Last weekend was the LA Marathon, and they've changed the route so it doesn't come anywhere near us but one year, we forgot about it and got stuck in massive detours trying to go to Fairfax Farmer's Market. This year it went to the Valley and the Eastside. A lot of people do not know that the marathon is a private entity, owned by a millionaire named William Burke, who is married to County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. To me, it is amazing how many volunteers he gets in his for-profit event. Imagine if Home Depot asked for "volunteers" to restock their shelves and ring up customers?! My former boss used to work for the man so she's told me some interesting stories. The city of Los Angeles pays for security, traffic detours, etc. for the marathon every year, agreements get made because of his wife's political clout. And this year, he tried to get the city of Los Angeles to pay metro fares for race participants. Here is an article that was in the LA Times last week about that fiasco.
Here is a big expose that LA Weekly did about the marathon ownership and conflicts
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