Over several decades, Jackie Wilson has seen downtown Inglewood transform from a promenade where locals shopped for clothes and goods into an entertainment hub — with restaurants, bars and, of course, three massive venues nearby: the Kia Forum, the Intuit Dome and SoFi Stadium.
Soon the world’s attention will turn to downtown Inglewood as some of the biggest global events arrive in quick succession — first the FIFA World Cup this summer, then the Super Bowl next year and finally the 2028 Summer Olympics.
A part of the Olympic opening ceremony will be held at SoFi Stadium, just down the street from CoquetteKouture, the small African clothing store where Wilson works. What that means for the economic impact on the store remains unclear.
“The vision right now is not in the future, it’s like survival right now,” Wilson told The LA Local, gesturing toward racks of vibrantly colored Senegalese shirts and dresses hanging below signs advertising 50% to 60% discounts.
* Aicha Lo at her store, CoquetteKouture Top Diversified African Fashion, in Inglewood. (Sam Ribakoff / For The LA Local)
* Bass Lo at his store, CoquetteKouture Top Diversified African Fashion, in Inglewood. (Sam Ribakoff / For The LA Local)
* Racks of clothes for sale at CoquetteKouture Top Diversified African Fashion in Inglewood. (Sam Ribakoff / For The LA Local)
* A dress for sale at CoquetteKouture Top Diversified African Fashion in Inglewood. (Sam Ribakoff / For The LA Local)
One of the store’s owners, Aicha Lo, told The LA Local that the gentrification in Inglewood has already significantly hurt sales and that the 2028 Games will likely worsen that trend.
“Right now, in Inglewood, as an African clothing store, there’s no business, I don’t know if we’ll be here in 2028,” she said. “Honestly I hope I’m not here, because that would be painful, because (Olympic tourism) is not coming here for us.”
A few weeks later, that uncertainty became reality when Lo announced she and her husband will close their store on April 30 after more than 36 years.
Her story cuts to the heart of what the 2028 Games could mean for the Angelenos who will live through them: Is it a windfall or a reckoning? For many in the City of Angels, the stakes vary from financial to personal safety and privacy concerns stemming from surveillance and so-called “sanitation sweeps.” And all of it can be traced back to the last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympics.
## Highs and lows from the 1984 Games
Yugoslavian referee Gligorije Novicic, center, raises the hand of boxer Kevin Barry of New Zealand as a dejected Evander Holyfield of Atlanta, Ga., looks on, at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., Aug. 9, 1984. Holyfield had earlier knocked Barry through the ropes, and had the fight well in hand until Novicic disqualified him at the end of the second round for hitting on the break. (AP Photo)
The 1984 Games in Los Angeles revitalized the Olympics after a troubled decade — including the 1972 Games in Germany, where members of a Palestinian armed group called Black September killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team; the 1976 Montreal Games, which ran billions over budget; and the 1980 Games in the Soviet Union, which the U.S., China, Iran and other countries boycotted.
The ‘84 Games generated millions in surplus revenue and created a template for private organizing committees — largely free from public accountability — to run future Games. They also set the framework for dragnet policing and surveillance tactics that law enforcement would later use across the country.
According to a news report from the Christian Science Monitor leading up to the 84 games: “The LAPD has set up a very active intelligence network, formed liaisons with antiterrorist agencies at all levels in the U.S., and sent officials abroad to confer with foreign agencies, including, reportedly, the West Germans, the British, and the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad.”
After sending officials abroad to consult with foreign counterterrorism agencies — with federal funds and Mayor Tom Bradley’s support — then–Police Chief Daryl Gates launched large-scale sweeps of unhoused people and Black and brown residents in South LA ahead of the 1984 Games.
Following a sweep of unhoused people in downtown and Skid Row, a police captain said the goal was to “sanitize the area.”
## LA showcased a “culturally diverse society”
Photos from a ceremony commemorating LA’s “ethnic diversity” during the 1984 Summer Olympics sit in a display case at City Hall, March 24, 2026. (Erick Galindo / The LA Local)
It remains the most financially successful modern Olympics, generating more profit than any Games before or since.
According to the International Olympic Committee, 40% of that $233 million surplus was invested to create the LA84 Foundation, which supports youth sports programs and public education across the city.
The spectacle matched the finances. A record 140 nations competed — and the atmosphere was so festive that at the opening ceremony, athletes broke ranks to join in spontaneous dancing, something usually reserved for the closing ceremony.
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Los Angeles and the 1984 Summer Olympics were framed around a diverse, citywide and unifying image, especially through the Games’ colorful design and messaging about bringing together the city’s many neighborhoods. Ronald Reagan also described Los Angeles as part of a “culturally diverse society” in remarks to American athletes at the Games.
“There is a new patriotism spreading across our country. It’s an affection for our way of life, expressed by people who represent the width and breadth of our culturally diverse society,” he said at the time. “And the new patriotism is not a negative force that excludes, but a positive force, an attitude toward those things that are fundamental to America, that draws together our freedom, our decency, our sense of fair play as a people.
On the track, Carl Lewis entered the history books by matching the 1936 achievement of Jesse Owens, winning gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump. The Games also marked milestones for women’s sports as synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics debuted and women ran the Olympic marathon for the first time.
The ’84 Games also marked the beginning of what some still see as a dark era of LAPD tactics.
## LAPD’s legacy from the era
Former Los Angeles police officer Jimmy Wade Pearson, seen here during an arraignment in Los Angeles Aug. 16, 1984, was hailed as a hero for finding a bomb during the 1984 Olympics until he was arrested for placing the bomb. (AP Photo/Files)
The Games put enormous pressure on residents and police officers alike. One strange parable that illustrated the highs and lows of the era involved LAPD officer Jimmy Wade Pearson.
On August 1984, as the closing ceremonies wrapped up, Pearson discovered a pipe bomb on a Turkish Olympic bus at LAX. He quickly ripped apart its wiring and sprinted 50 yards to hurl it onto the runway. Police Chief Daryl Gates cited him for heroism — the moment seemingly proof that the special international training paid off. Then the truth came out.
Pearson himself had planted the pipe filled with gunpowder in the wheel well of the team’s baggage bus before pretending to discover it. He was arrested the next day after failing a polygraph test. He later pleaded guilty to possession of an explosive and wrote in a letter to his probation officer that he staged the hoax so he could transfer out of the elite Metro Division — a unit he described as throwing parties when officers were involved in shooting deaths and maintaining a “kill board” of officers who had killed someone.
Officers of the Los Angeles Police Department set up a mobile booking unit at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, April 7, 1988, launching a new enforcement sweep against gang members whose violent behavior has shocked the nation’s second largest city in weeks. Officers processed dozens of people arrested for a variety of suspected offenses, including parole violation and weapons possession. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)
The incident captured something essential about the contradictions of the ’84 Games: a moment of manufactured heroism, inside an institution ramping up for future security threats.
After the Games ended, Gates used militarized equipment, surveillance tactics and city-backed authority to continue harassment campaigns and sweeps in South LA.
Dubbed “Operation Hammer”, the LAPD continued to indiscriminately arrest thousands of Black youths in weekend raids, often for minor offenses such as curfew violations or old traffic tickets.
New surveillance efforts are already underway ahead of the World Cup, including Real-Time Watch Centers, where law enforcement can monitor CCTV cameras and license plate readers around the clock, said Hamid Khan, co-founder of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition.
## The funding of a “Real-Time Crime Center”
A protester scuffles with LAPD officers during a demonstration in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations and U.S. attacks on Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
In 2025, LA28 leaders toured Beverly Hills live-feed camera system for monitoring public spaces, explicitly in the context of 2028 Games planning. A City Council motion filed March 24 shows that infrastructure is already being funded.
The motion authorizes a transfer of $452,135 from the Police Department budget to the General Services Department to build out a Real-Time Crime Center on the third floor of the Police Administration Building — combining live camera feeds, license plate readers and advanced analytics into a single command hub where officers can monitor the city around the clock.
Its stated deadline is the FIFA World Cup this June — underscoring how each successive mega-event is being used to layer in surveillance infrastructure that will still be standing long after the closing ceremonies. Critics like Khan have warned that this is precisely the pattern: security measures justified by one event become permanent fixtures by the next.
We asked Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts whether he was concerned about a repeat of 1984‑style sweeps targeting Black and brown residents, and about gentrification driven by the city’s new stadiums and major events. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Representatives for LA Mayor Karen Bass and several City Council members did return requests for comment.
Just as the ’84 Games permanently expanded the LAPD’s surveillance and tactics, Khan said he’s concerned the Games will normalize extraordinary policing and surveillance once again.
“So the mayor could actually listen to the people,” Khan said, referring to efforts to stop further militarization of local law enforcement. “They can take action, but they need courage.”
“In essence, it’s a big clusterfuck,” he added.
## **Security perimeters planned at venues**
U.S.A.’s Matthew Dryke of Columbus, Ga., competes in the International Skeet shooting event for which he won the gold medal in Los Angeles Saturday, Aug. 4, 1984. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)
The Olympic Games often operate on an internal logic that deems any security, policing or surveillance measure necessary — and those measures often continue long after the games end, Chris Tyler, spokesperson for Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), said.
As a member of NOlympics LA, a coalition of community organizations around LA and throughout California that wants the city to back out of hosting the upcoming games, Tyler said the group has learned that plans call for concentric security perimeters around Olympic venues.
Those zones may require TSA-style body scans not just for people entering venues but also for residents and workers several blocks away. The perimeters would reportedly be coordinated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
We reached out the Los Angeles Police Department to ask if they planned on implementing “sanitation sweeps”, surveillance networks or security perimeters. We also asked if they would be collaborating with Homeland Security. Officer Norma Eisenman, an LAPD spokesperson, told The LA Local in an email that, “The Department does not discuss tactics.”
## Can the Olympics help the LA economy?
Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson stands at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the Olympic torch is lit Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Reynold Hoover, CEO of the LA28 organizing committee, outlined a bold vision during testimony before a California Senate special committee. Hoover projected the 2028 Games will generate an $18 billion economic impact, create 90,000 full-time equivalent jobs and produce $700 million in state and local tax revenue.
The organizing committee, he said, is operating on a $7.1 billion budget funded entirely by private sources, including sponsorships, broadcasting rights, and ticket sales.
Hoover also told the City Council that LA28 had raised about $1.7 billion of its $2.5 billion domestic sponsorship goal. The figure, he said, surpassed what Paris had raised at the same stage ahead of the 2024 Games. Hoover also noted that LA28 has already secured corporate partnerships with Google and Starbucks.
Sponsors related memorabilia from the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles sits in a display case at City Hall, March 24, 2026. (Erick Galindo / The LA Local)
Cities that host the Olympics often expect a short-term surge of wealthy visitors who spend heavily, but Los Angeles already has a robust summer tourism industry. Hosting the Games here might just displace regular tourists, said Victor Matheson, a sports economist at the College of the Holy Cross.
That is, if people come to the Games at all.
## Could international fans stay away?
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) field officers guard a federal building during ICE deportation protests in Downtown Los Angeles, California, USA on June 10, 2025. (Matt Gush / Shutterstock)
President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed last July, not only included a $90 billion increase in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but also a $1 billion allocation for federal security for the Olympic Games in LA.
It has been common practice since 1998 for federal law enforcement to work with local police to coordinate security for big events under what’s called a National Special Security Event (NSSE). But the memory of large dragnets of Black and brown youth during the 1984 Games in LA — and today’s reality of federal law enforcement agents detaining undocumented Angelenos — worries Matheson.
Matherson believes this could keep many international fans from traveling to the Games.
“Trump has made the United States an unpleasant and risky place for foreigners to visit and has actively reduced the number of people who are even able to come to the World Cup or the Olympics,” Matheson said.
Matheson noted that while other host countries, such as Russia, China, Qatar and Germany, have used international sporting events to “whitewash” their governments’ human rights records by welcoming the world and quieting police during the Games, the Trump administration does not seem to care about how the United States and its government are perceived — a stance that could keep both local and international visitors away and depress ticket sales.
## “A pretty bad deal” — LA is on the hook for financial losses
Casey Wasserman, Chairman of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games speaks during an IOC meeting ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Earlier this month, SAJE published a report authored by sports economist and journalist Neil deMause questioning whether the city should pull out of hosting the Games — even if it means facing billions of dollars in potential legal fees.
The report cites the fact that Los Angeles has agreed to cover the first $270 million of any shortfall from Olympic revenues. The state covers the next $270 million and anything beyond that falls back on the city.
With the city serving as a financial backstop and with the risk of more federal immigration agents in the city, Tyler said, “what it comes to is this is a pretty bad deal whether or not we host. The question now stands: Which is the worst deal for us?”
He also noted the potential negative economic impact of reports linking Casey Wasserman, head of the organizing committee, to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. According to Tyler, this is “a moment of intense distrust” in Wasserman.
Wasserman did not reply to our request for a comment.
“I think it will make it harder for them to execute these Games in the way they wish to,” he added.
Tyler also believes that we need to look at how the whole Olympic planning and hosting system itself encourages or enables certain kinds of harm and exploitation against Los Angeles residents.
“I think it’s really important that we start to have frank economic conversations about how much more we are willing to throw on the fire when we have trouble repairing sidewalks and changing streetlights,” Tyler said.
_Erick Galindo contributed reporting to this story._
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