L.A.’s Graffiti Tower Sparks Broadside From Rick Caruso As Mayor’s Office Scrambles

It’s the 30-story elephant on the Los Angeles skyline — and seemingly no one, including Mayor Karen Bass, has decided what to do about it. The Oceanwide Plaza luxury development has stood next to Crypto.com Arena vacant and half-finished since 2019, when its Chinese developer, having already spent $1.1 billion on it, ran out of money.   In December, three L.A. taggers — Akua, Sour and Castle — broke into the highest of Oceanwide’s three towers and spray-painted their names across its floor-to-ceiling windows. The daring stunt served as a bat signal to the rest of L.A.’s graffiti community, including prolific tagger Endem, who dreamed of seeing his own name in 13-foot-tall block letters adorning the building.  Related Stories “A lot of people were actually hitting me up on Instagram,” says Endem. “Like, ‘What’s up with that building?’ It was the talk of the town within the community, but no one had the balls to hit it.”  All that changed Feb. 3, however, when Endem and his NCT crew maneuvered their way past the site’s single, elderly security guard, huffed and puffed up 28 flights of stairs, and added their own signatures to Oceanwide Plaza. Dozens more taggers followed. Within 24...