Los Angeles Begins Prep For 2028 Olympics By Reportedly Spending $500k To Install Olympic Flags

We may be a full four years out from the 2028 Olympics, but the city of Los Angeles has already begun preparation for the Summer Games taking over the city, and is doing so in typical LA fashion: by spending absurd amounts of money on things that do not matter.

Hosting the Olympics is disgustingly expensive - the 2014 Olympics in Japan reportedly cost $59 billion - so one would imagine that organizers would try to cut costs when situations to do such a thing arise. Los Angeles has very clearly said ‘no thanks’ to that idea.

According to Kenneth Mejia, the Los Angeles City Controller, the city is set to take $500,000 out of the General Fund's Capital Improvement Fund and spend that half a million on installing some Olympic flags outside of City Hall.

I'm no (crooked) Los Angeles politician, but I would venture to guess that a ‘Capital Improvement Fund’ is meant to improve the capital, and I'm positive that installing some flags for 1,000x of actual cost to pad some pockets of some vendor friends doesn't fall under the category of capital improvement.

This is Los Angeles, however, where the only thing that matters is appearance, therefore these flags simply must be flown. Thank goodness local politicians who visit City Hall will feel a sense of pride and be given a gentle reminder that the largest sporting event in the world will be coming to town in four years. 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass waves the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Stade de France. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The official Olympic flag, which is a thing apparently, arrived in Los Angeles earlier in the week after Mayor Karen Bass received it during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Speaking of Mayor Bass, she has her priorities straight ahead of the Games coming to her city as she has already promised a "no-car games" announcing that Los Angeles will expand its public transportation system to avoid traffic jams and people jumping in their cars to attend events. 

The $500k spent on flags could have been spent on improving infrastructure and public transit, but that would have made far too much sense.