Fixing LAX's restrooms

Sure, there are terminals to be built and people movers to be installed, but what about the smaller stuff that doesn't require years of study and litigation? Along with the restrooms are a bunch of broken elevators and escalators – not to mention the airport's central utility plant that needs overhauling or replacing. Gina Marie Lindsey, the new executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, has a laundry list of these upgrades that she wants to get going on, beginning early next year. Speaking today at Emma Schafer's Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum, Lindsey says the infrastructure fix-up will run $1 billion to $2 billion. She also answered a bunch of questions about the proposed Midfield Concourse, which LAX officials are counting on to handle those huge Airbus A380 jets (a couple of jumbo gates at the already overcrowded Tom Bradley terminal are being readied). The plan is to have the facility up and running by early 2012, but there are the familiar funding and environmental issues to deal with.