LA Podcast - What's Cup With You?

Scott, Alissa, and Mike look back at the first week of the World Cup as LA hosts its first of many major events. SoFi’s stadium workers won an unprecedented labor contract and a huge fire in Boyle Heights continues to burn. Then: what charter reforms are going to the ballot, and what decisions — like council expansion — are being punted back for more “study.”

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Think Forward, or almost anywhere you get your podcasts.

SHOW NOTES

Alissa wrote about the opening weekend of the World Cup and how the city is doing one week later. She also has a daily guide to activities happening around LA

So far the World Cup seems to be going pretty well in LA

One watch party at Seoul International Park in Koreatown with a huge turnout became very overcrowded and families had to leave because it felt unsafe

Metro shuttles to the games — only $1.75! — are seeing surging ridership, with CEO Stephanie Wiggins writing regular updates

Unite Here’s SoFi workers voted to authorize a strike a week before the first game, then negotiated for an unprecedented contract — allowing them to strike whenever they feel they are threatened by ICE. As Mike notes, this strategy of using deadline leverage instead of normal bargaining paid off and this now becomes the template for negotiating with LA28

By the way, many local labor contracts are set to expire May 1, 2028

There hasn’t been any ICE spotted around the stadium but ICE raids regionally have not stopped

We also don’t know how much this is costing us. The deal LA made with FIFA has not been made public — here’s an explanation for why — but other host city contracts don’t look great

Meanwhile DEA agents are conducting sweeps in MacArthur Park, which is also hosting watch parties, and Karen Bass says she’s directing LAPD to support them

LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman made a video saying MacArthur Park would be ready for picnics by Labor Day while Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez made her own video saying don’t wait until Labor Day

A huge Boyle Heights cold storage warehouse fire forced local residents to shelter in place and is making air quality terrible as it continues to flare up. Since we recorded, Bass finally held a press conference and declared an emergency. Boyle Heights Beat has the best updates

Listen to Mike summarize the conclusion of the charter reform process on KCRW’s Press Play

LAist’s Frank Stolze explains what’s going to the ballot in November, including noncitizen voting and police reform

Big changes to the way LA builds things are coming with a Capital Infrastructure Program and ability to budget 5 years in advance, which would prevent us from having to give back money to Caltrans because we can’t build bike lanes

A huge win for parks, which will double their charter allocation to 0.06%. Alissa wrote about why that’s good but still nearly not enough money for what our parks actually need

And altering a tiny clause, 104(g), would change how LA does public-private partnerships, which could help save LA’s beleaguered zoo

Council has instructed the City Attorney to draft a ballot measure to amend ULA, most notably an exemption from the transfer tax for multifamily buildings sold within 10 years of construction. The Yaroslavsky/McOsker proposal is more narrowly tailored than what CM Raman pitched in January but broader than the legislative tweaks pushed by CM Jurado’s ad hoc committee. Council will make a final decision on whether to put it on the ballot in the coming weeks.

Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman says one of the reasons we’re not getting more reform because Bass slow-walked the process — and she’s not wrong!  

Veteran journalist Robert Greene offers an incredibly thoughtful explanation of why LA doesn’t have a weak mayor system but doesn’t really have a strong mayor system either  

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This week’s episode was produced by Sophie Bridges

The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

Scott Frazier is an original co-host of LA Podcast

Alissa Walker writes the newsletter Torched, tracking LA’s megaevent progress. Find her at @awalkerinla on Instagram and @awalkerinla.bsky.social on Bluesky

Mike Bonin is the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA, and can be found at @mikebonin on Instagram and  @mikebonin.bsky.social on Bluesky