LOS ANGELES — Few people walking around downtown could look away from the spray-painted towers that have become an unlikely attraction in a city known for spectacle.
Crowds surrounded the popular Kobe Bryant statue outside Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday, and dozens of concertgoers lined up early for a rock show inside.
But the real draw for many near the intersection of 11th and Figueroa streets was the colorful graffiti decorating 30 floors of an abandoned real estate project.
“I saw it on TV, and I had to come check it out,” said Ronald Velasquez of Long Beach.
Velasquez crossed multiple freeways with his father just to snap a few photos of the buildings. He said even his mother, who disapproves of graffiti, agreed it was worth braving weekday traffic just to see what all the fuss was about.
“It’s cool and bad at the same time,” Velasquez said. “It doesn’t make the police look good — they haven’t been able to stop it.”
The unfinished towers have become a destination for graffiti artists and BASE jumping thrill-seekers eager to become part of the cultural zeitgeist that has unfolded on the street corner since late last month.
Residents and workers appear divided over whether to consider the taggers' handiwork street art or an eyesore.
"Aesthetically, it looks kind of cool," said Douglas Rhee, who lives in a luxury apartment building across the street. "I just feel bad for the business. What happened to them?"
Crypto.com Arena employee Elizabeth Lau said she was impressed with the coordination it took to pull off the large, organized display right under the noses of police.
"My sister has three kids, and she can barely get them dressed in the morning," Lau said, laughing. "I can't imagine how a bunch of people got together to do all that."
Los Angeles officials have struggled for weeks to rein in the taggers and vandals who marked the buildings. Despite constant police patrols, new graffiti seems to pop up overnight. Video surfaced on social media this week showing someone appearing to parachute off the skyscrapers.
Mayor Karen Bass has said antics like that are “extremely dangerous” and could result in serious injury.
“I guarantee you tragedy will take place there if that place is not boarded up quickly,” she told NBC Los Angeles.
But who will do that remains a mystery, because the city has been unable to find anyone associated with the China-based developer that began construction in 2015 and ran out of money three years later. Work stopped in 2019 after the company went out of business, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Attempts by NBC Los Angeles to reach the parent company, Oceanwide Holdings, through addresses listed on corporate filings and by phone and email were unsuccessful.
In the last news release posted to its website, in 2020, the company distanced itself from disgraced ex-Los Angeles City Council member José Huizar, who was recently sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for public corruption.
Without a company to keep the site secure after the graffiti appeared and the crowds showed up, police have had to step in.
The job has strained police staffing and cost 3,000 hours of personnel time, Chief Michel Moore told reporters this week. Eighteen people have been arrested there since Feb. 1 on suspicion of various offenses, including trespassing and felony vandalism.
The police department has had to call in officers on overtime and add more patrols to the area, he said. Police cars were parked on every corner of the abandoned project Wednesday afternoon as several officers on horseback trotted on the sidewalks and nearby parking lots.
The City Council will consider a motion next week to spend $3 million to install a fence around the buildings, clear debris and possibly hire private security guards to take the load off the police department.
Meanwhile, the graffiti towers continue to draw visitors.
“I think it’s dope,” said Sacramento resident Latasha Cooper, who was in Los Angeles with her fiancé to visit his family.
The couple recently returned from a road trip to the Mexican state of Baja California, where they passed many abandoned real estate projects dotting Highway 1.
The unfinished Oceanview Plaza reminded Cooper of those buildings, she said.
“I think it’s almost a metaphor,” she said. “We start things and don’t finish them, and then we get mad. People end up losing money, and then people end up losing jobs because they’re not working.”
Her fiancé, Mike Quintana, smiled as he looked at the colorful buildings.
“It’s an L.A. thing,” he said with a shrug.
“But when you think about it, this is America,” he said, pointing to the bustling Crypto.com Arena.
“And this is America in the future,” he said of the graffiti towers. “You’re going to run out of money someday.”
Across the street, a tattered Oceanview Plaza banner flapped in the wind.
