LOS ANGELES CAN SAY NO TO THE SUMMER OLYMPICS, WORLD CUP AND SUPER BOWL

We cannot trust the mayor and officials who’ve allowed terrifying visuals of Pacific Palisades and Altadena — the city should give up colossal hosting duties, even after Donald Trump provided support

Do not try taking Moomat Ahiko Way to the Pacific Coast Highway. You will be halted by the police and glaring road signs. It’s another reminder that the wildfires devastating Los Angeles will not leave our senses for years. Wednesday, I stood in line at the Santa Monica farmers market as a Bel-Air man mourned his evacuation hours earlier.

“I have prized books,” he said, knowing Pacific Palisades was only five miles away.

I nodded when he suggested leaving town.

So, with the city battling more violent winds in a second week of deadly wildfires, it’s unthinkable how anyone with a common soul would care about three major sports events on the schedule. How are we supposed to trust officials with fun and games when they can’t blow out an inferno? Whoever the mayor happens to be — Karen Bass, I think, after she attended an embassy cocktail party in Ghana when flames erupted — could address her vulnerable job position by immediately rejecting soccer’s World Cup matches. The summer of 2026, right? Just 17 months away at SoFi Stadium?

Are you serious? Families are planning funerals. Distraught people aren’t allowed into demolished neighborhoods to see if homes were burned. With 88,000 under evacuation orders, home owners are gouging with astronomical rental prices. Why did officials in the fire department refuse to maintain extra firefighters when the Palisades was starting to burn? Gov. Gavin Newsom won’t allow purchases of charred properties and is delaying recovery. Those are among a myriad of factors to blow off Argentina, Spain and Germany.

And what about the 2027 Super Bowl? That date will arrive in about two years. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t mind moving a playoff game between the Rams and Minnesota Vikings to Arizona, telling the Los Angeles Times, “The guiding principle for us has always been, don’t interfere and do anything that’s going to impact negatively on public safety. Make sure you’re not sapping resources from the responders.” He could make the claim about Phoenix and Glendale, but he would be blind in guessing how local and state officials will recover in the coming months. They will be dealing with a lifelong catastrophe with an unnecessary, freakish antithesis of athletic preparations.

The heavens only know if winds will enable more flames. Those who’ve seen terrifying photos of the scalded areas can’t go home thinking about touchdown and goals. What is the next challenge for southern California? It certainly shouldn’t be the Summer Olympics in the summer of 2028. As it is, Paris was masterful last summer and showed Hollywood filmmakers how to stage sensational opening ceremonies. Now? How is L.A. supposed to host 15 million visitors and the world’s best sportsmen and sportswomen?

The UCLA campus has been established as host of the athletes village. At the moment, the campus is about empty while 46,000 students take classes online. “Stay vigilant and be ready to evacuate,” they were told by a school that knew nearby Brentwood has dealt with evacuation. “I know that many of us are facing real challenges. There continues to be a lot of uncertainty and fear about the future,” chancellor Julio Frenk wrote. “There’s concern about air quality. There is a lot of worry about homes.”

Beach volleyball?

No one should be talking about the Olympics beyond ditching them and asking Paris to set up shop again. Oh, but there was a statement. One came Wednesday night from Mar-a-Lago, where Casey Wassernan traveled to gain support from Donald Trump. “These are America’s Olympics,” Trump told the chairman of the LA28 organizing committee, as reported by Axios. “These are more important than ever to L.A. and I’m going to be supportive in every way possible to make them the greatest Games.”

Said Wasserman last week: “Los Angeles is defined by its resilience and determination. The strength of our communities and our unity in tough times make this city extraordinary, and when Los Angeles welcomes the world in 2028, our spirit will shine brighter than ever before.”

How Wasserman can see 2028 is beyond me, regardless of Trump’s initial approval. All we know is that Bass was attending, at the request of President Biden, the inauguration of John Dramini Mahama as Ghanaian president. Doesn’t the Los Angeles mayor have a 24/7 job? Hasn’t she watched constant news about wildfires in recent years? Did she land in West Africa when the first red flag warning was issued? Was she actually at a reception when the Palisades began to burn? Didn’t a city staffer take pictures of her at an embassy? What is Bass doing about arson suspects? Looters? What about a mass homeless problem that has deteriorated in recent days? Lunatics on freeways?

Southern California always has had a screw loose. Try two.

“For the majority of the time, the mayor was in a different room on calls from L.A.,” a Bass spokesperson said.

And we’re leaving her in charge of the World Cup, the Super Bowl and the Olympics?

My problem with Los Angeles culture, after spending most of the last 14 years here, is a detachment from identity. An occasional athlete, such as Kobe Bryant or Shohei Ohtani, galvanizes the community. But why would the Rams play a postseason game when parts of the city were trying to stay alive with shelter? What happens in Altadena and the Palisades doesn’t seem to matter everywhere, as it should.

Don’t tell me, then, about resilience and a spirit shining “brighter than ever before.” All people want to do is survive life. The World Cup is hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico with options in other cities. The Super Bowl would be fine in Las Vegas. Paris might want to say no, but the infrastructure is in place for a successful Summer Games.

Just don’t do it here. So far, stadiums and arenas haven’t been harmed. But how many embers might glow in Los Angeles over the next 42 months? Please devote all attention to the wildfire rage. Sports can be left for people in less deranged places.

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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.