The Los Angeles City Council took another step toward preventing graffiti artists from continuing to illegally paint on Oceanwide Plaza, a set of unfinished luxury skyscrapers located Downtown.
Today, the City Council passed an ordinance allowing the city to secure private properties that are “a present, imminent, extreme and immediate hazard,” according to the council agenda. The ordinance was co-authored by Councilmembers Kevin de León and Monica Rodriguez.
Pete Brown, a spokesperson for the CD14 office for De León, told Boyle Heights Beat the ordinance didn’t specifically target Oceanwide Plaza but does include the abandoned real estate project. “Oceanwide drove it but is not Oceanwide specific. We are trying to be proactive so we don’t get caught off guard,” Brown said.
Last month, the City Council approved a motion allocating roughly $4 million to cover the costs of graffiti removal and security of the three Oceanwide towers. The ordinance also allows the city to recoup this cost from Oceanwide Holdings, the real estate project’s developer.
“It’s [about] holding any developments accountable,” Brown said. “We want the planning department to come back with plans to figure out how we can keep the city from being on the hook financially to secure private properties.”
In late January, a ragtag collection of local graffiti artists snuck into the abandoned buildings meant to house 500 luxury condos, a five-star hotel, and commercial space.
Artists climbed the towers and perched along narrow concrete strips to scribe their aliases on the glass facade. Most of the floors were covered in graffiti in a matter of days, but soon after, more taggers began entering the towers and going over each other’s work.
LAPD increased patrols in the area, and the city placed fencing around each of the skyscrapers, but that did not deter individuals from attempting to cover the abandoned properties in various hues of spray paint.
Oceanwide Holdings, the Chinese real estate developer responsible for the project, received the City’s approval for construction with help from former CD14 Councilmember José Huízar. He served as President of the City Planning Commission and accepted bribes to secure building permits for the development project. Construction began in 2015 but ceased in 2019 when Oceanwide Holdings ran out of funds. Huízar was sentenced to 13 years in prison for this crime, among others.
The Oceanwide project isn’t the first time city officials have battled with graffiti artists on a grand scale. In 2008, members of the graffiti crew MTA used paint rollers to tag a quarter-mile-long version of their acronym along the stretch of the LA River beside the 1st Street Bridge.
The act garnered MTA acclaim from graffiti aficionados but increased attention from city officials.
Law enforcement arrested the members involved and subsequently placed a gang injunction on MTA, the first of its kind issued to a graffiti crew. The following year, the Army Corps of Engineers secured $837,000 in federal stimulus money to whitewash graffiti along the LA River.
