The few days before the Olympics I was worried that the horror stories I had heard about the smog in Los Angeles might be true.  I took pictures of The Goodyear Blimp as it made it's way across the San Gabriel Mountains, North East of Santa Anita. The other two pictures were taken just a day or two later. The air remained clear and clean. San Diego, where the three day event was held was not quite as clean.
There was actually proposed for this Olympics huge exhaust fans to blow the smog and pollution from the air around events.   During the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the traffic flowed very smoothly and pollution levels plummeted.
Los Angeles today should be considered a model for cities whose air quality (hint East Tennessee's major city) is not what it should be.



1997 Commemorates - Air Quality Management District
"50 Years of Progress Toward Clean Air"
Fifty years ago, the Los Angeles region became galvanized with a unity of purpose rivaled only by World War II and the 1984 Olympics. The reason: To launch a unified, coordinated and multi-jurisdictional war on smog.

A Perspective on Christians, Computers, and the Year 2000 (Y2K) by Alfred Corduan

Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Olympics. As the time drew near, predictions of a major disaster began to surface. The experts had the numbers and statistics: With the traffic in Los Angeles teetering as is does on the brink of total gridlock from the massive amount of cars, the influx of even a conservative estimate of additional vehicles associated with the games - and during prime times of the day - would bring LA to it's knees. I remember this distinctly - there were not a few that fled the city over this, taking vacations to avoid the mayhem. What happened? Nothing - as a matter of fact, the traffic during those days was the absolute best I could recall seeing. Why? Certainly the departure of Angelinos on vacation helped - but the major reasons were the common sense steps the government took to deal with the problem, such as banning trucks from the roads during certain hours, and encouraging employers to offer "flex time" to their employees, so folks came and went at different times.