Los Angeles city officials have had enough of the apparent free-for-all surrounding the abandoned downtown development dubbed the “tagged towers,” as the crews began to clean up the site Friday in order to build a fence around the perimeter.
The clean-up was approved by the city council on Tuesday when a Saturday deadline was imposed on the site’s developer, China Oceanwide, to either put a fence around the development or clean up the graffiti littering the skyscrapers’ sides. The city took matters into its own hands Friday since the bankrupt developer didn’t appear to be making any progress.
“This morning we’re going to start. We’re not going to wait for the developer,” City Councilmember Kevin de León told KTLA’s Jennifer McGraw. The site, called Oceanwide Plaza, falls within the borders of his district. “We have the right to remove it because it’s a nuisance.”
The abandoned construction site’s scaffolding has acted as a bridge for trespassers, de León said, making it easily accessible. Some have taken advantage of the ease of access as the towers have become a paradise for graffiti taggers and even BASE jumpers.
De León told KTLA earlier in the week that more than 20 arrests had been made at Oceanwide Plaza over several days.
The clean-up project was projected to take about $4 million out of taxpayers’ pockets. Defending that cost, de León told McGraw that it “had to be done” for safety reasons.
“When this property is eventually sold — and someone’s going to buy it sooner or later — we will get our money back,” he said.
Oceanwide abandoned the development more than 5 years ago, de León said. The next step is finding a buyer for the property in close proximity to L.A. Live.