An L.A. Daily News article on Los Angeles’ long history with the Olympic Games quoted Zev Yaroslavsky, longtime public servant and director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin. The Summer Games first came to Los Angeles in 1932 then returned in 1984, when Yaroslavsky was a member of the L.A. City Council. “It was a huge success financially,” Yaroslavsky said of the first privately financed games, which produced a surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars used to launch a foundation to promote youth sports. Yaroslavsky also credits the Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, a 10-week event that preceded the games and drew 1.25 million visitors, for elevating the region’s reputation as a cultural hub. “L.A., which was already a cultural mecca, really went to a new level,” he said. “I think the arts was a bigger legacy of the Olympic Games than the games were.” The Olympics will return to Los Angeles in 2028.