Gondola project can't get off the ground

McCourt's transit plan for Dodger Stadium like other city proposals: stuck in red tape

- Voices BILL SHAIKIN COLUMNIST

LA AERIAL RAPID TRANSIT RENDERINGS of the Gondola Skyline, a Union Station-to-Chavez Ravine idea that has hung in uncertainty since 2018.

Shohei Ohtani was four weeks into his major league career when former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt pitched a gondola from Union Station to Dodger Stadium.

Ohtani, then a rookie with the Angels and now a global superstar with the Dodgers, was 23.

Today, Ohtani is 31, and McCourt still has no official response to his pitch.

In an effort to accelerate a decision, as The Times reported last month, McCourt's lobbyists latched onto a state bill designed to expedite transit projects and persuaded legislators to add language that would put an even speedier timeline on potential legal challenges to the gondola.

That bill is scheduled for consideration by an Assembly committee Wednesday, and more than 100 community members rallied Monday in opposition to the bill — or, at least, to the part that would benefit the gondola project.

The Los Angeles City Council last week approved — and Mayor Karen Bass signed — a resolution urging state legislators to drop the gondola part of the bill or dump the bill entirely.

“We are fighting a billionaire,” City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez told the crowd. “How you doing today?”

There were snacks and stickers, T-shirts and tote bags, even bandanas for dogs (and there were lots of very good dogs). There were signs, both earnest and amusing (“Frank McCourt and the Aerial Cabins of Doom”).