Guest Column: The Gondola is Good

By Jonathan Parfrey, Executive Director of Climate Resolve.

I’m an Angeleno and congenital Dodgers fan. In the 1960s, my dad would drive me and my brother to see Sandy Koufax pitch. As a teenager, I took the RTD to the stadium. On one of those bus nights, it was in August 1974, I saw Steve Yeager hit a grand slam. I thought the stands were going to buckle.

In recent years, now in my sixties, I ride my bike from my downtown apartment to the stadium.

I’m also a climate activist. My day job is executive director of Climate Resolve. Among our organization’s many goals is to help build multiple zero emission transportation projects to Dodger Stadium, which includes the gondola, as well as protected bike lanes and improved pedestrian access.

First, a bit about the climate crisis (please forgive the history lesson). For the past 150 years, society has unearthed and burned massive amounts of coal, oil and gas. The energy released by these products has in some respects been a blessing, enabling billions of people to live a better life. On the other hand, burning these fuels not only creates smog but is also altering the weather. Aerosols of carbon dioxide and methane, now present in our atmosphere in high concentrations, do an efficient job of reflecting infrared energy back to earth, adding heat to our oceans and changing our climate.

California’s biggest contributor of these heat-inducing gasses is the automobile. Taken together, refining oil and vehicle exhaust, these effects contribute over 50% of California’s greenhouse gas emissions.

If we’re going to stem the worst impacts of climate change, we’re going to have to find new ways of getting around Los Angeles. The answer is not just electric vehicles but also public transit, walking and biking.

And the future can be better. Imagine, on game nights, jumping on a train to Union Station, then transferring to an aerial gondola that brings you to Dodger Stadium in a mere seven minutes – all without emitting any pollution. As an added side benefit, ticket-holders will ride the gondola for free.

The gondola provides an opportunity to transform our transit future and help achieve our climate goals. The proposed 1.2-mile zero emissions aerial system will serve as a model for Southern California as an economical alternative to railways and tunnels. The Dodger Stadium gondola would be a permanent, year-round, zero-emissions transportation solution for the communities that surround Dodger Stadium, helping reduce pollution in some of the city’s most pollution-impacted neighborhoods, and providing access to the city’s second largest and oldest park, Elysian Park.

The gondola would be a last mile connector between Union Station and Dodger Stadium, one of the most visited venues in the region, and the most attended venue in Major League Baseball. Dodger Stadium is only one of three major league baseball stadiums without a permanent transit connection, and, as anybody who’s been to the stadium knows, is a traffic and parking nightmare.

In a draft environmental report recently published, Metro found that with the gondola’s capacity, approximately 20 percent of fans could take the gondola connected to Metro’s regional transit system for events at Dodger Stadium.  With a higher capacity than other modes of transit, it could carry 6,000 riders in 2026 and 10,000 riders by 2042 – reducing emissions by at least 150,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasses over its lifetime. In comparison, it would take 77 buses running continuously every hour to reach a similar capacity.

Frank McCourt and Mark Walter are co-owners of the Dodger Stadium parking lot and have substantially supported the development of the gondola. The assets of the gondola project are in the process of being donated to Zero Emissions Transit, a supporting organization of Climate Resolve. To be clear, the former developers, LA ART, are taking their hands off the steering wheel and transferring control to Zero Emissions Transit, who will take the lead in developing the gondola project.

On funding, as you may suspect, construction costs have increased across the board on all construction projects since the 2020 estimate of $300 million. So the budget is evolving. After the environmental review, and funding a public benefits program, we'll have a better idea of true numbers. 

You may hear arguments from opponents – hell, most of my professional life I’ve been the opposition. But their claims aren’t based in fact and put their own interests ahead of the needs of the community and the environment. It’s politics. Indeed, people in Solano Canyon and Chinatown stand to benefit the most from this zero-emission transit connector – communities already profoundly impacted by pollution and traffic. It’s sad to see that most of the opponents neither live nor work within these impacted communities. In contrast, more than 200 Chinatown small businesses, the William Meade Homes Association and thousands of neighborhood residents support the project.

Now, more than ever, we need thoughtful solutions that take polluting cars off the road and lead to a more connected Los Angeles. The aerial gondola project will be the first of many more emission-free- innovations that will help reduce air pollution and improve quality of life for Angelenos.

The future can be good at Dodger Stadium – both on and off the field.

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