Downtown LA graffiti towers cleaned up

Here's what many would call an eyesore. The infamous graffiti towers in downtown Los Angeles are now almost all cleaned up. The latest out of progress towards revitalization. Fox News Rachel Aragon live in downtown LA with what residents are hoping to see next. Rachel. Hey, Christina, if you recall, construction on all this halted in 2019, but now under new ownership, there's promise of a new hotel, new housing, and restaurants. But as of today, though, we can tell you these towers largely cleaned up, minus a few spots of graffiti, but it looks so much more different than it did just about three months ago. How different does it look to you right now? Oh my God, it's super clean. It looks like they're gonna bring it back to life now, so hopefully that happens. That is reaction from those who work and live in downtown Los Angeles when they now look at Oceanwide Plaza, long dubbed Graffiti Towers. But it can no longer bear that name now that nearly all the graffiti has been wiped clean in large thanks to the KPC group. In late July, the city said the proposed buyer had committed to immediately begin remediation work. It means a lot for the downtown community and the overall economic recovery and viability of this community. The cleanup is just the latest sign to give residents hope for more vibrant downtown Los Angeles. About a half a mile away from Oceanwide Plaza, the over 100-year-old Original Pantry Cafe is gearing up to reopen later this month. The historic diner closed in 2025, but now in partnership with the non-profit Hope the Mission, it's set to welcome back customers. I think downtown LA is coming back. And with the Olympics coming, the Super Bowl, the sky's the limit. But we need those anchors down here, those landmarks that when people fly into our city. Farrah Bowers and Teresa Y. Hillary are both founding board members of the Downtown Los Angeles Residents Association. While there's been progress, they say, in recent months, they say there's still plenty more work to be done when it comes to revitalizing this area. Cleanliness, the streets, the sidewalks being fixed. We need trees. We need lighting and all of that stuff. We're hoping that the city can come together. Whether, you know, We've just elected a new mayor, and we have hope that... The city council and the mayor are going to start implementing all of these things that the residents have been advocating for for a long time now. And on Thursday morning, a joint press conference is scheduled right here, in fact, where we know the KPC group, along with Councilmember Isabel Herrado and other stakeholders, will be discussing this ongoing development project and marking this major milestone of the graffiti removal. We're live in downtown Los Angeles tonight. I'm Rachel Aragon, Fox 11 News. Well, it's hard to see that you are very near Crypto.com as well, the big arena there that's supported by the backdrop of the towers there. I'm just wondering for residents or people who are watching this story, who may not remember what happened there, just remind us about the graffiti that targeted those towers, that coordinated effort to just graffiti the whole buildings. Correct. As you know, in 2019 is when this all came to a halt. There was an ownership, I believe, the developer essentially ran out of money. Since then, as we've shown before, time and time again in those years prior incidents, It has just been nonstop with graffiti and tagging and other issues surrounding this. And then we got that glimmer of hope in about July, I would say, of this year, late July, with this new ownership. And they committed to, I would say, I think 90 days or so to clean this all up. And if you do the math, that more or less, you know, tracks out. So we'll see what happens. But, again, the real excitement for residents here, I would tell you, Christine, is the idea of new housing, restaurants, and even a hotel. Yeah, 500 residents. All right. Thanks so much.