Festival Trail Initiative for the 2028 Games

Public Transit

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

The streets of Los Angeles are dangerous. 2022 was the deadliest year for traffic deaths in over 20 years: - Traffic collisions are a leading cause of death for children - A pedestrian is killed once every three days - The pedestrian fatality rate is 4x the national average - L.A.'s underserved communities are disproportionately victims With the eyes of the world on Los Angeles when we host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028 (2028 Games), LA Metro has an ambitious plan for car-free venues to demonstrate that the land of freeways can move people differently. How do we ensure that this attention, planning, and infrastructure doesn't just benefit the athletes and the millions of tourists planning to attend? The "Festival Trail Initiative" is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix the transit challenges that plague our region with infrastructure that will reduce traffic fatalities, increase access to community and play spaces, transit, and jobs, and create a legacy for Angelenos.

The Festival Trail creates a seamless connection from coast to city to river. The 2028 Games presents an unparalleled opportunity to re-think the role of streets in Los Angeles as a vital public space. With over eight million ticket holders and millions of visitors, we can create a multi-modal, pedestrianized urban trail connecting key venues, cultural attractions, and urban cores of the region. We envision a festival trail that, for five weeks, creates a linear outdoor celebration of all things Los Angeles, placing the city, its diverse communities, and dynamic energy on the world stage. The Festival Trail highlights the next generation of Angeleno designers and leaders. The Festival Trail is the temporary closing of streets and activation of public spaces to create a pop-up urban trail connecting SoFi Stadium, the Coliseum, the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, and water sports in Long Beach and Santa Monica. Each segment of the trail will be envisioned by local designers, architects, and community leaders in collaboration with a sponsor. The intent of the pop-up interventions is to have the flexibility to become permanent additions to the street experience in Los Angeles and give back to the communities hosting the 2028 Games for generations to come. The Festival Trail stitches together existing active and public transportation projects already built or in construction by LA Metro, who are planning for car-free venues, mobility hubs, and a dedicated bus network.

By re-thinking mobility and place-keeping in underserved communities, our ambitious goal is to create a new social infrastructure in LA. During the 2028 Games, we envision residents watching and participating in the Games in their own unique way, in their own community, at the Festival Trail Hubs. After the 2028 Games, or vision is for each community to have a corporate partner, local designer/architect, and a "kit-of-parts" for community hubs that can be used, again and again, to build a sense of community through public art, public space, public events, economic development, community, and regional mobility. We also envision the Festival Trail as an anchor for 20,000+ units of affordable housing through the heart of Los Angeles. This non-motorized path can serve as the "spine" by which underdeveloped and vacant land can result in affordable housing that does not require a vehicle for residents to thrive in Los Angeles.

Success for us is both a process as well as an outcome. Each segment of the trail will be designed by local designers, architects, and community leaders in collaboration with a corporate sponsor. The process of design-community-driven and decentralized-is integral to the success of this effort and, therefore, one of our measurable goals. Within the timeline of the grant year, we anticipate achieving the following deliverables: - Two dozen coalition partners/supporters in the nonprofit, business, and labor communities - Buy-in from the Mayors of Los Angeles, Inglewood, the County Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles Metro, and the LA28 (the 2028 Games organizing committee). - At least two viable community investment plans - Up to five community pop-ups or charettes (workshops) for residents to engage with the concept at community events - A digital prototype for a "kit-of-parts" for the Festival Trail hubs

Leveraging the planning acumen of Somos Group and the architectural vision of Agency: Artifact and Christopher Hawthorne, with Move LA and LANI leading community engagement, we can build the infrastructure to make LA more equitable, affordable, social, and accessible. LANI will help build the CBO/nonprofit stakeholder database and assist with outreach to potential stakeholders; create and implement a survey to capture community stakeholder input; and participate in up to 5 community pop-ups. Agency: Artifact will lead the design and visioning components of the project and participate in and create collateral for the design workshops. Somos Group will create a Legal Brief and Case Studies related to creating a housing overlay zone along the Festival Trail to promote affordable housing.