Hundreds of community members packed a meeting room Thursday to tell Metro's board of directors whether they were for or against Frank McCourt's proposed gondola to Dodger Stadium. The board had already expressed its intention to approve the project without any discussion among the directors, but then the board president announced that he would not hear from any community members before voting.
That unleashed an extraordinary rebellion. In an act of defiance rarely seen in the serious and often formulaic halls of bureaucracy, the public shut down the meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, the president of the council, Fernando Dutra, explained that the public would give their opinion after the vote.
It was quickly drowned out by chants of “Let's talk!” of anti-gondola forces and responses of “You already spoke!” of pro-gondola forces, as this meeting was Metro's fourth on gondola, and the second specifically related to the adoption of a revised environmental impact report.
Dutra attempted to calm the crowd by saying, “Public comments are allowed at the end of the meeting.” Instead, that inflamed the crowd, and the chants only grew louder and more repetitive, and Dutra threatened to have Metro officers clear the room.
The directors opted to retreat to a private room for 75 minutes, attend to other matters and then decide what to do with the persistent audience.
In the meeting room, chants flowed up and down from both sides. The anti-gondola forces passed through a megaphone. The pro-gondola forces danced around the room. More than a dozen officers from Metro and the Los Angeles Police Department stood guard, positioning themselves between the audience and the empty stage.
The directors sent a message that they would relent. They would provide one hour for public comment before the vote.
Calm reigned and the directors returned. Of the 52 public speakers, 42, including three members of the Los Angeles City Council, spoke against the gondola project.
Dutra commended the board for coming up with “the right process” to listen to the public.
“This is what happens when there is a democratic process,” Dutra told the crowd, his face serious.
The crowd had their say, more than an hour late, after the board's effort to delay public comment until what could have been hours after the vote sparked an uprising. The vote was then taken and, as expected, the gondola project was approved.
The partisan forces on the gondola applauded. The anti-gondola forces chanted again: “Shame!”
Next steps? And how much?
Artist's rendering of a possible gondola to Dodger Stadium.
(Courtesy of Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies/Kilograph)
Once Metro certifies the revised environmental impact report, several state agencies and the Los Angeles City Council will consider whether to approve the gondola project. The council is unlikely to take up the project until late next year, after receiving a study evaluating traffic around Dodger Stadium and options to alleviate it.
In 2023, the environmental impact report projected a construction cost of between $385 million and $500 million. Construction costs are only increasing, and a project spokesperson did not provide an updated cost estimate this week.
In 2024, Metro's initial approval required Metro staff to work with the organization responsible for putting the gondola into operation to “provide quarterly updates to the Metro board on project progress and funding.”
Those updates “did not occur because work on the project was halted during a litigation process,” a Metro spokeswoman said.
Thursday's approval means the litigation process is over, so an updated cost estimate should be available in the spring. It has been promised that the project will be privately financed, but no financing agreements have been made public.
The bass speaks
Last month, the City Council voted 12-1 to approve a resolution urging Metro to cancel the gondola project. The resolution reached Mayor Karen Bass, who neither signed nor vetoed it.
The resolution was sponsored by the three council members with districts closest to Dodger Stadium.
“The way the council feels is important to me,” Bass told The Times. “But if one member of that district is passionate about a project, the other members will support it.
“There's a lot more time for things to sort themselves out. I just didn't feel it was appropriate to stop it now.”
Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes Dodger Stadium, said she has worked hard to build support from her council colleagues and provide them with alternatives to the gondola for when the council is expected to vote on the project next fall.
“Within a year, you will see the fruits of that,” Hernandez said. “My hope is that my colleagues realize this and continue to help us move in that direction.
“I hope people take what the council has said seriously. Getting a 12-1 vote on any issue, particularly an issue like this, is not easy. It's a big deal.”
Bass said he would like to explore how the community can leverage the gondola to address neighborhood priorities.
“My interest in the project, overall, is in the benefits to the community: the potential benefit to, most notably, the area around Homeboy Industries and Chinatown. I have been very saddened by the deterioration of the Chinatown I knew as a child,” she said.
“There are groups pushing for more resources to be put there and for Frank McCourt to contribute more to the development, redevelopment and revitalization of Chinatown.”
