Los Angeles became the United States Olympic Committee’s candidate for the 2024 Olympic Games after Boston dropped its bid in 2015. Because Hamburg, Budapest, and Rome also ditched their bids, LA and Paris were left as the only two contenders for the 2024 games. The IOC opted to avoid an equally embarrassing selection process in four years’ time, and took the unprecedented step of awarding two summer Olympics at once: 2024 to Paris and 2028 to LA.
The LA 2028 committee and Mayor Eric Garcetti have promised a “no build” Olympics, insisting that LA has all the necessary infrastructure to host. But LA is in the midst of a construction boom and critics fear the Olympics will accelerate real estate speculation and the displacement of low-income communities via gentrification. City officials have already used the Olympics as a justification to give a green light for hotel construction projects, citing a “hotel crisis.” Meanwhile, the real housing crisis is severe, with at least 66,000 people unhoused across the county of LA in 2020 (up 25% from 2018). A shortage of tenant protections amid real estate speculation means more families are losing their homes every year. Critics of the Olympics are concerned about how the unhoused population will be treated ahead of and during the 2028 Olympics, as LA’s 1984 Olympics (and many other Olympic editions) saw sweeps and increased policing of unhoused people, especially from locations that tourists and Olympics TV cameras were likely to see. Also on the topic of policing, there are additional concerns that the Olympics will be a justification for the further militarization of the police force, intensification of surveillance, and criminalization of communities of color. Because the Olympics and LA’s other sports mega-events will be designated National Special Security Events (NSSE), federal security bodies will have a greater presence and more authority in the city, potentially increasing the risks facing LA’s undocumented community.
The resistance
NOlympics LA was launched by the Housing & Homelessness committee of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America in 2017. It is a coalition of over two dozen partner organizations based in LA and California that oppose the 2028 Olympics, including:
Critical art & graphics
Key resources
General
2019 | Tarpley Hitt – The Daily Beast | Behind Los Angeles’ Bitter War to Abolish the Olympics for Good [Article]
2018 | KNOCK LA & NOlympics LA | Rings of Hell: The NOlympics Podcast [Podcast series]
2018 | NOlympics LA | NOlympics LA Survey Results and Analysis [Article]
2018 | David Wharton – LA Times | New poll suggests L.A. residents concerned about hosting 2028 Olympics [Article]
2018 | NOlympics LA | A Rude Awakening for Eric Garcetti [Video]
2017 | Jonny Coleman – LA Times | Six reasons to worry about the 2028 Olympics [Article]
2017 | Dakota Smith – LA Times | L.A. City Council set to vote on 2028 Olympics plan before key financial reports are completed [Article]
2017 | NOlympics LA | Analysis (of LA’s Olympic bid) [Article]
2017 | NOlympicsLA | Stop Playing Games – A Public Forum on the L.A. Olympic Bid [Video]
Housing
2021 | Lisa Kwon – Knock LA | Airbnbs in Los Angeles Are Not Going Away [Article]
2020 | Jonny Coleman – The Appeal | The Struggle Against a Stadium’s Construction Became a Battle for the Soul of Los Angeles [Article]
2020 | Cerianne Robertson – Knock LA | Homes Are Essential, Inglewood’s New Stadium Is Not [Article]
2019 | Angel Jennings – The LA Times | One of California’s last black enclaves threatened by Inglewood’s stadium deal [Article]
2019 | Jonny Coleman & Jacob Woocher – The Nation | How Staples Center Kicked LA Gentrification Into Overdrive [Article]
2019 | Zoie Matthews – LA Mag | Amid L.A.’s Housing Crisis, Developers Are Demolishing Affordable Homes to Build Upscale Hotels [Article]
2019 | NOlympics LA | Homes Not Hotels [Platform]
2018 | Jenna Chandler – Curbed | LA ‘sterilized’ its streets for the ’84 Olympics—how will it treat the homeless in 2028? [Article]
2018 | Shirsho Dasgupta – LA Taco | Forced out: In Exposition Park, Residents face likely eviction to make room for ‘The Fig’ [Article]
Policing & security
2021 | Jonny Coleman – Knock LA | City Council Finally Starts Asking Questions About Olympic Policing [Article]
2021 | Cerianne Robertson – Knock LA | The 2028 Olympics Will Expand Policing And Surveillance In LA. Starting Now. [Article]
2020 | NOlympics LA | Pick a Side LA – You Cannot Support Both the Olympics and the Movement for Black Lives [Website]
2020 | Jenna Chandler – Curbed | Homeless cleanup teams were focused on outreach. Then city leaders changed their minds. [Article]
2020 | NOlympics LA | What is a National Special Security Event? [Article]
2020 | Zak Cheney-Rice – NY Mag | California Police Are Falsely Labeling People As Gang Members. It’s Part of a Bigger Crisis. [Article]
2017 | Leighton Woodhouse – In These Times | In These Times – In 2028 Olympics, L.A. Residents See a Police State on Steroids [Article]
Resistance
2021 | Milly Chi – KCET | The Tokyo Olympics May Be Over, But for NOlympics LA the Fight has Just Begun [Article]
2021 | Liliana Michelena – The Guardian | The Olympics steamrolled Tokyo activists. Now LA residents are bracing for a fight [Article]
2020 | Jules Boykoff | NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Beyond [Book]
2018 | Gregory Andranovic & Matthew Burbank – Play the Game | Opposition to the Olympics in American cities [Article]
2018 | Lucas Smolcic Larson – The College Hill Independent | Five ring activism: NOlympics LA and global resistance to the Olympic Games [Article]
***See NOlympics LA’s Resources page for more information.
***See NOlympicsLA’s Video page for more documentation and analysis.