If the biggest eyesore in LA can be cleaned up, anything can

Talk about a towering mess.Oceanwide Plaza in downtown LA, which stretches up to 677 feet tall, was until recently among the worst eyesores in the city. Taggers had defaced about 250 exterior balconies — a dismal greeting for visitors to Crypto.com Arena, LA Live and elsewhere in DTLA.The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story It was embarrassing: so bad it verged on farce.Now, on the heels of a bankruptcy sale and ownership change, the towers have been scrubbed clean, in part to spiff up downtown in the run-up to the  ’28 Summer Olympics.Good, and it’s about time. The transformation shows what LA needs citywide: a systematic approach to cleaning up the eyesores, the messes and the sidewalks strewn with tents and debris — and then keeping them clean.Removing blight can restore residents’ pride of place; yes, before we showcase the city at the global Games, but also all the time as a way of life in LA.And the cleaner a city gets, the easier it becomes to keep it that way. It’s the broken windows theory: small signs of chaos and lawlessness — e.g., broken windows, graffiti or open drug use — suggest that no one (serious) is in charge.When minor crime goes all but unaddressed, it encourages more of the same, and worse.The Oceanwide towers, abandoned in 2019, exemplified this dynamic.

A few balconies on the empty buildings were tagged in early 2024.As the graffiti went unchecked, other vandals swooped in and a 40-story mess was born.Now the towers, acquired by KPC Square — which deployed a “master chemist” to clear the stubborn paint — are on track to realize their initial potential as a mix of a hotel, luxury condos, and shops and restaurants.It took just 90 days of work to dramatically upgrade the LA skyline. Those clean towers demonstrate wh...