges based on the documents, despite federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continuing to demand accountability.
The backstory: Since the release of the files in 2025 and 2026, there have been no related arrests in the U.S. However, the disclosures have led to some resignations and other reputational repercussions for some high-ranking Americans. The lack of arrests in the U.S. contrasts to the fallout in the U.K., where investigators have pursued charges related to corruption, not sexual abuse, in their dealings with Epstein. Two former government officials — former Prince Andrew and ex-ambassador Peter Mandelson — were arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Lack of evidence: In the U.S., top Justice Department officials have said that they found no evidence compelling enough to pursue further charges related to Epstein, and that the public can make their own assessments based on the disclosed documents. In a statement to NPR, Justice Department spokesperson Katie Kenlein said that "there have not been additional prosecutions beyond Epstein and Maxwell because there has not been credible evidence that their activities extended to Epstein's network."
In the more than two months since the Department of Justice released its latest batch of files on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors have not brought any new charges based on the documents, despite federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continuing to demand accountability.
The more than 3 million pages of documents include accusations by alleged victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's abuse and thousands of emails and photos showing Epstein associated with prominent figures. The files indicate that many of these people maintained contact with the disgraced financier long after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to sex crimes that involved minors. Appearing in the files is not necessarily an indication of criminal wrongdoing.
The release of the Epstein files came after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which forced the Justice Department to make public all documents it held related to Epstein.
The lack of arrests in the U.S. contrasts to the fallout in the U.K., where investigators have pursued charges related to corruption, not sexual abuse, in their dealings with Epstein. Two former government officials — former Prince Andrew and ex-ambassador Peter Mandelson — were arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known, has denied wrongdoing and has not been formally charged. Mandelson has also not been charged, and lawyers for Mandelson have said that the arrest was prompted by a "baseless suggestion."
In the U.S., top Justice Department officials have said that they found no evidence compelling enough to pursue further charges related to Epstein, and that the public can make their own assessments based on the disclosed documents.
In a statement to NPR, Justice Department spokesperson Katie Kenlein said that "there have not been additional prosecutions beyond Epstein and Maxwell because there has not been credible evidence that their activities extended to Epstein's network. However, if prosecutable evidence comes forward, the Department of Justice will of course act on it as we do every day in sexual trafficking and assault cases across the count[r]y."
On Thursday, President Trump announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi is out of the top job at the Justice Department, following bipartisan criticism over her handling of the Epstein files.
NPR asked four former prosecutors and one former law enforcement officer why there may not have been enough evidence to levy additional charges. Here's what they said.
Prosecutors must prove guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt"
Prosecutors must prove to a jury that a person committed a crime "beyond a reasonable doubt," according to Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.
"One of the biggest misconceptions people have is how difficult it is to charge and convict somebody for a criminal case," said McQuade, who served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
A prosecutor's ethical responsibility is to charge cases only if they believe there is enough evidence for a conviction, McQuade said. Documents, including emails, jokes, and even plane itineraries, can be a place to start, but, alone, they are not enough to prove guilt, McQuade said.
"What you would need [is] rock solid evidence," McQuade said. "You can't charge someone for a crime without sufficient evidence, and I have yet to see evidence of a crime involving an Epstein associate that has gone uncharged."
Based on his understanding of the case, Paul Butler, a professor at Georgetown Law, said he agreed that prosecutors who investigated Epstein's alleged associates "may have believed that they couldn't persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt." He said problems with witness credibility or certain forensic evidence can prevent a case from moving forward.
The U.K. cases are focused on corruption
In the U.K., the two people arrested are being investigated on suspicion of "misconduct in public office." McQuade said the U.S. does not have a single equivalent federal law. Instead, the U.S. prosecutes public corruption through statutes that focus specifically on crimes such as bribery and extortion.
After the release of the latest files, British police began investigating Andrew's correspondence with Epstein when Andrew was a U.K. trade envoy. At that time, Andrew allegedly shared government itineraries, investment plans and notes from official foreign trips with Epstein. The information may have been covered by the United Kingdom's Official Secrets Act.
Similarly, Mandelson has been accused of passing confidential government information to the late sex offender when Mandelson was a U.K. Cabinet minister.
Meeting the burden of proof is especially challenging for sex crime cases
Victim statements are essential for establishing basic elements, such as the timeframe of events, required to build sexual assault cases, said Diane Goldstein, a retired police lieutenant from California and the executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. But a victim may be reluctant to come forward because of a fear of retaliation, not believing the police can help, believing it is a personal matter, or not wanting to get the perpetrator in trouble.
McQuade noted that in some sex trafficking cases, especially those in which a perpetrator is in a position of power, victims may experience intimidation or threats that prevent them from speaking out.
Victims also may be hesitant to move forward with allegations because they fear having to testify at trials where defense attorneys may attempt to poke holes in their allegations, McQuade said.
Goldstein said that for sex crime cases to advance, investigators need to follow certain policies and procedures. "If you don't have a legitimate police investigation to start, you're not going to get any type of criminal filing," Goldstein said.
Other potential charges are also a difficult path
Prosecutors may have considered pursuing charges of criminal conspiracy related to sex trafficking against people associated with Epstein, said Jessica Roth, a professor at Cardozo School of Law. FBI documents in the files relating to its investigation into Epstein's crimes identify certain people as "co-conspirators."
But Ankush Khardori, a senior writer and columnist at Politico magazine who worked as a federal prosecutor on financial fraud cases, told NPR those identifiers are not "formal accusation[s]" and are simply part of "interim documents."
"The FBI does not determine who is a co-conspirator," Khardori said. "That is a legal judgment that prosecutors make."
But for those conspiracy cases, "criminal intent," in particular, is difficult to establish, said Roth, who worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York for seven years. Criminal conspiracy charges "would require knowledge and intent on the part of each individual who was charged," Roth said. If a person who communicated with Epstein had some suspicion that he was engaged in illegal activity, that alone would not be sufficient evidence to press charges, she said.
Investigators may have considered charges related to criminal tax violations, McQuade said. But the statute of limitations has likely ended on those cases, she said, meaning that prosecutors can no longer bring charges.
The current evidence lacks context
Legal experts say the haphazard way the documents were released and redacted makes it difficult for the public to understand why no additional charges have been filed.
Roth, the Cardozo law professor, said the information is in "isolation," without the appropriate context. "We'll see an individual photograph that looks perhaps incriminating. We'll see an email that looks incriminating, but we don't necessarily have everything that was said before and after that email and that exchange," Roth said.
One document that could explain why no charges were pursued, according to Butler, is a heavily redacted DOJ memo naming "potential co-conspirators" of Epstein. "The parts that should indicate why the department declined prosecution on any alleged co-conspirators other than Ghislaine Maxwell [are] redacted," said Butler, the Georgetown law professor and a former federal prosecutor.
Butler said those redactions are "unusual" because they do not appear to follow the permissible reasons for redactions in the Epstein documents. Those reasons include confidentiality for Epstein's alleged victims, or anything that would compromise an ongoing investigation, Butler said.
"When the Justice Department grudgingly releases information when pressed by politics or forced by Congress, it also creates the impression that they have something to hide," Butler said. "That there is some cover-up going on."
Copyright 2026 NPR
Nearly 30% more students in Los Angeles County experienced homelessness from 2022-23 to 2023-24, making it the county’s highest rate in the past five years and far outpacing the rate of homelessness across the state in the same timeframe, as the resources to identify and support this student population have decreased.
Norwalk-La Mirada Unified: Researchers found that Norwalk-La Mirada Elementary Unified School District had the highest rate of student homelessness in the county — 1 in 3 students, meaning that over 4,700 students were identified as experiencing homelessness during the 2023-24 school year out of a total cumulative enrollment of about 15,600.
Underidentifed students: Researchers also found that the Transformation of Schools focuses on the lack of dedicated funding for school staff to identify and support homeless students. Students and families facing homelessness do not always self-identify, whether due to fear, shame or being unaware that their housing situation is considered homelessness
Nearly 30% more students in Los Angeles County experienced homelessness from 2022-23 to 2023-24, making it the county’s highest rate in the past five years and far outpacing the rate of homelessness across the state in the same timeframe, as the resources to identify and support this student population have decreased.
Researchers found that Norwalk-La Mirada Elementary Unified School District had the highest rate of student homelessness in the county — 1 in 3 students, meaning that over 4,700 students were identified as experiencing homelessness during the 2023-24 school year out of a total cumulative enrollment of about 15,600.
The city of Norwalk, where the district is located in the eastern region of the county, was sued by the state in 2024 for banning emergency shelters and other support services for people experiencing homelessness. Last year, the state reached a settlement with the city, which was forced to overturn the ban and put $250,000 toward building affordable housing.
Student homelessness is defined differently under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal law that requires every public school to count the number of students who are living on the street, in shelters, in motels, in cars, doubled up with other families, or moving between friends’ and relatives’ homes.
As a result of this expanded definition, McKinney-Vento includes doubled-up students in the count of homelessness. Doubled-up is a term used to describe children and youth ages 21 and under living in shared housing, such as with another family or friends, due to various crises.
There were a few other patterns seen in the L.A. County data analyzed by the UCLA researchers:
Latino students were disproportionately more likely to experience homelessness: they represent 65% of the county’s student population, but 75.5% of student homelessness
A third of homeless students were in high school
Many districts with the highest rates of homelessness had higher school instability but lower dropout rates
While McKinney-Vento has an expanded definition that includes more types of homelessness than several other definitions, identifying students remains difficult.
The second report from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools focuses on the lack of dedicated funding for school staff to identify and support homeless students. Students and families facing homelessness do not always self-identify, whether due to fear, shame or being unaware that their housing situation is considered homelessness under McKinney-Vento.
“A lot of these young people are dealing with a lot of trauma, so they don’t want to be identified. They don’t want to be pointed out; sometimes it’s scary for them, because they think we’re going to report them to the Department of Children and Family Services,” said L.A. County Office of Education staff interviewed for this report.
School staff, known as homeless liaisons, who work with homeless students received a historic influx of federal funds during the Covid-19 pandemic — $98.76 million for California, out of $800 million nationwide, from the American Rescue Plan-Homeless Children and Youth.
That funding has since ended, and there is no other dedicated, ongoing state funding set aside solely for the rising number of homeless students. This has led districts in California to “heavily depend on highly competitive and unstable federal streams,” the UCLA researchers wrote. Those federal streams have become increasingly precarious as the federal administration last year sought policy changes that would shift how they are structured.
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
Destiny Torres
is LAist's general assignment reporter and brings you the top news you need for the day.
Updated April 3, 2026 3:36 PM
Published April 3, 2026 1:59 PM
The Spring Fire around 11 a.m. in east Moreno Valley.
(
Alert California
/
UC San Diego
)
Topline:
Multiple evacuation orders are in place for residents near the Spring Fire burning east of Moreno Valley in Riverside County. The fire was first reported around 11 a.m.
Multiple evacuation orders are in place for residents near the Spring Fire burning in east of Moreno Valley in Riverside County. The fire was first reported around 11 a.m.
As of this afternoon, the fire has reached over 2,800 acres.
West of the Spring, a separate bush fire near Acton also began Friday afternoon. The Crown Fire has burned 280 acres and is 20% contained.
Evacuation orders have been issued by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department for the following areas:
MOE-0507
MOE-0747
MOE-0745
MOE-0641
MOE-0746
MOE-0744
RVC-0748
RVC-0826
RVC-0825
Evacuation warnings
Authorities say those who require additional time to evacuate and those with pets and livestock should leave immediately.
MOE-0504
MOE-0505
MOE-0506
MOE-0633
MOE-0636
MOE-0637
MOE-0638
MOE-0639
MOE-0640
MOE-0743
MOE-0822
MOE-0823
Evacuation shelters
Valley View High School 13135 Nason St. Moreno Valley, 92555
Animal Shelter
San Jacinto Animal Shelter 581 S. Grand Ave. San Jacinto 92582
Road closures
Gilman Springs Road is closed from Alessandro Road to Bridge Street, according to Cal Fire.
What we know so far
The Spring Fire was first reported around 11 a.m. Friday near Gilman Springs Road as a 5-acre fire that grew to 1,000 acres by 1:45 p.m.
VEGETATION FIRE - rpt @ 10:59AM. 15900 block Gilman Springs Road, east of Moreno Valley. Firefighters are on-scene of 5-6 acres burning in light flashy fuels. Gilman Springs Road is closed from Alessandro Road to Bridge Street. #SpringsIC@RivCoNowpic.twitter.com/KsTOq4QxM5
— CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department (@CALFIRERRU) April 3, 2026
Conditions are fairly windy and dry in that area, according to the National Weather Service. Wind gusts reached 20 to 30 mph from the east.The Santa Ana wind event is expected to last into tomorrow.
Listen to our Big Burn podcast
Listen
39:42
Get ready now. Listen to our The Big Burn podcast
Jacob Margolis, LAist's science reporter, examines the new normal of big fires in California.
The president’s budget request released Friday didn’t provide a dime of the $2 billion the countywide transportation agency seeks.
(
Samanta Helou Hernandez
/
LAist
)
Topline:
The Trump administration did not include funding in its federal budget proposal for Los Angeles Metro’s key plan to use thousands of buses to transport fans to scattered venues hosting the 2028 Games.
The plan: Metro plans to essentially double its bus fleet for the 2028 Games by temporarily acquiring, operating and storing nearly 1,750 additional buses for spectators. The agency says that will cost about $1 billion. The remainder of the $2 billion appropriations request would be for pedestrian improvements and designing a network of roads for Games vehicles, among other uses.
Final opportunity? California Democratic congressional representatives have repeatedly appealed to the Trump administration to provide funding for Metro. In their latest letter from February, they said this budget process is the “final opportunity” to secure Metro’s funding request.
Read on … for more details on Metro’s plan, how buses were used in the 1984 Olympics.
The Trump administration did not include funding in its federal budget proposal for Los Angeles Metro’s key plan to use thousands of buses to transport fans to scattered venues hosting the 2028 Games.
L.A. Metro’s Board and California Democrats have repeatedly appealed to the administration to provide federal dollars for the region’s "transit-first" Games. The president’s budget request released Friday didn’t provide a dime of the $2 billion the countywide transportation agency is seeking.
The 92-page document is a signal of the administration’s priorities for the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Ultimately, the U.S. Congress decides how federal dollars are spent.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who represents Culver City and parts of Los Angeles, wrote a letter with her California Democratic colleagues to the administration in February calling this budget process the “final opportunity” to secure Metro’s funding request.
U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove is one of the California Democrats leading advocacy in Washington, D.C., to secure L.A. Metro's $2 billion federal funding request.
(
Assembleymember Sydney Kamlager Facebook Page
)
In a statement to LAist, Kamlager-Dove said she was “incredibly disappointed” that Metro was excluded in the president’s budget request.
“At the end of the day, Congress has the power to appropriate money,” she said. “Despite the president’s lack of foresight, I will continue to advocate to ensure this funding is included so L.A. Metro has what they need to succeed.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar, who has a seat on the Congressional subcommittee overseeing federal transportation appropriations, said President Donald Trump has talked about the Olympics “time and time again,” pointing to the most recent State of the Union as an example.
“Our charge is to ensure that they adequately fund this and that they put the resources behind it so they aren't just using it as a talking point, but they're actually leaning in,” Aguilar told LAist in an interview before the president’s proposed budget request was released.
What would the money be used for?
Metro plans to essentially double its bus fleet for the 2028 Games by temporarily acquiring, operating and storing nearly 1,750 additional buses for spectators. The agency says that will cost about $1 billion. The remainder of the appropriations request would be for pedestrian improvements and designing a network of roads for Games vehicles, among other uses.
Seleta Reynolds, Metro’s chief of innovation and Games mobility planning, said at a January Metro Board meeting that finding and preparing the real estate where the buses will be staged involves a lead time of two years, meaning the agency would need a “chunk of funding available by this summer.”
Initially, Metro had asked for $3.2 billion to support a plan to temporarily use 2,700 buses. Metro reduced the estimate for the number of buses needed after LA28, the Games organizing committee, refined the venues and schedule for events.
That reduction, plus other federal funding that Metro has received to partially support station and light rail improvements, brought the total amount of money in the federal appropriations request down to $2 billion, the countywide transportation agency said.
“Without the full level of funding requested, the complete scope of the [Games Enhanced Transit System] would not be feasible, as the cost of operating this temporary system exceeds Metro’s available operating resources,” the agency said in its statement.
Jacie Prieto Lopez, a spokesperson for LA28, told LAist in a statement before the president released his budget request that the organizing committee was supporting partners in Congress and the administration, who are leading the budget and appropriations process.
"With the full support of federal transit money for the games, we can collectively create a positive commuting experience," Prieto Lopez said.
Success with buses during LA84
A bus system similar to the one Metro is planning for 2028 was critical to the success of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Metro's predecessor, Southern California Rapid Transit District, deployed 550 additional buses, hundreds of new drivers and 24 routes to move people around the city for the Olympics.
A view of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the closing ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles, 12th August 1984.
(
Steve Powell
/
Getty Images Europe
)
In the run-up to those Games, one California Highway Patrol official warned the L.A. Times that congestion around the L.A. Memorial Coliseum would be so extreme that drivers would abandon their cars on the freeway. Headlines warned of "traffic woes."
Rich Perelman, who led press operations for the 1984 Olympics and edited the official report on the Games, told LAist that in 1984, no public funds were used for the additional bus fleet. Bus tickets and some donations and corporate sponsorships covered the cost.
Perelman said organizers pulled off the bus system by staying focused on the areas where parking was sparse, such as the Coliseum. According to the official report, nearly 80% of rides on the bus system were to Exposition Park.
" It was a transit-smart approach," Perelman said. " If there was plenty of parking, we didn't say you have to take the bus. We didn't make any nonsensical claims of 'no-car Games' or 'transit only Games.’"
Security funding from the federal government
Transportation funding is just one bucket that the federal government is expected to contribute for the Olympics.
The budget released by the Trump administration Friday contained major increases for the Department of Homeland Security, including some linked to Olympics preparations. It asks for additional funding for the FBI and Secret Service, which leads security planning for the Games.
But exactly how that money will be distributed has yet to be determined — and L.A. politicians have expressed concern that the funds may come with strings attached that the city of L.A. will find hard to swallow.
It's also possible that money could face delays that could disrupt Olympics planning. The federal government was late in awarding hundreds of millions of dollars that it promised for security for the World Cup this year — a delay the Trump administration attributed to the Homeland Security shutdown.
