{"id":62849,"date":"2025-11-20T23:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/62849\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T23:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:55:07","slug":"commentary-mayor-does-not-have-much-to-say-about-new-dodger-stadium-gondola-eir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/62849\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Mayor does not have much to say about new Dodger Stadium gondola EIR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Los Angeles City Council challenged Mayor Karen Bass<\/a> last week, overwhelmingly passing a resolution urging Metro to kill the proposed Dodger Stadium gondola<\/a> and urging Bass to lend her support.<\/p>\n

A Metro committee considered the gondola project Thursday, and Bass just happened to be one of the five voting members of the committee. In front of the hundreds of community members that turned out for the hearing, Bass would have a public opportunity to make her case for whatever position she might choose to take.<\/p>\n

Bass whiffed.<\/p>\n

To rewind: Metro approved the gondola project last year, but a court ordered a second look at whether the environmental impact report truly had evaluated all that could be done to mitigate construction noise. Upon further review, Metro staff said such \u201cacoustic retrofitting\u201d would not be feasible and might not even be effective, because it would depend on \u201ccase-by-case consent\u201d for retrofitting structures and could involve \u201cinvasive construction \u2026 possibly requiring relocation of occupants.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Metro reported, LA Aerial Rapid Transit \u2014 the gondola outfit founded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt \u2014 had agreed to provide \u201cpersonal hearing protection devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Metro committee approved the revised environmental impact report. The full Metro board of directors is expected to do the same next month, which would advance the gondola project to city and state consideration.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s enough bureaucracy talk. Nothing that happened Thursday was unexpected, aside from the mayor\u2019s remarks, or lack of them.<\/p>\n

After the committee had received hundreds of written public comments and had heard from pro-gondola and anti-gondola voices during an hour of passionate public testimony \u2014 almost none of which mentioned noise mitigation \u2014 the chairman invited committee members to speak to the public.<\/p>\n

Bass went first.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d she said. \u201cThank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for your leadership in guiding us through this.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust real quickly, I just wanted to reiterate or clarify that what the vote is about today is about certifying the EIR, certifying the project\u2019s environmental documents under CEQA, nothing more.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it, Los Angeles. Your mayor just gave you 21 seconds of \u201cnothing to see here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technically, Bass was correct. Nothing about the gondola project has significantly changed since Metro approved it last year.<\/p>\n

If you thought the gondola was an innovative way to cut traffic and pollution around Dodger Stadium, you probably still think that. And, if you thought the gondola was less of a transit option and more of an inevitable first step toward McCourt\u2019s development<\/a> of the Dodger Stadium parking lots, then you probably still think that.<\/p>\n

But, if Bass did not want to discuss those larger issues, the community members in attendance Thursday did, and the City Council sure does.<\/p>\n

The two committee members who followed Bass to the microphone Thursday understood that. Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis spoke in favor of the project, walking the public through the community benefits<\/a> agreement she negotiated with project sponsors in exchange for her yes vote last year.<\/p>\n

The benefits include funding to reimburse small businesses along the gondola route for losses during construction; guarantees of reimbursement to Metro for bus service to Dodger Stadium during the 2028 Olympics in the likely event the gondola is not up and running by then; the expansion of Dodger Stadium express buses and the addition of Hollywood Bowl-style park-and-ride routes to Dodger Stadium; and termination of the agreement if any eventual development of stadium parking lots does not include 25% affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only see myself supporting this because of the attachment of the community benefits,\u201d Solis said.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, the only no vote Thursday, said the congestion and pollution issues can be addressed without a still-unfunded gondola projected to cost $500 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a better solution already in place to take cars off the streets and to ease traffic,\u201d Hahn said, \u201cand that\u2019s our Dodger Stadium Express.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called for the Dodgers to support expanding the program and electrifying the buses. Metro and the Dodgers have been in talks over Metro\u2019s request for the team to help pay for the Dodger Stadium Express.<\/p>\n

As committee chairman Fernando Dutra told the crowd Thursday, citing land use restrictions: \u201cThe city will ultimately decide on the actual project.\u201d <\/p>\n

When it does, here\u2019s hoping that whatever Bass has to say will take more than 21 seconds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles City Council challenged Mayor Karen Bass last week, overwhelmingly passing a resolution urging Metro to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12858,37904,1409,17289,1767,37905,1335,37900,37901,37903,4915,48,52,51,47,50,49,4415,4182,37902,2429],"class_list":{"0":"post-62849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bass","9":"tag-bus-service","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-committee","12":"tag-community-member","13":"tag-construction-noise","14":"tag-development","15":"tag-dodger-stadium-gondola","16":"tag-gondola-outfit","17":"tag-gondola-project-thursday","18":"tag-hundred","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-la-headlines","21":"tag-la-news","22":"tag-los-angeles","23":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","24":"tag-los-angeles-news","25":"tag-mayor","26":"tag-metro","27":"tag-public-comment","28":"tag-thursday"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}