r/LosAngeles • • 19d ago

News LAX People Mover opening delayed again until 2027

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/lax-people-mover-delay-2027-opening/
2.2k Upvotes

534 comments sorted by

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u/Odd_Track3447 19d ago

“You have to wonder at a certain point when a U.S. attorney or a district attorney starts to look at this and say, ‘has there been some criminal negligence?’” KTLA’s Frank Buckley said. “There has to be some accountability at some point.”

This right here… are we not long past this “certain” point? I can only imagine what our city could have/look like if we didn’t have bullshit like this happening on a regular basis.

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u/randomtask 19d ago

There was already a civil suit, which resulted in a settlement that netted Lynx, the exploitative contractor that took advantage of a loophole in the contract with LAWA, $880 million so that they would stop doing The Thing. But even nearly a billion dollars in their pockets did not stop them from doing The Thing. I highly recommend reading it, both because it gets into the details, and also because the author is insane and it is an eccentric masterpiece.

https://grandjury.co.la.ca.us/pdf/2024-25%20Los%20Angeles%20County%20Civil%20Grand%20Jury%20Final%20Report.pdf (PDF)

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u/wrosecrans 19d ago

But even nearly a billion dollars in their pockets did not stop them from doing The Thing.

The thing we keep learning over and over again, for some reason without it sticking, is that if you give people who aren't operating on good faith a lever that gives them free money, they will keep pulling that lever. Society is breaking down because power structures are totally unwilling to use both the metaphorical carrot and the stick against people and corporations with power and money and connections. And if real serious costs aren't imposed for bad behavior, people who have demonstrated that they prefer to engage in bad behavior, will continue to engage in bad behavior. Every time we settle these kinds of cases we say, "Here's a way for you to get a ton of money, and this is how we'll probably react if you do it again."

So, lo and behold! Gasp! Shock! People tend act according to the incentive structure that you hand them. If you will pay them more (with no downside) for not building a people mover than you will pay them for completing a people mover, they will not build a people mover unless there's basically a policeman standing there with a gun to the boss's head saying that the law will be enforced against a boss the same way we do against the powerless.

But there keeps being this naive and hollow optimism that we just need to sit down and sort out the problem and everybody will do their sincere best to get this stuff finished, despite having created all the structural incentives in the world for them not to.

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u/thefridgeisopen Echo Park 19d ago

"More Perspective Putting these numbers in perspective, if one were to agree to pay $10,000 for every mile to get to the moon, you’d still be $440 million ($10,000 per mile x 250,000 miles to the moon = $2.5 billion, roughly). Similarly, even if you agreed to pay $30 a mile to get to the sun, you would not get there; First because the price would be 62 cents more ($30.62 per mile), and secondly, because you would burn up on the way."

Besides being structured as a narrated movie script, the author really is having some fun with the absurdity of it all. Honestly whoever is writing this deserves a raise because it made me want to read (or at least skim) some pretty intricate details about large municipal projects.

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u/70ms Tujunga 19d ago

It’s worth reading just for the info about the shelter system. I didn’t realize it was so long when I started (I should have looked at the page numbers, lol), so I’ll have to come back for the rest! Thanks for the link!

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u/RevLoveJoy 19d ago

^ this is a read and a half. Wow.

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u/Ok-Association-3415 19d ago

Hochman isn’t going to do anything. The man rather put an LAPD whistleblower in his place than investigate consequential crimes.

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u/sm04d 19d ago

Hochman is a hack.

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u/Eurynom0s Santa Monica 19d ago

Hochman is a Republican who switched party registration to run for office, just like Traci Park and Rick Caruso did.

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u/Broad_Ad4176 19d ago

Exactly, more than worrying about the opening, it’s the lack of accountability and possible corruption I worry about now!

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u/Darth19Vader77 19d ago

It's not possible corruption, it's blatant corruption.

LAWA and the contractor have an agreement that any dispute between them is settled by a single arbiter and that arbiter is very clearly biased toward the contractor because they have literally never sided with LAWA.

The contractor is exploiting this by purposefully fucking up to get the arbiter to find the airport at fault for the contractor's fuck up. Then the arbiter forces the airport to pay the contractor to fix it.

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u/Nvr_Smile 19d ago

Friendly reminder that Burbank started construction on their new terminal in Jan 2024, only spent ~$1.3B, and the terminal is slated to open in 18 days, only ~2 weeks behind schedule. This two-mile train is now scheduled to open four years late while costing over $3B.

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u/mistsoalar 19d ago

So this monorail costs more than double the entire terminal of BUR.

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u/MyChickenSucks 19d ago

And it’s not a monorail. It’s a road with trains on tires.

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u/w0nderbrad 19d ago

Rubber tire light rail systems are very common all over the world. This is not some dumb shit that they came up with. Rubber tire light rail vs steel on steel light rail each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

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u/userhwon 19d ago

Much easier to work into Speed 3, for one thing.

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u/pjeff61 19d ago

“WE CANNOT LET THIS TRAIN WITH RUBBER WHEELS ON TIRES GUIDED BY STEEL WIRES ON THIS LIGHT RAIL SYSTEM DROP BELOW 50MPH!!”

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u/userhwon 19d ago

(insert shot of hand pressing button next to red light on black box; followed by shot of small explosive breaking steel wires; followed by shot of tram jumping guardrail onto the 405)

Cut to:

Jack Traven: "Whoa..."

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u/pjeff61 19d ago

MASSIVE EXPLOSION

Deep cinematic voice

"COMING THIS FALL"

"When the alliance between what is and what was and what could be is shattered by billions of dollars"

CUT TO SOMEONE JUMPING OFF A BUILDING WITH A PARACHUTE AND AND LANDING ON THE TRAIN

"Directed by Michael Bay"

SPEED 3: TOTAL TRAIN DOWN

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u/kickit 19d ago

speed 3 but it's about how slowly they can build a monorail-on-wheels

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u/DialMMM 19d ago

"If we ever stop construction, the money flow will end! Keep building!"

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u/parade1070 19d ago

You're joking, right? Tires?

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u/CoffeeFox 19d ago

Yes, they're quite common, actually.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro

Having used the Montreal system heavily during my visit I have to say it's quieter and smoother than light rail with metal tires.

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u/mcbobgorge I HATE CARS 19d ago

Singapore airport does the same thing

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u/w0nderbrad 19d ago

Tires are better for passenger comfort and noise and in seismic areas where rails could buckle.

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u/chickenlegzz 19d ago

Right so common and it’s taking LA 3 Billion and over 4 years late. The point isn’t the rubber tires it’s the fact that this project is a scam

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u/kdoxy 19d ago

A lot of the Metro in Paris is just train cars on tires. Its not as lazy as it sounds.

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u/bloomerang 19d ago edited 19d ago

Very common for airport people movers. AirTrain SFO is rubber-tired, for example.

Edit: also, every conventional (not suspended) monorail in existence is rubber tired too! It’s really more of a fixed guideway than a rail.

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u/SirTonebone 19d ago

Tires are used for acceleration. The efficiency advantage for rail doesn't really work on that short of a distance.

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u/humanaftera11 19d ago

That’s fairly normal. Most of the Paris metro is on tires

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u/richcournoyer 19d ago

Taiwan's metro uses rubber tires on their metro trains for the past three decades, are nearly silent as a past homes. Works like a charm. Try educating yourself.

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u/ariolander 19d ago

LA doesn't know how to build rail, even mono rails, so we just build elevated highways and call them "people movers" rather than the funky looking automated busses they are..

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u/SirTonebone 19d ago

This isn't the la Metro it's weird consortium. La Metro has built about 25 mi of rail since LAX started the people mover.

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u/w0nderbrad 19d ago

Rubber tire light rail systems are very common around the world. This is not some sort of new thing that LA invented. It has pros and cons. Pro is less noise and passenger comfort and better for seismic areas

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u/DonnyDarkoScutaro 19d ago

Literally almost every airport train is a similar model. Very few actually use rails.

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u/bigyellowjoint Silver Lake 19d ago

You're talking out of your ass. Most airport trains use rubber tires. LA Metro (not involved in this LAX train) builds miles of steel rail every year

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u/MyChickenSucks 19d ago

Well, to be fair, there are some guide rails so the tires go in the same place every time. And I'm sure they're expensive tires.

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u/confused9 19d ago

It’s a monorail ? Well shit did anyone ever see the monorail episode from the Simpsons ???

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u/hosway Pico-Robertson 19d ago

mono = one
rail = rail

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u/confused9 19d ago

Glad there are a few of us

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u/bodie0 19d ago

I call the big one Bitey

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u/kgal1298 Studio City 19d ago

Honestly the contractors deserve jail for holding up the people mover

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u/SherAyaSher 19d ago

Meanwhile, this 2.25-mile People Mover has been dragging its ass since 2023, is now potentially four years late, and carries a price tag of roughly $3.34 BILLION.

So a 2.25-mile train costs more than 2.5x an entire airport terminal and still can't manage to move people anywhere.

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u/Eurynom0s Santa Monica 19d ago

And to reward the contractors for this open extortion over the people mover, LAWA handed the same contractors the $2 billion (and wildly idiotic) LAX roadway expansion project.

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u/Xeonith Valley Glen 19d ago

Corrupt politicians gotta put that money in somebody's pockets...

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u/PacoStanleys 19d ago

The automated underground train system at Denver International Airport (DIA) was announced in October 1992 at an initial construction cost of $84 million.

Fudge my stars by golly. I've been at Denver Airport a handful of times and that is legit scary how could a simple Road with a train with tires cost that much

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u/MaximusFSU Van Down by the L.A. River 19d ago

Bro, get real. They had to dig an underground tunnel and build an automated tram system that could run nonstop for 50+ years. 84 mil is crazy well budgeted. Even accounting for inflation that’s less than 200M

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u/extra_hyperbole 19d ago

I think that’s what he’s saying, like they was a way bigger project and they managed to do it way cheaper than this.

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u/[deleted] 19d ago edited 14d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/PwnerifficOne 19d ago

I’m seeing online that the contract was signed by Garcetti in 2018? And the contractor is exploiting loop holes in the poorly written contract to extract more money from the city? I have not been following the story though so I want to know, how is Bass responsible for the flawed contact?

Edit: I guess I’m seeing that she failed to coordinate LADWP with the project and she’s also siding with NIMBYs to delay the project further? It just sounds like the entire project was a bad idea from the start and now we are in sunk cost fallacy territory.

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u/[deleted] 19d ago edited 14d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/PwnerifficOne 19d ago

That is a fact, true.

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u/theflava Northeast L.A. 19d ago

We’ll see if Controller Mejia’s office finds anything once he has free rein to audit the books.

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u/[deleted] 19d ago edited 14d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Azazael 19d ago

Malicious stupidity.

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u/Eurynom0s Santa Monica 19d ago

According to the nandert video the contract for the people mover was actually reasonably written and the problem is that it's just unheard of for contractors to get into open extortion the way they have.

Now where corruption does seem possible is the decision to still hand the same fucking consortium of contractors the $2 billion LAX roadway expansion project (which is also just a completely idiotic project in the first place).

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u/craftyrunner 19d ago

Which has also started and is making it a nightmare to get around for those of us who live over here. Of course they said the people mover would make for less traffic on Sepulveda/Airport in time for this stupid new thing. Instead there is no people mover AND lane/road closures and poorly signed detours.

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u/BurnsRed20 19d ago

Two weeks behind schedule? WHERE IS THE OVERSIGHT!!!

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u/schnibitz 19d ago

And don’t forget that a Universal Studios, the fast and the furious ride cost less money and took less time for them to open, and it goes much faster. They should’ve just used the same contractors for the tram.

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u/Pulsewavemodulator 19d ago

This makes the non-existent high speed SF to LA rail look efficient.

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u/FullTimePedestrian 19d ago

The APM situation sucks, but this is an apple to oranges comparison.

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u/[deleted] 19d ago

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u/UnhumanNewman Downtown 19d ago

They’re both fruit

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u/broman13 19d ago

Anyone tied to this project should never receive a government contract again, and several of them should face jail time. This project alone should be enough for Bass to resign in shame, too.

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u/egg1s 19d ago

They’ve already gotten the contract from LAX to do all the road re-working. Absolutely shameful.

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u/Rebelgecko 19d ago

Was that the road work that is estimated to cost like a billion dollars and make traffic worse, or a different project?

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u/ariolander 19d ago edited 19d ago

The one that is supposed to make traffic worse, do nothing, but its supposed to encourage people to take the people mover by just making the area around LAX that unpleasant. May lay the groundwork for horseshoe tolls so that may be part of the motivation.

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u/YodaForceGhost 19d ago

Definitely seems like a money laundering thing. Stuff like this is why people don’t trust the government to get stuff done and also makes people more likely to become NIMBYs

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u/Kaatochacha 19d ago

This exactly! I think most reasonable people support government improvements when necessary, but when every project becomes a cash sink with no improvement (or minimal improvement for huge sums of money) they stop supporting any of it.

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u/harryhov 19d ago

Someone needs to go to jail. People get charged a felony for stealing over $950. This is hundreds and millions of dollars.

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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 19d ago

Garcetti. He's the fuck up who signed the contract

the People Mover was supposed to be practically done before Bass was even elected

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u/trydola 19d ago

everyone in LINXS needs to be banned from any future public work projects and criminally investigated for extorting the public

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u/LA-Troy-Boy 19d ago

Names. We need to plaster the names of the leaders. Not just the company names.

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u/John_316_ 19d ago

It’s a People Mover or a Deadline Mover?

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u/ShantJ Glendale 19d ago

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u/whoisyb 19d ago

Lmao man what did you type into giphy to find this?

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u/ShantJ Glendale 19d ago

“ba dum”

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u/Panda8bambooo 19d ago edited 19d ago

$3.3 billion project for 2.25 miles of track connecting the parking lots to the terminals. Originally supposed to open in 2023

What a farce

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u/TeslasAndComicbooks The San Fernando Valley 19d ago

Total clown show. It's shit like this that makes us think if you can't get a people mover with tires to run 2 miles, how the hell can this state manage a bullet train project.

We need some serious independent auditing and accountability of these projects.n

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u/CaptainTemuTeemo East Hollywood 19d ago

The only way to fix the system is to actually have real criminal consequences for corruption. Too often the most criminal people on the planet get away with it because they have the money to pay for good lawyers that know how to lie. If there was a death penalty for corruption that involves stealing tax payer money by not using all of it for what it was intended then these fat, self important, sacks of shit that think their farts don't smell simply because they sit down for 45 minute meetings and a power point presentation, then i assure you, this state would be wonderful.

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u/Kaatochacha 19d ago

I've thought for years: if you embezzle more than the average lifetime amount of money for the median pay range of a worker, (median pay range X average years working) then you've essentially stolen a "lifetime" of work and should receive the death penalty to pay back that lifetime.

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u/Ok-Association-3415 19d ago

What I read about this project is that the contractors are acting in bad faith and resulting in extracting more money. California should black list all executives from future contracts. If a company employ them or they are an investor, the company is disqualified automatically.

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u/bruinslacker 19d ago

Agreed except we have an extra wrinkle: the contract already says the same company will operate the people mover for 30 years.

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u/Ok-Association-3415 19d ago

Yeah, I wonder what can be done about that. Sounds like some heavy handed government policy needs to be invoked here.

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u/trydola 19d ago

you bully these companies over other projects, make it harder for them to work in CA and blacklist them from public projects, period.

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u/FX114 19d ago

To be fair, the state isn't the one doing the people mover.

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u/costigan95 19d ago

The government is one of a handful of entities that has become overly bureaucratic, inefficient, and unaccountable.

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u/Dharmanerd 19d ago

It's a bizarre case of "legal" extortion. The committee in charge of the people mover sued the contractors and lost. The judge basically said that the contractors are entitled to try to make money off of their endeavors even if that means eternally stalling a project on technicalities.

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u/CORPORATE_NARCOTICS 19d ago

This (and many other things folks complain about RE: fraud/corruption) is actually because we allow private groups to carry things out for the state. The minute the state starts sharing that responsibility, they technically do have a very real excuse of saying it is not their fault to some degree.

Stop letting non-state organizations do work at this scale. Letting private companies fight over gov contracts invites corruption and a lack of accountability. You want shit done? Put full responsibility on the state, or for folks who seemingly still believe in capitalism, put full responsibility on private entities/contractors who do this work.

The state is always the preferable avenue in most cases though, given the amount of control the public has on the state versus them being able to do anything against a private entity of a similar size/scale.

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u/GoldandBlue 19d ago

Its a 2 tier legal system. That is the real problem. We are clearly getting scammed by someone but nothing will come of it.

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u/ThisGuyLovesSunshine 19d ago

People should be in prison over this level of corruption

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u/BurritoDespot 19d ago

We built the Transcontinental Railroad faster.

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u/Kaatochacha 19d ago

The time to build the 405 through the Sepulveda pass? 2 years.1960-62

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u/CosmicMiru 19d ago

If you wanna be extra depressed go look at a railway map of China from 2018 (start of the people mover project) to now compared to our 2.25 miles that still hasn't been built. Actual failure of a country

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u/meloghost 19d ago

I visited Chengdu in 2015 and 2019 they went from 2 subway lines to 16 lines between those trips

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u/Terminal_Shinbang 19d ago

And cheaper.

The first U.S. transcontinental railroad cost approximately $60 million to build in 1869 currency, which equals roughly $1.2 billion to $2.5 billion when adjusted for modern inflation.

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u/DJkoolkidzklan 19d ago

This is what stood out to me in the clip too, unreal

Over $1B/mile. I think anyone of us could've built it for cheaper LOL

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u/WildMild869 Koreatown 19d ago

I’m not privy to details but does the price tag include the changes made to LAX itself? I imagine that would’ve ballooned the price? Idk, legitimately asking.

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u/randomtask 19d ago

No, it’s strictly the scope of work for the transit system, stations, and the connecting walkways. That’s it. The reason why it’s so expensive is that the contractor found a loophole in the contract with the airport authority and has been milking it to the tune of nearly a billion dollars over the initial bid. Pure, unadulterated corruption.

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u/ariolander 19d ago

Corrupt but they keep getting state and even LAWA contracts. The same contractor that screwed LAX over the people mover got awarded the contract for the nearby road reworks. Rather than punishing corrupt behavior and delays LAWA rewards it.

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u/owen__wilsons__nose Studio City 19d ago

Actually no I couldn't have. Dad never taught me anything and I didn't take wood working class in High School. Best I can do is build an IKEA cabinet. People Mover? No chance

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u/bruinslacker 19d ago

The contract was signed 8 years ago. You could have earned a bachelors degree in engineering and then still had 4 years to build 2 miles of track.

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u/da_muffinman Silver Lake 19d ago

Ikea may have been more efficient with this project. At least those people-moving quads are ready

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u/ocmaddog 19d ago

BS. It connects the C line and K line to the terminals, finally connecting a train to the airport.

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u/FullTimePedestrian 19d ago

connecting the parking lot

This is downplaying the project. It's not just "connecting parking lots", it's consolidating car rental companies in one stop, connecting to Metro and consolidating rideshare pickup.

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u/timpdx 19d ago

Meanwhile over in Burbank:

The new $1.3 billion Elevate BUR replacement terminal at Hollywood Burbank Airport is on schedule to open on October 13, 2026, staying strictly on time and on budget.

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u/pilot3033 Encino 19d ago

In defense, I guess, the new Burbank terminal is a clean sheet design that was built over what used to be a big parking lot and had been in development for years. It had been in development for decades if we want to get really technical, with some of the first major proposals coming out in the 90s.

No excuse for LAX, though. Sue the shit out of these contractors and start criminal investigations.

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u/burritomiles 19d ago

LAX is getting totally screwed here but agree that a train is more difficult to build than a empty building on a parking lot

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u/Tenoch_12 19d ago

This is corruption.

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u/ayyycoco 19d ago

Someone should be facing criminal charges

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u/Ibroketherandom 19d ago

Karen Bass and whoever leads the contractor and sub contractor companies should all spend most of the rest of their existences in a state prison.

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u/randomtask 19d ago

Insane how this article is incredibly wishy washy about who is to blame here. It’s Lynx. Lynx is the reason. That’s the headline.

Watch Nick Andert’s video for the facts. TL;DR: the contractor, Lynx, is exploiting a loophole that has allowed them to extract nearly a billion additional dollars on top of the original $2.2B bid. They are doing this by disputing the tiniest details, and taking it to a biased project neutral that sides with them 100% of the time. This, in total, has delayed the project by nearly 4 years and increased the total already outrageous cost by over 50%. They are out and out robbing LA world airports (ie airport users), which knows this and has sued and even settled to the tune of $880 million — and yet the contractor is still exploiting the same loophole to continue enriching itself at our expense. Honestly it’s just wild how they’re continuing to get away with it even now.

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u/CommonSensei8 19d ago

PROSECUTE THOSE ASSHOLES

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u/Odd_Friendship1857 18d ago

Someone put that loophole in the contract in the first place, where are they through all of this?

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u/randomtask 18d ago

The loophole is that all disputes are to be resolved through a single project neutral. Having a single project neutral, with no means of changing who that was (ie jf bias were to be found) appears to have been the contractor’s idea.

In the grand jury report, witnesses representing the airport authority have said under oath that they A) did not think the role would be used to settle large dollar disputes, and B) therefore did not clock the single-project-neutral as potentially dangerous. Essentially they are pleading it as an honest mistake that they made in rubber stamping a section of the contract that quietly contained a massive loophole. LAWA had no way of knowing that the project neutral would side with the contractor every single time. And the fact that the neutral is so thoroughly supportive of the contractor’s disputes should raise suspicions that the contractor had this trap set the whole time, knowing that the project neutral selected would always be on their side.

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u/space_snap828 18d ago

We've got to expect more competency than this from our officials, but at the same time, there has to be something done about the people who would observe the opportunity to swindle the public and actually take advantage of it - that itself is a conscious moral choice.

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u/linus121 19d ago

Soo what happens now that LAZ gave a 60-day notice to shuttle bus drivers?

LAZ lays off 247 workers in anticipation of SkyLink opening : r/LAMetro

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u/Toekneeev 19d ago

now they have no Shuttles (very limited) and no people mover! that’s just great 😄

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u/chindef 19d ago

Damn, these contractors really have the city by the balls, don’t they? 

We need to end the low bid nonsense for public projects. The contractors just play the game “oh yeah, we can build it for $10 million” and then they just send in $300 million worth of change orders to cover the actual cost and make money on it 

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u/trydola 19d ago edited 19d ago

this is basically what happened here, constant change order requests have ballooned the cost and LA city just wants to keep the project moving so they keep paying up for change orders otherwise the contractor says they will stop working if LA doesn't keep paying them. LA needs a court order to force contractor to keep working while monetary disputes get handled in courts

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u/CORPORATE_NARCOTICS 19d ago

We need to stop letting private entities doing the work of the state, especially when it comes to anything involving infrastructure like this.

The minute you let private entities involved to share that responsibility with the state, the state has a ton of excuses that they can hide behind and justify fraud/waste/corruption to the public or to the courts, and the worst part is that it's true--any joint venture is always going to be more messy and harder to keep accountable than an operation under a single roof.

It's a BIG monetary ask for the state to do shit like this since there's labor/resources they don't have typically for projects like these, but it would also mean there is less risk of fraud and corrupt shit that Lynx is pulling with LA over this people mover.

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u/P1umbersCrack 19d ago

No surprise. What a joke. Heads should have rolled for the delays and jail for the overages.

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u/iamGIS Culver City 19d ago

We unironically will get GTA6 before people mover

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u/115MRD BUILD MORE HOUSING! 19d ago

Where is Karen Bass? What’s the point of a mayor?!

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u/Eduardjm 19d ago

Enjoying her World Cup and Olympics kickbacks to look the other way from the grifting going on

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u/biguk997 19d ago

She direct donations from the contractors to her preferred charities. Shes on their payroll

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u/GreedyCauliflower 19d ago

When asked to comment, she stood silently and stared into space for 30 seconds

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u/aromaticchicken 19d ago

Remind this is all under Bass, who has been crickets during all of this. In another country the media would be blasting the mayor for radio silence amid the most failed and visible public works project in her jurisdiction. Not only is LAX within city limits, but the City government owns LAWA (aka the airport) and all this is public money funding this extortion

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u/humphreyboggart 19d ago

who has been crickets during all of this

That's the bit that gets me. Does the mayor directly oversee this project? Obviously not. But she has a huge pulpit that she could use to draw attention to this fiasco, put people on blast, and question how this became such a shitshow. But instead Bass consistently makes it clear that improving transit is just a "nice to have" for her that she will abandon at the slightest resistance and not something she is willing to spend any political capital on.

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u/D_left_handed_fapper North Hollywood 19d ago

I can almost guarantee that this shit will constantly be out of order due to maintenance issues.

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u/Eduardjm 19d ago

Day 1, like the Disney monorail “it’s too hot to operate, we didn’t budget for air conditioning in the cars”

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u/delcondelcon 19d ago

the Disney monorail doesn't have AIR CONDITIONING?!

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u/flongo 19d ago

Duh, easy way to extract more money out of the project.

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u/liverichly West Hollywood 19d ago

LAX is not a serious airport.

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u/lekker-boterham West Hollywood 19d ago

We’re a joke

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u/bigshiba04 El Monte 19d ago

We getting GTA 6 before the LAX people mover 😭🙏

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u/AnomaliaAnomaly 19d ago

how about we start calling it people mover when it moves people

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u/The_Pandalorian Culver City 19d ago

This is soooo predictable. Nearly every major transit project is held hostage by large mega contractors, due to shitty contracts and vetting by government bodies.

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u/[deleted] 19d ago edited 19d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/stolenhello 19d ago

I can’t block these ads fast enough.

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u/brentus 19d ago

Especially considering these pro sports leagues are taking sponsorships from them despite players getting death threats from folks losing money on Kalshi

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u/nauticalsandwich 19d ago

This one is especially egregious, but it's part of a larger problem: the US, in general, seems institutionally incapable of building public infrastructure in the way that it used to, and it isn't a funding problem or an engineering problem.

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u/EggVentures 19d ago

Is there a site that follows the money, if not should I build it?

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u/stellar-jelly 19d ago

Yes you should!

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u/EggVentures 19d ago

I'm actually shocked how much we waste and no one knows about it because they make it impossible to find. Its sickening

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u/alsoyoshi 19d ago

Yes, start by watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOZ7R9bUBA

In short, the contractor parent group is a shady P.O.S., and something extremely sketchy happened with the choice of neutral arbitrator. The contractors know that any lawsuit holds things up for a long time, so they hold all the cards since there's no way for LAX to come out ahead in a lawsuit if it means more years-long delays.

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u/MauveMammoth 19d ago edited 19d ago

Where are Nathan “It’s the principle of the matter” Hochman and Rob “justice for everyone except billionaires I’m afraid of” Bonta now?

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u/Peralton 19d ago

We are getting grifted so hard.

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u/Ok-Association-3415 19d ago

Cancel the project, pay the exit fee and banish all the people in this from ever getting another contract. Then send the state attorney on a witch hunt against the big wigs .

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u/dating_derp 19d ago

There's a deadline December 8th that'll allow the airport to replace the contractor (LINXS) and then sue LINXS.

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u/ProfessorFrink1 19d ago

They don’t care. They’d incorporate under a new entity and do it all over again. These people know the law.

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u/budna 19d ago

The Hoover dam was built in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost.

It sucks that there are no criminal penalties to all the corrupt crooks involved with this project.

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u/quadropheniac 19d ago

I agree there should be criminal penalties and that this construction is a joke, but the Hoover Dam was built in the middle of nowhere during the Great Depression and about 100 people died in the process.

There are many better construction projects to emulate.

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u/GotRammed 19d ago

I hope Nithya sues these fucks into a fucking coma

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u/Financial-Horror1844 19d ago

The biggest issue is lack of transparency as to why. Prior articles have said it's some sort of litagation. But what is being disputed? Due to the lack of candor I wonder if the city fucked something up and is being dragged in court.

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u/Revanish 19d ago

nah it’s blackmail. the contractors said if the city sues them all work stops. they can either hand over 800 million or the project will be stuck at 99% for 10+ years in court. 

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u/dating_derp 19d ago

Nanderts video explains the latest dispute. If you want a link / timestamp, check my last LAX APM post.

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u/ShantJ Glendale 19d ago

I don’t want any updates until LINXS’ leadership is arrested.

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u/trydola 19d ago

every company part of LINX need to be investigated and blacklisted from any future public work in CA

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u/kmank2l13 19d ago

Let’s start taking bets now. I’m betting this won’t open at all in 2027.

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u/Existing-Stranger632 19d ago

They’re gonna wait until April 2028

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u/dating_derp 19d ago

“You have to wonder at a certain point when a U.S. attorney or a district attorney starts to look at this and say, ‘has there been some criminal negligence?’” KTLA’s Frank Buckley said. “There has to be some accountability at some point.”

FUCKING YES

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u/Intrepid-Anybody-704 19d ago

Please remember that ultimately, LAX and LAWA are under the control of the City of LA, headed by the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass.

Where is Karen Bass on this?

If I were Mayor of LA, I would direct LAPD and LAXPD (yes the mayor can do this) to commandeer the project using their arrest powers, and direct LADOT and/or LA Metro to start running the people mover ASAP. Put City staff in the control rooms since there’s enough staff who can run a damn automated fixed guideway transit system. Kick down the doors and change the locks for all I care. Fuck whatever contracts or entities or formalities that exist on paper that prevent the Mayor from physically installing City+airport staff into the control rooms and opening for service. The contracts are just pieces of paper and we’ve seen what the Trump Regime can do with the admin/police state despite “court orders”…why can’t a city do the same things for good? We can get months of benefit by opening this despite whatever judge or court wags their finger.

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u/dlraar Westside 19d ago

More like People Not Mover!

at this point the heat death of the universe will come and the people mover will still be stuck at 99.6% complete

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u/Best-Battle4487 19d ago edited 19d ago

LOL, this city is an absolute joke. They get ripped off on this project and it continues to be delayed.

Overpriced, delayed, and a future completion date that keeps getting moved.

Note: This is not funded by taxpayer dollars

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u/tracyinge 19d ago

The project is not funded by taxes

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u/115MRD BUILD MORE HOUSING! 19d ago

Technically it’s paid by the airlines who use LAX but they pass those costs on to the consumer so the effect is a tax for anyone that has flown out of LAX.

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u/OutrageousWeird4198 19d ago

it is still funded by us via LAX fees that will invariably go up. just one more cost that goes up among all the other costs.

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u/Fugu_Liver_Dinner 19d ago

Bro, this is insane!

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u/mindlessgames 19d ago

Embarrassing. Everyone involved should be fired into the sun.

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u/cmmedit Hollywood 19d ago

Worked a few gigs over the years and have listened to folks who work on/for/in? the people mover.

They're living so large from it they'll keep it being built forever.

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u/CommonSensei8 19d ago

INDICT THIS ENTIRE FUCKING PROJECT AND EVERY PERSON INVOLVED

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u/PatoLoco310 19d ago

This city really is broken and whoever figures out how to return it to glory will be legendary. And the contractor should be held accountable but won’t

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u/DonaldDick1946 19d ago

Literally how. It's a fucking tram. They built one at Disneyland 70 goddamn years ago

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u/BauerBourneBond 19d ago edited 19d ago

I’m having Mamdani envy.

Once this thing is up and running, I expect it to have the reliability record of a McFlurry machine.

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u/Existing-Stranger632 19d ago

What the fuck? This is a money laundering scheme. No other explanation for this shit. Like legitimately. I cannot imagine any explanation to justify it not being done when it was supposed to be done LAST YEAR.

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u/dating_derp 19d ago

Close. It's an extortion scheme by the contractor.

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u/SubhanF 19d ago

what the actual fuh is the problem?

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u/dating_derp 19d ago

Short Version: LINXS (the contractor) has been extorting the shit out of LAWA (the airport). LINXS is basically causing work stoppages until LAWA pays up, then LAWA pays, then LINXS repeats the process. Their extortion only works because of pressure from the Olympics deadline. LAWA can't sue them now because that lawsuit would stall the project until after the Olympics. And LINXS can't continue their shenanigans after the Olympics because then LAWA will be free to sue the shit out of them.

Long Version

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u/pandasgorawr 19d ago

Wow just watched the video, the city needs to write better contracts because how did they end up in this situation where the project neutral has that much power?

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u/SubhanF 19d ago edited 19d ago

wow. this is actually disgusting the more i read and watch. full of corruption. thanks for the summary and link.

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u/CrunchyAssDiaper 19d ago

Disneyland was built in a year. Empire State Building was built in months.

Theft is slow.

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u/Jabjab345 19d ago

At some point you have to jail people for corruption. This is ridiculous.

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u/Shame_memory 19d ago

I know Bass isn't fully to blame and people are innocent until proven guilty, but Jesus Christ, there's just so much blatant fraud and corruption under watch that she's either been directly responsible for or was negligent to do anything about. One has to wonder if Raman does win and make good on her promise to let Kenneth Mejia audit the fuck out of the city, how deep this goes and what they're hiding

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u/doctabu 19d ago

Good news!! The last time I calculated this with linear regression based on all of the delays, we were looking at a date of November 28, 2029. This cuts over a year off and now the real estimation is May 2, 2028!

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u/deahw 19d ago

Was this not supposed to be open 2 years ago??

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u/chief_yETI South L.A. 19d ago

3 actually 😂

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u/jackrabbit323 Highland Park 19d ago

I'll bet a Hot and Ready it doesn't open before the Olympics.

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u/zakuropan 19d ago

water is wet

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u/posh_squash_ 19d ago

I was looking forward to using it next month. This thing is never going to open.

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u/NotTzarPutin 19d ago

This is fucking criminal

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u/ScottyDOESKnow09 Elysian Valley 19d ago

Olympics in 2028 are gonna be a shit show lol

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u/tomtomtomtom123 19d ago

These people need to lose their licenses and never be awarded any type of public contract ever again.

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u/Chheaky 19d ago

Karen Bass is really good at hiding which officers worked for ice, but really bad at everything else.

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u/RevLoveJoy 19d ago

You know, for this kind of money we could have a subway for the K line to go direct to the airport.

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u/FordGT2017 19d ago

Who is really to blame

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