Thank you to everyone who took the Expo Line to the Opening Ceremonies on Saturday night. It’s great to see the Olympic torch lit once again in Los Angeles — and it’s even better that it’s for the Special Olympics.
I spent a good chunk of Monday taking in several competitions at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is a very short walk from the Pico Station shared by the Blue and Expo Line. Competitions are free, people! I watched speed skating, table tennis, power lifting, bocce and handball, which is a fast and fun mix of basketball and soccer.
Point of emphasis: do not underestimate the athleticism and talent on display this week.
Above are a few of the pics I took (click on a pic to see larger view). As regular readers know, I love black-and-white, which I think provides a timeless feel to the images. The photo of the Egyptian badminton player is my favorite. Criticism and comments on photos always welcome.
If you’re going to the Games, please see the Special Olympics website for info on schedules, venues and everything else. This earlier Source post includes a nice video from my colleagues Anna and Joe as well as info on venues, transit and the basics of taking Metro.
Events at the Balboa Sports Complex (Orange Line) and, of course, USC (Expo Line) are also very easy to reach via transit. I’ll be out and about at the Games throughout the week and hope to see you there.
Categories: Go Metro
I actually DON’T want the Olympics here in Los Angeles. It’ll be a total embarrassment to the world to show how crappy our city is right after Tokyo 2020. We’re going to have millions of people from all over the world coming here to LA and they’ll be looking at our Blue Line and Green Line to get to venues, we’ll be the laughing stock of everyone.
People are going to laugh when they compare how great and futuristic the city of Tokyo was and that once they come to LA, it’s like going back 50 years in time with old run-down single story homes everywhere, rude bus drivers, traffic jams, gridlock, a transit system with too small and narrow platforms, a rail line with only three rail car lengths at most, no amenities anywhere near the rail stations, everything so far away. And the people who run Metro don’t even know how to run transit right.
We may have run the Olympics back in 1932 and 1984, but that was when LA had a population of “only” 2 million and 7 million. It was still doable at that time. But we’re at 10 million right now, by 2024, we could be up to 15 million, twice as more people living here than 1984.
I wish LA could pull it off, I really do. But the way LA runs things, ducking their head in the sand pretending they’re great and not knowing how much better the rest of the world is, we’re going to be the laughing stock of the world.
The best examples of sportsmanship seem to come from the Special Olympics and the photos are great to see. On a related topic, it was announced that Boston will no longer be the USOC’s pick to compete for the 2024 Olympic Games. It was not immediately known if Los Angeles automatically becomes the USOC selection but I’m sure LA would make a great choice for the “Games of the XXXIII Olympiad.”