The 2024 Paris Olympics just ended, making way for the 2028 Games returning to Los Angeles. However, the “City of Angels” is not waiting four years to start preparing for everything to come.
Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia claims Los Angeles intends on installing Olympic flags at City Hall, and it will cost $500,000 to do so.
“The City of LA is suffering from a Budget Crisis, so what better way to spend $500,000 from the General Fund’s Capital Improvement Fund?” Mejia alleged on X.
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Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass waves the Olympic flag next to LA28 Chairman Casey Wasserman after their plane landed during the event celebrating the arrival of the Olympic flag at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles on Aug. 12, 2024. Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. (ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
“Not on actual capital/infrastructure improvements (which we direly need), but one installing OLYMPIC FLAGS at City Hall!”
Social media users flooded Mejia’s comments, where they voiced their frustrations.
“Can anyone explain how installing flags cost half a million bucks??” one X user commented.
LOS ANGELES KICKS OFF JOURNEY TO 2028 OLYMPICS IN STYLE
Another added, “$500,000?? Who approves these bids?”
“Ridiculous! Let the US Olympic Committee pay for that or put it in a closet for 4 years!” another X user said.
Fox News Digital has not yet heard back from the city for comment.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass brought the official Olympic flag to her city after receiving it during the closing ceremony in Paris at the conclusion of the Summer Games. The flag officially arrived earlier this week.
While Los Angeles has hosted the Games in the past – the latest was 1984 – concerns about whether the city will be ready for the influx of people have been raised.
The LA28 team poses with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts and Team USA athletes as the Olympic Flag arrives in Los Angles on Aug. 12, 2024. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for LA28)
One of the biggest issues is lack of public transportation in Los Angeles, which Mejia pointed out in a previous X post. He noted that Los Angeles has only a quarter of what Paris offers in terms of transit vehicles per million people.
However, Mayor Bass has promised it will be a “no-car games,” meaning the city will expand its public transportation system. They are also encouraging businesses to allow employees to work from home if they can during the Games.
“We’re already meeting with businesses about procurement, especially small businesses,” Bass said, via Fox 11. “And I’ll say that that’s something that I admire Paris is doing, making a commitment that a percentage of the business goes to small businesses here. We’re already working to create jobs by expanding our public transportation system in order for us to have a no-car games. 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.”
As of now, most events for the Olympics will be accessible via Los Angeles public transit. However, events that occur in bigger venues, including SoFi Stadium, are expected to allow on-site parking.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass waves the Olympic flag as Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, applauds during the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on Aug. 11, 2024 in Paris. (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
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The Games will last 17 days in L.A., starting on July 14, 2028. The Paralympic Games will also be hosted on Aug. 15 of that year.
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