The Brief

The 2028 Olympics are coming to Los Angeles as a multi-billion dollar operation funded by massive private and federal government investments and backed by city and state pledges to cover cost overruns.

The current privately funded budget for the Games is more than $7 billion. The federal government has agreed to chip in $1 billion to pay for security and is being asked to contribute another $2 billion to pay for Games-specific transit plans.

But the city of L.A.'s financial exposure is essentially unlimited. The city is on the hook for the first $270 million in losses, if they occur. The California Legislature has agreed to make statewide taxpayers pick up the next $270 million. After that, any additional financial burden will fall on Los Angeles taxpayers.

L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson told LAist that he doesn't think such overruns will happen but acknowledged it was "a risky proposition" for the city. 

"There's a lot of things that can go wrong," he said.

What financial costs have other cities faced?

The last time L.A. hosted in 1984, the Olympics did turn a profit. But that was a rare feat. Many host cities have been left with costly bills. Still, L.A. agreed to be the financial guarantor of the 2028 Games in order to clinch the Olympic bid. 

A general view of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum stadium during the 1984 Olympic Games.

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In 2016, Rio de Janeiro became a poster child for the failed promises of the Olympics after the Games ended with crushing debt and derelict infrastructure. Then, Tokyo's expenses spiked when the 2020 Games were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those games cost $13 billion — and Japanese taxpayers covered more than half of that, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Unlike other recent host cities, organizers of the Paris Games announced in June that they had a budget surplus.

The Paris Games were cheaper than recent summer Olympics, according to Victor Matheson, a professor at College of the Holy Cross who studies the economics of the Olympics. He attributed this, in part, to reforms implemented by the International Olympic Committee to help keep costs down, including by encouraging host cities to use existing venues rather than building elaborate new facilities. Paris also had plenty of capacity for tourists already.

That's the strategy L.A. is banking on to deliver a financially successful Olympics. The 2028 competition will take advantage of the region's glut of already-existing hotels and venues, from Dodger Stadium to the Rose Bowl to Crypto Arena to SoFi Stadium.

How billions in Olympic costs could hit taxpayer wallets

"We have an advantage over every other city in the world, and that is the existence of the venues and the facilities that we have here," said Paul Krekorian, the former L.A. councilmember who now leads the city's major events office, at a recent Olympic event in Venice Beach.

What protections are in place for L.A.?

L.A. may be hosting the Games, and backing them if costs run over, but the city isn't the one running the show. The event itself is privately planned and intended to be largely privately financed. That effort is led by the nonprofit LA28, a group led by sports agent and entertainment mogul Casey Wasserman. In its latest annual report, LA28 outlined a more than $7.1 billion budget to deliver the games.

The International Olympic Committee, the organization that oversees all Olympic Games, is kicking in around $1.39 billion. After that, LA28 expects to raise the money it needs to run the games from corporate sponsorships, ticket sales and licensing. 

LA28 officials say they are confident in their progress. But there are also some safeguards in place for Los Angeles in case there are overruns. The city's agreement with LA28 requires the organizers to establish a $270 million contingency fund that the city will control. LA28's latest budget includes an overall contingency of $613.5 million, which includes the city's portion.

The organizers are also required to take out a number of insurance policies, including to protect against event cancelation, natural disasters, terrorism, and other potential calamities. Not all of the insurance plans are in place yet, and it's unclear if they will offer enough coverage to fully protect the city.

At an L.A. City Council meeting last week, LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said the Olympics are on track financially.

"We continue to feel very optimistic about our path forward," he told the council, referencing recent corporate partnerships with Google, Starbucks and an electric bus company to transport athletes and Olympics staff.

LA28 has an overall goal of raising $2.5 billion in domestic sponsorships to help fund its budget. Hoover, told the council that LA28 had so far raised about $1.7 billion of that — a figure he said was more money than Paris raised ahead of 2024.

Can the city of L.A. control costs?

The city has only limited ability to intervene in LA28's decision-making.

Zev Yaroslavsky, a former L.A. County supervisor who was on the City Council when it negotiated the 1984 Olympic Games, told LAist that the city doesn't have much legal leverage to dictate Olympics planning. Its main point of influence is political.

"The only leverage the city has is the bully pulpit," Yaroslavsky said. "City Hall and the LA28 committee have their reputations on the line."

L.A. City Council greenlit re-locating Olympic diving from Exposition Park to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

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In terms of legal leverage, the city's contract with LA28 requires that city appointees comprise at least one-sixth of its board of directors. In addition, LA28 gave the city council veto power over decisions to move a venue outside of the city. This summer, the city council greenlit LA28's plan to move Olympic diving from Exposition Park to the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena, when LA28 organizers said that change would save millions of dollars.

The city is also currently negotiating with LA28 to define what extra city resources Olympics organizers will need to pay for, such as additional police officers on the streets. That was supposed to be completed by Oct. 1, but the two sides haven't come to an agreement yet.

What role will the federal government play?

One factor outside of both LA28 and City Hall's control is President Donald Trump. The president has named himself the head of a federal Olympics task force and allocated $1 billion in federal funds for Olympics security. How those funds will be spent remains to be seen, but some of it is expected to flow to local and state law enforcement agencies. Hoover told the city council last week that LA28 is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on how that money will be dispersed.

At the council meeting, Councilmember Bob Blumenfield asked Hoover, LA28's CEO, to have a back-up plan in case federal funds don't come through, or are withheld.

"What I'm concerned about is while they're being cooperative now, at some point they're gonna do what they've done with funding to universities and others. And they're going to create a condition that we cannot meet," Blumenfield said of the federal government. "What protections do we have in place to protect us against that kind of last minute extortion?"

Hoover responded saying that no one at the White House or in the federal government has put a condition on support for the Games so far.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a task force on security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

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"Now, what the administration will do later, I wouldn't sit here and be able to say or predict what they would do," he said.

Another big ticket item organizers are expecting the federal government to cover is a giant fleet of additional buses to transport fans during the Games. Those buses will be key to hosting the mega-event, which will span three counties in Southern California. Metro is seeking more than $2 billion for that project. 

A spokesperson for LA28 told LAist that the federal government provided financial support for bus programs for the 1996 and 2002 Olympic Games, in Atlanta and Salt Lake City.

"Our public agency partners are requesting similar support for 2028," Jacie Prieto Lopez, LA28's Vice President of Communications said in an email. She also said that LA28 had a "positive partnership" with the federal government. 

How will the Convention Center factor into costs?

One city project that could throw a wrench in L.A.'s Olympic plans is the controversial $2.6 billion expansion of the downtown Los Angeles Convention Center that the City Council approved in September. The plans include connecting the West and South halls and adding an estimated 325,000 square feet of space. 

That project, which is not expected to be finished until 2029, broke ground last month. But the Convention Center is slated to host a handful of Olympic competitions come 2028. 

Construction will need to pause and restart for the Games, according to a report from the city administrative officer. 

L.A. City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, chair of the budget and finance committee, estimated that pausing and restarting construction would cost the city $30 million. She voted against the expansion project.

If construction gets in the way of Olympics planning, organizers would have to find somewhere else to host a number of sports, including fencing, taekwondo and table tennis.

Ted Rohrlich, Kavish Harjai and Frank Stoltze contributed to this story.

Los Angeles city housing officials are pushing back on allegations from the outgoing city attorney, who claims that a legal aid provider has failed to comply with its taxpayer-funded contract to help tenants avoid eviction.

At stake in the dispute is $177 million — approved months ago by the mayor and City Council but still awaiting the city attorney’s signature — to help renters stay housed.

For more than a year, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has refused to authorize new long-term funding for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, or LAFLA. On Thursday, she told LAist the delay was due to the nonprofit’s alleged failure to account for how it spends city funds.

“They didn't comply with the monthly reporting that they were supposed to do,” Feldstein Soto said. “They still haven't done so.”

LAFLA leaders strongly disputed those claims, saying they have provided detailed accountings of their caseloads and tenant outcomes. Barbara Schultz, LAFLA’s housing director, told LAist her organization has fully complied with the terms of its contract.

“After months of highly unusual investigations, document requests and audits that extend well beyond the scope of [the city attorney’s] office, she has failed to identify any misconduct — because there isn't any,” Schultz said.

Officials with the L.A. Housing Department also told LAist the contract monitoring and reporting requirements have been upheld.

“LAFLA has complied with every request for information put forth by LAHD,” said department spokesperson Sharon Sandow. “Like all new programs, tracking and information systems have been improved as the program has matured over the past five years. LAFLA provided the information requested.”

City attorney’s dispute with legal aid group runs deeps

Feldstein Soto has frequently clashed with LAFLA. Separate from its tenant defense work, the organization has joined lawsuits against the city over its homelessness policies.

Feldstein Soto has objected to giving LAFLA city funds, telling council members in a confidential memo earlier this year that the city should “reconsider the award of such a large contract to a frequent litigant against the city.”

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, LAFLA has led Stay Housed L.A., a city- and county-funded effort to provide eviction defense, rent relief and other aid to tenants at risk of losing their housing.

The city has also tasked LAFLA with scaling up the city’s “Right To Counsel” ordinance, which provides free attorneys to qualified low-income renters facing eviction. Statistics show that landlords almost always have attorneys in eviction proceedings, but renters rarely come to court with lawyers of their own.

Last year, Feldstein Soto rejected a new five-year contract with the organization, saying any further funding should have gone through a competitive bidding process. The city responded by opening up a new call for submissions. Officials ultimately selected the Legal Aid Foundation to continue eviction defense services. The City Council and mayor approved that contract in April.

But Feldstein Soto has continued to withhold her signature. On Monday, she issued a report detailing why she has delayed the contract with LAFLA, as well as contracts with other tenant aid groups slated to receive funding for rent relief programs, enforcement of the city’s ordinance against tenant harassment and tenant rights education programs.

Feldstein Soto’s report included a series of audits of LAFLA from the Harrington Group, an independent accounting firm. When LAist asked if she had identified any evidence of impropriety in those audits, representatives for her office did not respond.

Data on tenant outcomes

Feldstein Soto said she believes information provided by LAFLA is insufficient to determine how many eviction cases involving city funding went to court, what the outcomes were or the average cost per case.

“The funds that we provided have not been accounted for properly in any way, shape or form,” Feldstein Soto said.

On Wednesday, the city’s housing department published a report saying Stay Housed L.A. has assisted tenants in 27,273 eviction cases, including 6,522 cases in which tenants were fully represented by a lawyer throughout their legal proceedings.

Over the last four years, 53% of fully represented tenants stayed in their homes, according to the report. Another 41% were able to negotiate agreements in which their landlords gave them more time to move out, forgave their overdue rent or sealed their eviction record. Less than 3% of tenants lost their case in court.

Much of the funding for the tenant aid contracts comes from the city’s so-called “mansion tax,” which could soon be scaled back by the city’s voters in a potential November ballot measure.

What comes next? 

Schultz said if city leaders are not satisfied with the accounting, they could ask for a formal audit through the City Controller’s Office. Feldstein Soto launched an audit of LAFLA last year, but has not released any findings so far. She told LAist more information could be coming soon.

“I am likely to file both a public report and a confidential report with my client, because you can't just gift away public funds without an audit trail and without transparency and accountability,” Feldstein Soto said.

Meanwhile, tenant advocates say smaller legal aid nonprofits that receive city funding as subcontractors are in danger of running out of money soon. Lawyers could be laid off and tenants could become homeless if funding is not approved quickly, they argue.

Schultz said the City Council may need to look for ways to approve the funding without the involvement of Feldstein Soto, who recently came in third place in the June primary election. She will not advance to the general election for a second term.

“I think that the council should definitely look at — if they had a rogue city attorney that refused to follow their directions — what other avenues they could explore,” Schultz said.

City Council members have introduced a motion calling on the city attorney’s office to explain the delay. That request was supposed to come up for a vote in a housing committee meeting this week, but it was ultimately canceled due to an earlier meeting of the full City Council that ran hours over schedule.

When I visited Taqueria Hoy in Orange, owner Rafael De Anda couldn’t wait to get home to watch Mexico kick off its World Cup stint. After decades at the helm of his taco shop — he first started it as a food truck and now has brick-and-mortar locations in Orange, Santa Ana and Anaheim — he could put his feet up and relax. The business was in good hands.

His sons, Raphael V. De Anda, 34, and Christian De Anda, 30, had been working at the taqueria since childhood. But when Rafael De Anda was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011 and battling the disease, the young men took over the complete running of the business — with their father still an integral part.

While I get a lot of emails pitching stories for LAist, rarely does a story materialize from one of them. But when Raphael De Anda emailed me about Taqueria Hoy, including a video that captured the warmth of his and his brother’s relationship with their father, it quickly piqued my interest.

In it they are quick to praise him for his work ethic and the lessons he’s imparted to them. In honor of Father’s Day, we’re celebrating those lessons here.

Rafael De Anda makes tacos at his taqueria in Orange.

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Lesson No. 1: Keep it simple and do it well

Rafael De Anda is from Arandas in Jalisco, and crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 1974. A few years into life in the Santa Ana area, he realized there was no good taqueria around, unless you drove to Los Angeles or San Diego. And so Taqueria De Anda was born in the 80s, before it was rebranded to Taqueria Hoy in 2020.

He says he wanted the tacos to taste just like the ones he used to have every day.  ”If you eat my tacos here, if you go to any part of Mexico, it will have to be the same,” he explained.

Taqueria Hoy has a straightforward menu, offering the usual carne asada, al pastor, pollo, chorizo and carnitas, along with cabeza (cheek) and lengua (tongue), the most tender cuts of beef.

Cabeza and carne asada tacos adorned with the Taqueria Hoy's green and red salsas.

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Cooking the meats to perfection, he says, and keeping the quality consistently good keeps people keep coming back — sometimes spanning generations.

It's one of his first lessons for his sons: Keep it simple but do it well. “ If you're not gonna eat them, don't sell it.”

That philosophy even extends to their red and green Hoysioso salsas, made in-house with high quality ingredients.

Only three people in the world know the recipe — Rafael De Anda and his two sons. And the sons have promised to make the condiment just the way he taught them.

Lesson No. 2: Honor your customers and staff

“ We just started making tacos and that's it,” Rafael De Anda said, never expecting for the business to last more than forty years. "We were busy and then we just kept going and going.”

He and his sons credit that to their customer base. Some of them are the great grandsons of those first customers, according to Raphael De Anda.

 ”We're very grateful to the community that has accepted us and that has allowed us to continue to serve tacos for all these years,” he said.

Some of the workers at Taqueria Hoy have been with Rafael De Anda for decades.

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That love for their customer base also extends to their workers. Some have been at the taco shop for decades. Raphael De Anda said his father was a father figure to many, including those who crossed the border when they were young. He’d nurture them and help them get settled in the United States.

“He didn't only have two boys. He had many, many children,” Raphael De Anda said.

Lesson No. 3: Trust your kids

Now I love my father, but I cannot imagine working directly alongside him. I'm open and friendly at work, the type of person who would bake cupcakes for my colleagues' kids. My dad, on the other hand, would never hang out with someone outside of the office. Two different generations, two very different upbringings. One was raised in a strict all-boys Catholic school in Sri Lanka, another in an international school in Sharjah, UAE.

But while Rafael De Anda had a very different upbringing to his sons — him in Jalisco, his sons as American-born citizens who went to Chapman University — he's been open to their ideas and approaches.

They have taken to social media, using Instagram to explain how taqueros make carne asada, show off their heart shaped takeout containers for Valentine’s Day, and share collaborative posts with influencers.

“ Their way of approaching the business has been a little switching to the modern culture,” Rafael De Anda said. “I like it, that's something that I would not be able to do, to be honest.”

He adds that he keeps a close eye on what they are doing. “And to be honest, I'm proud of them,” Rafael De Anda said, uttering the magical words every kid wants to hear from their immigrant parents.

Lesson No. 4: Life isn't complicated. We're the ones who complicate it

Raphael De Anda said his father has instilled in his brother and him the importance of focusing on the task at hand rather than worrying too much about the future.

 "Sometimes my brother and I will talk with my Dad. "Hey, what do the projections look like for this year?" he said. "My Dad's like "well, it doesn't really matter. As long as we take care of what we're doing now, things will work out."

And Raphael De Anda said it always does end up working out.

Lesson No. 5: I do what I can with what I am given

Their father was not one to live in the future, and neither did he spend time worrying, his sons said.

"Instead of saying, "Oh, woe is me. I wish I had more customers", Raphael De Anda said, his father would focus on the customers he had.

"How do we treat them the best we can?"

Growth happened organically. Their father found the Santa Ana location through a conversation with a regular customer who was selling his billiards shop.

"The owner said, "We care for you so much and your presence, you've meant so much to the community. We want to offer you to buy the building first," recounted Raphael De Anda.

And he did.

Lesson No. 6: Be honest with yourself before you can be honest with others

The sons grew up hearing their father reiterate the message of staying true and authentic.

" Don't change who you are for others and that mantra is also carried through in everything we do here at the restaurant," said Raphael De Anda.

Birria, for example, is a popular offering at taquerias across Southern California. But, it's not something on offer at Taqueria Hoy.

 "That's not who we are. We have to be honest that we are a taco and burrito makers first," Raphael De Anda said.

And the burritos at Taqueria Hoy are massive.

And for some parting wisdom from Rafael De Anda, "How do you eat a big burrito? One bite at a time."

The World Cup has officially taken over Los Angeles, and not without controversy.

Fans have voiced frustration over ticket pricing and questions linger over whether the Iranian football team should be playing in the tournament.

Listen: Should Iran be playing at SoFi? Listeners weigh in as tentative US-Iran deal is announced

The man at the center of these decisions and how fans in Southern California are experiencing the World Cup is FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

Here's why he's the most influential voice in soccer right now.

How he got elected

The election of Infantino followed one of the worst corruption scandals in sports history. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted more than a dozen FIFA officials and executives on charges of bribery, money laundering and wire fraud.

Swiss authorities launched an additional investigation, which led to former FIFA President Sepp Blatter's resignation. He had held the position since 1998.

Following the corruption scandal, Congress passed a reform package, but criticism remains over lack of follow through.

Part of Infantino's success has been built on his ability to boost revenue for FIFA over the years.

Ticket pricing, human rights and other critiques

Getting in on the World Cup games here in L.A. has likely been... expensive.

And that's been one of the biggest critiques of Infantino as matches approached and FIFA announced ticket pricing would adjust based on demand. Infantino has defended the pricing method, comparing it to other major American sporting events.

Coaches, players and fans are also split on FIFA's decision to add three-minute mandated hydration breaks to matches, according to Reuters.

Infantino has also been criticized for downplaying concerns over human rights. For example, the Guardian reported in 2021 that more than 6,500 migrant workers died in Qatar during the 10-year lead up to it hosting the World Cup in 2022.

Oliver Kay, The Athletic's senior soccer writer, said during a conversation on LAist 89.3's AirTalk that Infantino's legacy is complicated and leaves true soccer fans with questions.

" How many of these decisions are being made for the good of the game, and how many of them are being made for whichever world leaders Infantino is cozying up to at that time?" Kay said.

With the World Cup fully underway and the LA28 Olympics on the horizon, bathroom access is bound to cause a stir for fans visiting from all around the world.

Los Angeles, like other major cities in the U.S., doesn’t have the most robust stock of accessible restrooms, and although that’s nothing new, it wasn’t always like this.

Read more: Visiting LA? Our public bathrooms are tricky to find but we’ve got maps

LA’s opulent toilets

As it turns out, L.A. was one of the epicenters of the early 20th century bathroom boom (no pun intended).

Temple University professor Bryant Simon, who is the author of the forthcoming book For Customers Only: Public Bathrooms and the Making of American Inequality, joined AirTalk, LAist’s daily news program, to talk about the history of public bathrooms and how we got to where we are today.

“Cities would compete with each other to build the most lavish public bathrooms,” Simon said. “In 1911 in L.A., the mayor held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and bragged about how ornate the bathroom was.”

When things started to go down the toilet

The goal was simple: encourage the public to feel safe and confident leaving their homes by creating convenient spaces for people to relieve themselves.

Instead, these public bathrooms attracted a different type of crowd.

“Drinkers and smokers, people using drugs and most ominously for city leaders, people seeking sex,” Simon said, adding that almost immediately authorities throughout Southern California started arresting men who were seeking sex with other men.

So, cities felt they had no choice but to close public bathrooms all together.

“Jim Crow laws fall down and cities closed public bathrooms,” Simon added.

Simon said this trend continued into the 1980s, with stricter policies around homelessness.

Toilet anxiety

United Sites is one of the companies that supplies portable toilets to the city of L.A.

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Today, you can see from this map how many bathrooms there are in the city and county, which has put some LAist listeners in a tough spot and on both sides of the issue.

Where do we go from here?

Similar to European models — big U.S. cities previously instituted for-pay toilets, but by 1974, they were outlawed after a gender equity campaign argued they discriminated against women who were forced to pay, while men could use urinals for free.

“ We have pay toilets now. It's called Starbucks,” Simon said.

Starbucks is trying to stem the loss of customers by simplifying its menu, reintroducing ceramic mugs and making other changes to be more like a local coffee house.

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Simon added that when private companies are essentially operating public toilets, they tend to become inherently unfair because the focus is on profits.

He says if public bathrooms are to come back at scale, they need to be maintained, including proper cleaning — and this likely means human attendants are involved.

“Public bathrooms have been closed over decades in order to keep other people away to the point that now we're all in the same boat of having no public bathrooms,” Simon said.