The Brief

When an ambitious gondola-transit system was unveiled in Irvine last month, it promised to have residents reaching for the skies and breezily bypassing traffic as it whisked them up and over the 1,300-acre Great Park below.

Even better, city officials said: the company would donate services and equipment worth up to $10 million in the first year.

But LAist has learned that the project has already cost taxpayers around $700,000, doled out via contracts that were signed out of public view — and outside the pathway voters established for Great Park procedures and expenditures.

The project is scheduled to come before the Great Park board on Tuesday, but at least one council member wants to hit the brakes.

Councilmember Kathleen Treseder told LAist she is “very concerned.”

“ It seems like the train has already left the station,” she said. “I'm trying to figure out how to stop it.”

How we got here

For years, Irvine has been looking for a public transit system to best navigate the Great Park, which city officials envision as a rival to NYC’s Central Park. But it’s also a 1,300-acre beast to navigate: any public transit system would have to provide visitors and residents with access to the recreational and entertainment facilities planned for the park without causing traffic headaches for neighbors.

The city hit roadblock after roadblock with proposals for how to best navigate through and around the park’s pedestrian walking paths and roadways via a tram or light rail system.

So city planners looked to the skies.

The company Irvine contracted to study the viability of such an ambitious project turned out to be the very company with interests in building a gondola public transit system, which some critics consider problematic.

The project came in front of the Great Park board — composed of Irvine’s mayor and council members — for the first time in April. At that meeting, City Manager Oliver Chi previously told LAist officials were asking the Great Park Board “whether or not we want to formally start assessing Swyft and engage contract negotiations for what a system could look like in the Great Park.”

But nothing was finalized at the time, and there was no indication that this was to be the public transit system of Great Park. Yet,after that meeting, everything about the project seemed to speed up.

What happened next

Just two weeks later, hundreds of Irvine residents descended on Great Park for the annual State of the Great Park address. There were drummers, a pop up ice hockey rink, bounce houses — and a full-size model gondola. There was also a VR experience that took visitors on a gondola ride through Great Park.

Visitors enjoy a VR experience of the proposed Irvine gondola public transit system.

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Courtesy City of Irvine

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The model gondola pods were branded with the city’s crest and Great Park’s distinct orange color. People queued up to sit and take photos inside.

For some, like Treseder, the big question was how could all of this have happened in just the two weeks since the Great Park board gave the go ahead to start taking fledgling steps towards a potential partnership.

She flat out refused to attend. She said she “didn't think it was appropriate for us to be spending the money on the fake gondola for that event.”

Chi, the city manager, has not returned phone calls seeking comment on this issue. (On Friday afternoon, Santa Monica city officials announced that Chi is the new pick for its city manager post.)

Jeral Poskey, the chief executive of Swyft Cities, said Friday, “ I don't know city policies or what the rules are around Great Park spending. Everything I've heard says it's all followed process.”

The company behind the gondola project

Swyft Cities is the company Irvine is negotiating with for the gondola public transit system. Gondolas are used in the United States at ski resorts and tourist attractions. But Irvine’s would be the first to use a gondola as a public transit system in the U.S., proponents say.

Gondolas are used for public transit in other places including Algeria, Colombia and Bolivia. But Swyft Cities has yet to build a gondola transit system anywhere.

The company is offering Irvine a one-year trial period worth around $10 million in equipment and services — for free — in exchange for being recognized as “the mass transit option for the Great Park.” That money will cover eight gondolas operating between two stations connecting the Great Park’s visitor center and balloon ride with a planned retail facility, as well as maintenance and operational costs.

Poskey said at the April meeting that the idea for the gondola public transit system was born at Google when the tech giant was exploring solutions to connect one end of its sprawling campus with another. Poskey was working at Google at the time.

The pandemic upended Google’s plans, but Poskey was so taken with the idea that after he left Google he started Swyft Cities and has been shopping the gondola idea around the world, from Queensland in New Zealand to Sugar Land, outside Houston.

The tech system behind the project, Whoosh, was pioneered by a New Zealand-based company.

Poskey told LAist in an interview that the company had done studies that addressed how the gondola public transit system could fit into the masterplan for Great Park and how it could meet the ridership demands.

Why Great Park is different

Great Park is a nonprofit corporation governed by unique rules.

Voters passed Measure V in 2014 mandating that expenditures or contracts cannot be authorized for Great Park without a recommendation from the Great Park Board of Directors and approval from the City Council.

At an April meeting of the Great Park board, Treseder asked about a gondola contract she had discovered that dated back to December 2024 for about $200,000 — the first time she said she had heard of it.

“ I was not told of it at all by anybody,” she said.

Chi said the contract was to test the viability of a gondola system.

So about those Great Park contracts 

According to the December agreement Treseder discovered, the city is “actively planning a Whoosh system to enhance connectivity within Great Park.” The contract noted the need to reach out to entities like the Orange County Transportation Authority to discuss next steps.

But the project has not even come in front of Great Park’s finance and transportation commissions, an important early step in the process.

The money spent to date, however, suggests this project is well on its way.

LAist has also found four other contracts associated with the project totaling just over $550,000:

• May 21, 2024: A $172,000 contract with Swyft Cities for a feasibility study
• Feb. 3, 2025: A $50,000 contract with HDR (an engineering company) to forecast gondola ridership numbers
• March 26, 2025: A $249,550 contract with Aria Group to build a model gondola pod
• March 28, 2025: A $65,200 contract with Swyft Cities to build a VR experience of the gondola public transit system

Together with the contract from December, around $700,000 has been spent on the project so far.

Those last two contracts are noteworthy because it means Irvine taxpayers had no idea they had footed the bill for the VR experience and the very gondola they were posing with that day in Great Park.

Poskey told LAist Swyft Cities was not involved in the building of the gondola model for the Great Park event: all they did was provide the city with the design.

April’s meeting agenda had no mention of the contracts. After LAist started asking questions and filing public records requests, the contracts are now scheduled to be discussed at the next meeting.

What’s next 

Irvine’s Great Park board will meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Staff plan to share with board members how they arrived at the gondola public transit system plan.

How to watchdog local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention.

Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

• Read tips on how to get involved.
• The next scheduled Great Park board meeting is 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 27. You can find meeting agendas and upcoming dates here. 
• And submit an eComment on the agenda here. 

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

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J.W. Hendricks

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The LA Local

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In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.