The Brief

The long-vacant Hawthorne Plaza mall has been a problem in the South Bay for years, according to city authorities, residents and business owners near the sprawling property.

Instead of attracting shoppers, the mall in the city’s downtown is a magnet for trespassers, accumulated trash and occasional fires.

And now the city is forcing developers to do something about it.

This summer, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered owners of the 900,000-square-foot property to secure the site and step up safety measures while devising a plan to either turn it into something the community can use or demolish it.

The owner must break ground by late August 2026.

“With our luck, they'll build high-end condos, but they need to put units in there that people can afford,” said Ronald Robinson, an airline employee who used to live near the shuttered mall.

The latest turn in the story of Hawthorne Plaza highlights what’s happening in L.A. County and across the country as shopping centers that were once hives of commerce and social connection are abandoned and left to decay.

Often these properties turn into eyesores that can negatively affect the health, safety and property values of their neighborhoods.

“The mall property takes up several blocks of the city’s civic center and has a tremendous negative economic impact on a small city,” Hawthorne City Attorney Robert Kim told LAist, adding that some residents who live nearby say they fear going out at night.

West Hollywood-based property development firm The Charles Company owns the Hawthorne mall property. The firm also owns several abandoned buildings in North Hollywood's Valley Plaza shopping center, which L.A. officials recently declared a public nuisance, giving the city authority to demolish the dilapidated structures.

In 2021, the city of Hawthorne filed a lawsuit against the company, arguing it violated zoning laws by illegally renting out parking spaces to Tesla and Amazon, and failed to fix dozens of code violations, including health and safety hazards like missing floors, mold and human waste.

In legal filings, the mall owners denied most of the city's allegations and argued that Tesla and Amazon were legitimate tenants rather than illegal renters. The Charles Company blamed “unauthorized trespassers” for damage and safety issues.

A faded Hawthorne Plaza parking sign along Hawthorne Boulevard

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Court injunction 

After a hearing this summer, Superior Court Judge Steve Cochran issued an injunction requiring the owners to secure the Hawthorne mall site and plan for next steps.

Work on the site has to begin by Aug. 31, 2026.

The judge ordered The Charles Company to put more fencing around the mall and to maintain on-site security and daily cleaning crews. Cochran also said the company has to test the buildings for asbestos.

“Aside from the injunction and court action, the city is limited in its authority on this particular site, because the property is privately owned,” Kim, the city attorney, said. “And historically, the owners have not worked with us to find solutions for the unhoused frequenting their site.”

In July, the company told the court it was working on several concepts for the Hawthorne Mall, including one that would make it into a modern retail center.

Property manager Yuri Martinez told LAist the company is “deeply committed to revitalizing underperforming sites” and looking forward to sharing its vision.

If the 2026 deadline passes without substantial progress at Hawthorne Plaza, the city can request a court-appointed receiver to take control of the property.

Status review hearings are scheduled for the judge to monitor The Charles Company’s compliance with the order. The firm’s co-founder, Arman Gabaee, is serving a four-year federal prison sentence for bribing an L.A. County real estate official between 2010 and 2017.

The scheme included attempting to secure a $45 million county lease for the Hawthorne Mall property itself, according to court documents.

According to prison records, Gabaee is scheduled to be released from a halfway house next month.

The parking garage at the former Hawthorne Plaza has been fenced off with barbed wire to keep out trespassers.

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A once-popular mall

The Hawthorne Plaza mall opened in 1977 on what was previously a blighted commercial lot. In its heyday, the two-story enclosed shopping center was home to 130 retail stores.

“This was a shopping mecca for minorities,” said Robinson, who lived in the neighborhood in the 1980s. “This was one of the few malls that Latinos and Blacks could go to and feel comfortable they had some place to shop.”

Robinson, a 47-year employee at American Airlines, regularly visits his union office for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, right across the street from the now-empty mall.

When LAist visited the site recently, the 35-acre property was mostly desolate and boarded up. The sprawling parking garage is covered in barbed wire and large signs warning against trash dumping.

But there seemed to be little evidence of trespassing or other nuisance activity in and around the building — just an abandoned shopping cart and a few graffiti tags.

Several people hanging out near the train tracks told a reporter that the newly-constructed fencing near a portion of the mall deters most trespassers. That fencing went up within the past month, Hawthorne officials confirmed.

Nearby business owners said the dormant property had long cast its shadow on the block.

“It’s been like that for more than 20 years,” he said Juan Hernandez has owned a boots and western wear shop on the opposite side of Hawthorne Boulevard, called Botas Huentitan, for the past 18 years. “They really need to do something about it.”

His business survives mostly by selling leather goods to tourists staying at hotels near LAX, Hernandez said.

The street is often empty, aside from when one of the nearby schools or the city jail lets out.

“It’s really sad to have it like that,” he said of the mall. “We need to bring more business.”

The shopping center used to be a point of pride for the community, said Pamela Fees, vice president of the Hawthorne Historical Society.

“Back when that mall was built, community members felt like they wanted to spend their tax dollars in Hawthorne,” she said.

But circumstances changed for Hawthorne Plaza when more shopping centers emerged in the region as competitors. It also suffered from the downturn in the area’s aerospace industry and was damaged during the 1992 riots, according to news reports.

By the mid-1990s, nearly 1-in-4 storefronts at the mall were vacant. JCPenney left in 1998 and the mall closed altogether the next year.

A faded Montgomery Ward department store sign at Hawthorne Plaza. The department store shuttered in 1997.

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Broken promises 

The Charles Company bought the property in 2001 for $7 million, according to property records.

Since then, several redevelopment proposals for Hawthorne Plaza have come and gone, Hawthorne officials said. The company proposed a mixed-use housing project there in 2008, but that plan fell apart after the owners changed their minds, city officials said.

“There had been numerous proposals from the owner that were accepted by the city but never materialized,” Kim said.

In late 2016, the firm filed new development plans with the city to begin work on a $500 million overhaul. The City Council approved them, but nothing happened. So in 2018, the city canceled the plans.

The Charles Company then leased the building to L.A. County, as part of the bribery scheme for which Gabaee was convicted.

Over the years, the mall’s interior was used as a filming location. In the 2002 film Minority Report, Hawthorne Plaza still looked onscreen like a functioning shopping center. But it’s been used for its dilapidated apocalyptic look in 2014’s Gone Girl, 2020’s Tenet and a host of music videos by artists, including Beyonce and Taylor Swift.

Skateboarders, graffiti taggers, photographers and others seeking a glimpse of a decaying mall have trespassed inside, some documenting the mall’s interior and posting videos on YouTube and social media platforms.

An unhoused person's belongings in a shopping cart outside of the Hawthorne Plaza parking garage.

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Regional enforcement crisis

Throughout L.A. County, local governments are struggling to hold absentee landlords responsible for dilapidated nuisance properties. In Los Angeles, city leaders are pushing to streamline the city’s convoluted process they say involves too many departments.

“Our nuisance abatement process is among the most confusing and contradictory processes we have in the city,” council President Marqueece Harris Dawson said.

Early last year, the L.A. City Council asked the L.A. City Attorney’s Office to produce a report on the administration, enforcement, governance, implementation and oversight of nuisance abatement proceedings in city’s legal codes.

The City Attorney’s Office did not produce that analysis. So, last Wednesday, several council members introduced a motion demanding it be released within a week.

The city attorney did not meet that deadline, and the office did not respond to LAist’s requests for comment on the public nuisance report.

L.A. Councilmember Adrin Nazarian said the city’s current process involves too many people in too many offices and takes too much time.

“We need to simplify the process so the City can take action when these properties become a problem, not months or years later,” Nazarian said.

Nazarian led a recent move to declare abandoned Valley Plaza buildings in North Hollywood a public nuisance. The property is located in his council district.

“If we have to get a court injunction, we will, but we’ve chosen the route we think will get us the quickest results,” he said. “Different enforcement approaches work better in different situations.”

Earlier this year, a California state lawmaker introduced a bill that would place a vacancy tax on landlords who let commercial buildings sit empty for more than six months a year. Business and landlord groups have universally opposed the legislation.

In Hawthorne, the director of the historical society said the organization gives museum tours twice a week, and most guests ask about the future of the Hawthorne Mall.

“Many people either remember the mall or they’ll see it,” Fees said. “Either way, they ask what the status is and they’re all anxious to see something happen. We’re not sure if this will make something happen or not.”

The math club at Bella Vista Elementary School is not a quiet affair — not with more than a dozen 10- and 11-year-olds stacking sets of mahjong.

But before the games can begin, it's time for math lessons.

"Remind me, math is the study of what?" fourth grade teacher Andy Luong asks the class.

Buena Vista elementary school teacher Andy Luong goes over different elements of mahjong with the afterschool math club.

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Some of the 16 students that make up the mahjong math club at Bella Vista Elementary, with club co-founder Rachel Hwang.

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"Pattern, patterns," the kids say.

Luong clicks through several slides, each featuring a mahjong tile the students call "seven sticks."

 "When you first learned this tile, what did you use to memorize this?" Luong, co-founder of the Mahjong Math Club, asks.

"They look like sticks," a boy says.

Luong locks in on a slide for a few seconds, just a flash. It features six tiles, divided into two rows. He asks the class how many tiles they see.

 "Three on the top and three on the bottom," a girl says. " So when I saw the pattern, I was like, 'Oh, it's six.'"

Luong nods. " Recognizing those patterns are a lot faster than counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6," he says.

The game that never goes out of style

The tile game of mahjong is believed to have started in China in the 19th century, after decades if not centuries of evolution. It spread globally, adopting regional specificities, including in the U.S. after it landed in the late 1910s from Shanghai by way of an American businessman. A few decades later, a group of Jewish American women established the National Mah Jongg League in New York.

The game never stopped being a staple of Chinese and many Asian cultures — anywhere in the world.

Intergenerational Mahjong is a monthly series held in Monterey Park, one of many new mahjong social clubs in L.A.

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In recent years, fueled in part by the COVID-19 shutdown, an interest in the game has sparked among young Asian Americans. They form or attend social clubs in L.A. dedicated to the pastime, creating their own bond with the game.

Luong is one of them. When he was growing up in Illinois, the game came with certain connotations.

" Mahjong has such a bad rap in the Asian American community," Luong said, who moved to the San Gabriel Valley about a decade ago. "Part of a big reason why my parents don't play is because they associate it with gambling."

The 30-year-old finally gave the game a spin in 2024, learning it from third grade teacher and math club co-founder Rachel Hwang. She cut her teeth by watching her family play. Naturally, she threw Luong in the deep end.

" I was like, 'Here, we're just gonna play,'" Hwang said. " I just put the tiles on."

"I was so overwhelmed. It's like, 'What do you mean I had to get a set? A set of how much?' I'm like, 'I don't know what I'm doing,'" he said.

Still, Luong fell head over heels, quickly becoming a regular at the mahjong social clubs (in fact, it was at one of those events where I first met him) and a student of the game.

In learning it, Luong figured out how to teach it.

Principal Jennifer Martinez of Bella Vista Elementary in Monterey Park

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"He was the one [that] as a learner didn't grow up playing this game," Hwang said. "He was the one that found the tutorials, watched the tutorials, and he really, from a learner's perspective, figured out what a kid needed to learn and how they needed to learn in order to play the game."

Last year, Luong submitted a proposal to start a math club focused on mahjong at the school.

" It was pretty much slam dunk. It explores other avenues of the cultural experience that we want our students to learn," said Jennifer Martinez,  principal of Bella Vista Elementary School.  "It was something that we wanted to get off the ground right away and support."

Since September, the club has been meeting on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. It was so popular Luong and Hwang brought in help to run the club.

“ I don't feel like they're really doing math,” said Ruolin Chen, a kindergarten teacher who was recruited. "It's like they're learning from playing or playing from learning.”

Let the games begin

Fifth graders Emily Le and Brianna Azpeitia at the mahjong math club.

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Fifth grader Liam Torres.

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Back in the classroom, Luong clicks to a last slide to remind the club how to maximize "points" with certain "hands." This semester, the club is playing Hong Kong style mahjong — three point minimum win.

Finally, it's game time. The group of mainly fourth and fifth graders take their seats at the tables: mixing the tiles, stacking them into starting formation, casting the die, so on and so forth.

Then, they build their hand, meticulously rearranging the 13 tiles according to their suits — or in math club parlance, patterns.

The clank of tiles and sounds of "pong" and "gong" soon fill the air.

Pattern recognition, strategy, situational awareness, probability, learning when to pivot or to fold — those are some of the learnings the math club intends.

"Andy is so structured," Hwang said of Luong's design of the club. " The first two weeks, they didn't even play a game. It was like, 'Let's look at the tiles. How many tiles do you see? Pick out and group them into sets.'"

Fifth grader Uma Alvarado.

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Fifth grader Benjamin Garcia.

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Fifth grader Uma Alvarado shows me her hand. She's going all "pong" — trying to assemble four sets of three identical tiles. It'd be worth three points if she wins.

Alvarado says what brings her to the club is the opportunity to hang out with her schoolmates. But trying something new is pretty cool too.

"I get to mix the tiles and find new ways to play a game I have never been introduced to before," she adds.

At another table, fourth grader Bonnie Kuang says the game keeps her on her toes.

Fourth grader Bonnie Kuang (left) and fifth grader Ian Maldonado.

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Fourth grader Sofia Mandic explains how the club has taught her pattern recognition.

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"I think it's fun to use different strategies, and maybe I need to change strategy mid-game," Kuang said. "And I like it when I win."

Sofia Mandic, her same grade classmate and opponent across the table, says the pace of the game makes quick tile recognition key.

"You need to think fast. You need to think to yourself if you need it or not," Mandic says, because oftentimes, there are just seconds to make a decision.

Bringing mahjong into the classroom

Pattern recognition, strategy, situational awareness, probability, learning when to pivot or to fold — those are some of the learnings the math club intends.

"Andy is so structured," Hwang said of Luong's design of the club. " The first two weeks, they didn't even play a game. It was like, 'Let's look at the tiles. How many tiles do you see? Pick out and group them into sets.'"

It's all part of a teaching method known as "counting collections" that focuses on hands-on, student-centered learning experiences to build informal math knowledge. It's one aspect of a body of research called Cognitively Guided Instruction, which all math teachers at Bella Vista are trained in. Luong is applying it to guide his approach.

A slide used in the mahjong math club to teach kids how to calculate points.

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A slide used in the mahjong math club teaching kids how to increase points with certain combinations.

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LAist

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" We need to have them see there's four different types of tiles. There's [Chinese] characters, there's sticks, circles, and there's honorary tiles," Luong said. "They're not going to know unless they actually see it and they use their hands."

Even then, it's a lot to process. It could be downright overwhelming when a kid has to juggle all the elements all at once during game play.

"The very first time that we actually started playing, some of them didn't finish a game. It took an entire period," Luong said.

It took about a month into the club before the mechanics of the game — things like drawing a tile, discarding the ones they don't want — became routine; and another two months for the kids to play faster and without supervision.

Teachers Rachel Hwang, Ruolin Chen and Andy Luong. They run the Mahjong Math Club at Bella Vista Elementary in Monterey Park.

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"A lot of the students who don't know Mandarin, or have any Chinese background, are starting to recognize the characters. I'm really proud to say that," Luong said.

Ultimately, the teachers want the kids to take away from the game a lesson about life.

"What we really want the kids to do is not to have such a fixed mindset," Luong said.

" We want them to, A) be flexible, B) change up your game plan," Hwang said. "It's OK. Life is going to throw curve balls at you."

Updated April 26, 2026 at 11:13 AM ET

President Trump and the first lady are uninjured after a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday in Washington, D.C. A suspect is in custody, according to a statement from the U.S. Secret Service.

In remarks from the White House after the incident, the president said a Secret Service agent is "doing great" after being shot in a bulletproof vest. The Secret Service said the incident took place at a security screening area inside the Washington Hilton hotel near the entrance to the main ballroom where the event was taking place. There are no reports of further injuries.

The suspect has been identified as Cole Allen, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Trump shared surveillance footage online which appears to show law enforcement reacting to an assailant sprinting through an area of the hotel. He also posted pictures of a man, shirtless, with his eyes closed lying face down on a carpet.

Cole is being charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, with more charges likely, according to Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

At a law enforcement press conference, Jeffery Carroll of DC's Metropolitan Police said that the suspect "was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives." Law enforcement said they believe the suspect was a guest at the hotel.

He was evaluated at a local hospital after the incident and was not hit by gunfire, according to law enforcement.

Getty Images photographer Andrew Harnik takes photos as a security official points his weapon after an incident at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

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A chaotic scene

Gunshots were heard by gathered reporters shortly after 8:30 p.m. ET. Several guests were seen fleeing the ballroom where hundreds of journalists, politicians and attendees were gathered — including Trump, Vice President Vance and other members of the administration.

Video from inside the room showed security quickly clear the guests on the main stage — including the president and first lady. Someone can be heard shouting "stay down."

President Trump took to social media shortly after being rushed out to praise the Secret Service.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taken out of the ballroom by security agents during a shooting incident at the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

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"Quite an evening in D.C. Secret Service and Law Enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended," Trump wrote.

The president said in a later post that all cabinet members are safe.

"I said earlier tonight that journalism is a public service, because when there is an emergency, we run to the crisis, not away from it. And on a night when we are thinking about the freedoms in the First Amendment, we must also think about how fragile they are," Weijia Jiang, the president of the correspondents' association, said. "I saw all of you reporting, and that's what we do. Thank God everybody's safe and and thank you for coming together tonight. We will do this again."

First lady Melania Trump and President Trump were sitting next to each other just before they were rushed out of the ballroom at the Washington Hilton.

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Several members of Congress were seen leaving the event by foot, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.

"I said earlier tonight that journalism is a public service, because when there is an emergency, we run to the crisis, not away from it. And on a night when we are thinking about the freedoms in the First Amendment, we must also think about how fragile they are," Weijia Jiang, the president of the correspondents' association, said. "I saw all of you reporting, and that's what we do. Thank God everybody's safe and and thank you for coming together tonight. We will do this again."

Attacks on Trump and the press

Both the president and members of the press have been targeted for violence in recent years.

During his 2024 reelection effort, Trump was injured in a shooting at a July rally in Pennsylvania when a bullet whizzed past his head, grazing his ear. Two attendees were wounded, and rally-goer and former fire chief Corey Comperatore was killed.

A Secret Service sniper shot and killed the perpetrator.

In September 2024, a Secret Service agent saw a man holding a semi-automatic rifle hidden in the tree line at Trump International in West Palm Beach. The suspect fled in his car and was arrested a short time later.

White House Correspondents Association President and CBS Senior White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang pauses while coming back to the stage to speak after a shooting incident at the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

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He was later sentenced to life in prison.

During the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol building, more than a dozen journalists were attacked in targeted assaults by rioters, according to a tally by the Freedom of the Press foundation. "Murder the media" was etched into a doorway during the attack.

In 2018, a man mailed pipe bombs to people and organizations he perceived to be critics of Donald Trump, including CNN offices in New York and Atlanta. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The Washington Hilton, which played host to Saturday's dinner, is also the site of past political violence — in 1981, President Reagan was shot and seriously wounded outside of the hotel.

Three others were also injured in the attack, including Reagan's press secretary James Brady, who sustained brain damage and was permanently disabled in the attack. He became a gun control activist, successfully lobbying alongside his wife Sarah Brady for a background check system for firearm sales.

The White House Press Briefing Room, where Trump made brief remarks after the incident, was later renamed in his honor.

Deepa Shivaram and Ryan Lucas contributed to this report.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Before they ever picked up a paintbrush, youth artists behind a new mural in MacArthur Park started by listening.

“We interviewed people in MacArthur Park about their experiences living in the community,” said Tania Castro, a recent high school graduate and one of 20 young artists who worked on the project. “Some stories were a little bit sad because they said they lost their jobs and they need more opportunities.”

Those conversations shaped “Roots of Our Labor,” a new mural unveiled this week by LA Commons across the street from MacArthur Park. The project, led by artists Luis Mateo and Shakir Manners, draws from stories collected in a yearlong process from more than 75 residents in and around MacArthur Park.

Castro says those stories were about more than struggle.

“They also said they loved the community. In the park, you can see a lot of vendors selling things like fruit and ice cream,” she said. “And the kids love it.”

Youth artists and members of LA Commons pose for a photo in front of the "Roots of our labor" mural during its unveiling event on Thursday, April 23, in MacArthur Park.

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The mural shows a tree bearing avocados and oranges, with a trunk made of intertwined hands and a farmer harvesting the fruit. On one side, a tamale vendor is depicted selling food, and on the other, an ice cream vendor pushes a cart as children gather around him. In the background, scenes from MacArthur Park play out. 

In a neighborhood where ongoing immigration raids have fueled fear and instability, and where MacArthur Park is often defined by visible homelessness and crime, organizers said the mural is intended to highlight the diverse communities who live there and to frame the park as a shared space of connection, culture and daily life.

“I enjoyed making it because it really teaches us about the importance of community and being more inclusive and kind to each other,” said high school artist Leslie Gonzalez. “Most of the people we talked to told us about their backgrounds and they weren’t that pleasant but they still pushed through and got together for each other.”

Painted in March at the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), the mural is installed on the southeastern side of the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center.

“Immigrants are critical to the community, especially here in MacArthur Park,” said Beth Peterson, community arts program director at LA Commons. “And I think the mural does a beautiful job of really sharing that story. It really shows how the hands of immigrants have really hung together to form this very beautiful community that we live in today.” 

Detail of "Roots of Our Labor" mural at UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center. The mural celebrates workers in the Westlake community.

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For the lead artists, working alongside youth was central to how the art took shape.

“This artwork honors both the neighborhood and the people who shape it,” Mateo said. “Working with youth was essential to the process, allowing the mural to emerge from shared reflection rather than a single perspective.”

The new mural builds on LA Commons’ ongoing work in the area, following another mural unveiled last September at MacArthur Park Elementary School. “Roots of Our Labor” is the organization’s second mural supported by Stop the Hate, a statewide initiative led by the Asian American and Pacific Islander community aimed at addressing hate incidents and promoting cross-cultural understanding.

LA Commons, a nonprofit arts organization that creates community-based public art projects through partnerships and a mix of public and private funding, has been in the MacArthur Park area for more than 20 years. Its first public art project in the neighborhood was in 2003. “Roots of Our Labor” is its 22nd public art project in MacArthur Park.

Detail of "Roots of Our Labor" mural at UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center. The mural celebrates workers in the Westlake community.

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Manners, the artist, described the mural as a reflection of what he sees as the underlying spirit of MacArthur Park.

It represents “the unseen hands that sustain communities, emphasizing that true progress is built collectively through persistence, sacrifice and shared purpose,” he said.

For Gonzalez, the mural is personal as well as something tied closely to her community.

“I feel like a light has shone on me and I’m proud of it because I’ve never done anything this big before,” she said. 

The post New mural celebrates labor, multicultural community around MacArthur Park appeared first on LA Local.

The phone lines at the East L.A. Sheriff’s Station are back up after more than two months of outages caused by copper wire theft.  

The update comes just one week after Boyle Heights Beat reported on the issue, and residents raised concerns at a Maravilla Community Advisory Committee (MCAC) meeting on April 7 about difficulty reaching the station by phone for non-emergencies.

According to the East L.A. Sheriff’s Station, service was restored on Thursday, April 23. By Friday, all dispatchers were back working in the station after temporarily operating out of an off-site communications trailer connected via satellite. 

“This was made possible due to the concerted efforts of the East Los Angeles Sheriff Station Captains Hinchman and Kusayanagi, AT&T, and our Communications & Fleet Management Bureau,” the station said in a statement to the Beat. 

The station also thanked Assemblymember Jessica Caloza’s office and community stakeholders who contacted AT&T to express urgency.

Sheriff’s officials previously said they had called Caloza’s office to help speed up repairs by communicating with AT&T.

What went wrong

According to Sgt. Michael Mileski, the outage was caused by an incident on Feb. 13, where several thousand dollars’ worth of copper wiring was stolen from an electrical vault near the station. Fiber optic cables were damaged in the process, which affected a significant portion of the Eastern Avenue corridor in Boyle Heights and East L.A., disrupting phone lines for 100,000 residents for five days, Mileski said. 

AT&T said in a statement that copper cable outages generally take five times longer to repair on average than fiber outages. 

Copper wire theft has plagued the Eastside in recent years, leaving communities in the dark and disabling public facilities.  

LA Documenter Alex Medina contributed reporting for this story. LA Documenters trains and pays LA residents to take notes at local government meetings around Los Angeles. You can find meeting notes and audio at losangeles.documenters.org

The story Phone lines restored at East LA Sheriff’s Station after 2-month outage due to copper wire theft appeared first on LA Local.