Los Angeles officials are looking to find a way to keep people out of an abandoned high-rise complex that has attracted graffiti artists and jumpers with parachutes.
An Instagram video, posted on Feb. 6, gained the attention of city officials this week. A person can be seen jumping from a ledge at the abandoned Oceanwide Plaza complex and opening up a parachute as they fall from the building.
Another video from the same account, posted last month, shows multiple people jumping with parachutes.
“Right now, the city is working to prevent dangerous, potentially fatal stunts that also risk the lives of Angelenos on the sidewalks as well. Angelenos could fall off or be pushed off, and we are working to prevent both,” Los Angeles Deputy Mayor of Communications Zach Seidl told the Hollywood Reporter.
The complex was first abandoned and surrounded by barriers in 2019 after its Chinese developers went bankrupt.
On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council passed a motion ordering the owners to remove the barriers from the public right of way and to either restore the right of way to what it was or to make improvements as required by their permit.
“If I have to go to China, I’ll go to China and deal with them, but my understanding is that they have other properties in the United States and China that have gone belly-up on,” Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León, one of the members who introduced the motion, told KTLA-TV.
If the owners do not comply by Saturday, then officials including the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety will start preparing for the abatement of the complex.
Mr. de León has also sought $3.8 million in funding for fencing, security, graffiti cleanup and safety upgrades to the site.
“I’m terrified someone’s going to fall or be pushed. There are people who are parachuting off of the building. I guarantee you tragedy will take place there if that place is not boarded up quickly. … The owner should reimburse the city for every dime,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said, according to KNBC-TV.
In the interim, the Los Angeles Police Department has police stationed at the complex to prevent a fatal incident.
“Our people remain at the site as the City mobilizes resources to remove the graffiti and fortify the location. All of this in an effort to avoid a tragic fall or other calamity. This isn’t art. It’s a crime,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore said in a post on X Sunday.
Chief Moore said at a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting Tuesday that “What we have done, when necessary, we have called in officers on an overtime basis so that we can provide added patrols and station them at that site to keep vandals from getting access to it.”
The three abandoned high-rises at Oceanwide Plaza first got attention from local thrillseekers in December, when one of the buildings was vandalized with graffiti on the windows.
On Feb. 3, another “tagger,” as graffiti artists are also known, sneaked in with accomplices and added their own graffiti. By Feb. 6, all three buildings had been vandalized. The paint could be seen from the red carpet at the Grammys.
“We went in as Knights of Night — all dark-black clothing, heavy backpacks full of spray cans. Now it stands as a representation of our beautiful graff community,” a videographer for the vandals, “Street Graff,” told the Hollywood Reporter.
A total of 23 people have been arrested since Monday alone. Most of them came from outside the Los Angeles area, city officials said.
“Someone’s going to fall to their death. It’s just not lost on me that out of the 23 people that have been arrested since Monday morning, we are seeing folks in their 40s and 50s still doing this,” Mr. de León told KTLA-TV.