Plans to ferry baseball fans to Dodger Stadium through the air via gondola are left hanging after a Los Angeles City Council vote to kill the proposed aerial project.
The Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (LA ART/Gondola) Project has been kicking around since 2018, when former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies proposed the project and offered to pay for a portion of the construction. Since then, the plan was met with resistance from many, including the Stop the Gondola coalition.
Now, there is even more. On November 13, the Los Angeles City Council delivered a 12–1 resolution urging the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to kill the proposed $500-million aerial gondola.
Supporters of the project describe it as a solution for a city starved for transit alternatives, especially when tens of thousands of fans descend on the stadium. Backers say the gondola could move up to 5,000 people per hour each direction, sidestepping gridlock on event nights.
But the City Council and local advocates disagree. They argue the system is less about working-class transit and more about amplifying private development around the stadium and Downtown. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who introduced the resolution, called it "a private development scheme disguised as transportation, designed to raise the value of a billionaire's parking lots, not to serve working Angelenos," in a statement. "Our communities have said loudly and clearly that they do not want a project that threatens their homes, their park, their green space and their quality of life."
RECOMMENDED: You can step inside one of the gondolas that may one day whisk you to Dodger Stadium
Additional concerns include the project’s shaky funding model, unclear benefit to existing neighborhoods and environmental/displacement impacts. Opponents say the proposed towers and cables would scar neighborhoods like Chinatown, El Pueblo and Solano Canyon, obstruct green space and risk creating new gentrification pressures.
On the flip side, some local businesses and community stakeholders in Chinatown did lend support. More than 400 local businesses reportedly signed a petition backing the plan.
What happens next is unclear. Mayor Karen Bass would still need to sign off before the resolution becomes official, and while she previously supported the gondola as a Metro board member, she has offered no public statement on the matter. A separate full council vote on the actual project is expected next year, but this recent resolution makes one thing clear: Developers are facing a steep climb to get this gondola off the ground.