The Brief

Red Ortiz has cut his hand, fallen off a roof, gotten arrested — all for the thrill and love of graffiti painting.

The nights, and days, that he invested in carrying cans of paint to different L.A. spots (and dodging police) paid off for him.

“I learned a lot of stuff through graffiti, illegal graffiti, that became a positive impact in my life,” Ortiz says. “And now I'm making a living off of my art.”

The L.A. towers

Illegal graffiti in L.A. began to have another moment when the painting of the empty Oceanwide towers in downtown made international headlines. The buildings went unfinished because Oceanwide, a developer, didn’t have the money to complete them in 2019, and the company is now facing involuntary bankruptcy.

The L.A. City Council approved nearly $4 million to fence off the area and remove the graffiti from the three towers. City officials hope to recover the money from the company, but there aren’t any guarantees.

An aerial view of graffiti spray painted by taggers on at least 27 stories of an unfinished skyscraper development located downtown.

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Mario Tama

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Getty Images

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For Ortiz, the illegal graffiti on those buildings is part of L.A. culture — at least his culture.

“I thought it was like a great expression of L.A. It kind of represents L.A.,” he says. “These people were out there, like, risking it and, like, sneaking in … People [were] literally there expressing themselves and doing what it takes.”

Ortiz hasn’t painted the L.A. towers, and probably won’t do so, he says, but he respects the work of his fellow artists. He says he knew artists who scaled the building, brought buckets of paint and spent hours trying to create art without really knowing the finished product.

“That's the beauty of it,” he says. “In reality, it is just people using their mind and their abilities and like, ‘Alright, I’ma measure this out,’ so it's a lot of detail that goes into it that really doesn't get acknowledged.”

His own start in graffiti

But Ortiz’s career has been somewhat acknowledged.

He collaborated with artist Levi Ponce (whom he nods to having a big impact on his career) on Pacoima’s largest above-ground mural. He’s been interviewed by the Spanish-language radio station Que Buena about his Kobe Bryant murals. His Nipsey Hussle memorial was shared on social media by LBC legend Snoop Dogg and Sen. Alex Padilla, who called the mural “stunning.”

These pieces were paid commissions, but years ago, Oritz was a different kind of street artist.

“I was tagging on people's driveways and garages and not knowing that's like the dumbest sh** you could do,” he says of his elementary school years.

Later on, he began tagging freeways in his northeast San Fernando Valley communities, and started painting overnight to avoid authorities or neighbors.

His skills improved and he wanted to showcase his art more. Ortiz noticed cargo trains travel longer distances, so he chose to paint those — always evading police or train workers.

“It's just so dark,” he says. “And then like the only light you have is the moonlight shining down on you. You don't realize how powerful the moon is until you're really in pitch black darkness.”

Ortiz says all that work — in the dark, rushing to avoid police, strategizing scale and figures — led him to apply it to paid work. He’s a film director, videographer, photographer and has worked with artists Eddie Zuko and Tyga.

On film sets, they would ask him to paint a background to look like a sky; Ortiz already knew his way with a brush. By knowing how to detail letters, he applied those skills to another business: barbering.

“It all came from graffiti, man,” he says. “Just kind of like the detailedness and the art form and just translating that to other forms of business.”

That's one Angeleno's relationship to graffiti. There are thousands of other graffiti writers in L.A.

Every year there are hundreds of thousands of new reports of graffiti throughout the city, according to 311 data — anything from quick tags to large and complex murals like the ones that appeared on the downtown L.A. towers.

I asked Ortiz for his artist’s perspective. What did he think about those towers? Was this graffiti art or vandalism?

“I would just say there's like so much more things you could worry about, that matter way more than trying to take graffiti off a wall; there's a lot of people struggling,” he says. “It would take a lot of money to fix those buildings and I don't think it's ever going to happen.”

Producer Evan Jacoby contributed to this report.

Jose Rodriguez wasn’t trying to be the first person in Altadena to finish a new home after suffering a loss in the Eaton Fire.

But thanks to his decades of construction experience — and fast work by his crew — Rodriguez has earned that distinction. Earlier this week, a county inspector congratulated him on receiving Los Angeles County’s first certificate of occupancy on a property impacted by the January fire.

Speaking with a reporter in Spanish, Rodriguez said he wasn’t expecting this kind of attention.

“It feels strange because I’m not used to this,” he said. “I feel good. I feel happy because everything is finished."

‘An important milestone’

The completed home is a backyard accessory dwelling unit for his adult son, David Rodriguez. (Disclosure: David works on LAist’s community engagement team). The younger Rodriguez previously lived in a unit attached to the family’s garage.

The property’s main home survived the fire, but the garage and the attached studio apartment burned down.

The office of L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, celebrated the completion of the Rodriguez family’s new ADU in a written statement to LAist.

“This is another tangible reminder that Altadena’s recovery is moving forward,” the statement read. “Knowing a fully permitted ADU has transformed what was once a garage into a safe, permanent place to call home feels good and is an important milestone. This is what steady, determined progress looks like."

A team effort

David Rodriguez said the two-bedroom ADU, with its brand new bathroom and kitchen (complete with dishwasher), is an upgrade from his previous space.

“Both of my parents have worked very hard to just move it along,” he said. “It also wouldn't be possible without the people who were working here as well … the plumber and the electricians and the workers who were putting up everything.”

Rodriguez said he has strong childhood memories of watching his father, a retired carpenter, getting ready for work before the sun came up.

“He would leave super early in the morning, like at 4 or 5 a.m.,” he said, adding that the experience was hard-earned but came in handy during the family’s fire recovery process.

“He has that knowledge,” the son said.

The scene immediately after David Rodriguez’s home was destroyed in the Eaton Fire.

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David Rodriguez

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LAist

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Getting ready to rebuild

Jose Rodriguez said the process moved quickly because he knew the building process inside and out. He knew how to get plans drawn up, how to apply for building permits, how to assemble a construction crew and how to pass county inspections.

Switching to English, he recalled the moment he got his building permits.

“I have everything ready. I have other people coming to help me,” he said. “I have my list. I have everything.”

Construction took a little over three months. His wife, Sandra, pitched in too. She cooked hot meals for the construction workers on site.

After living in a string of hotels and short-term rentals, the family moved back into their main house about a month ago. Sandra Rodriguez said she looks forward to seeing their son finally return to his own space.

She observed his reactions throughout the construction process.

“Every time when we came here to the back, I saw his face, smiling,” she said. “As a mom, I can feel he's very happy with this new place.”

The kitchen in David Rodriguez’s new accessory dwelling unit comes with a dishwasher and new cabinetry.

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David Wagner

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LAist

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Recovery is slow but visible

David Rodriguez said this feels like a hopeful moment, not just for his family but for an entire community slowly recovering from profound loss. He’s encouraged when he sees framing for other ADUs starting to go up on nearby lots.

“We all lost a lot,” he said. “I think we're all still very much grieving as a community. And I really hope that we can all just continue to rebuild.”

So far, L.A. County’s Department of Public Works has issued 829 building permits in unincorporated areas affected by the Eaton Fire. Nearly 6,750 housing units were destroyed in the fire.

Facing a $303 million deficit next fiscal year, L.A. County officials propose cutting roughly a third of homelessness programs and services.

The plan, which is not yet finalized, would gut prevention, outreach and supportive services to maintain temporary shelter beds and absorb rate increases previously covered by other funding sources.

The new county Department of Homeless Services and Housing is asking for feedback from the public on the plan through the first week of December.

Proposed cuts

The draft spending plan, presented during a virtual town hall on Thursday, proposes eliminating or significantly reducing funding across multiple areas next budget year, beginning in July.

" This is to prioritize funding beds and housing,” said Sarah Mahin, the new department’s director. “And these are very difficult decisions about how to prioritize our limited resources."

The proposal includes:

• Closing down 20 of 30 existing Pathway Home program sites (more than 700 beds).
• Slashing county street outreach staff by half. 
• Eliminating funding for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s housing navigation program.
• Eliminating all county homelessness prevention funding, which includes case management.
• Eliminating $12 million for programs that provide legal and employment services. 
• Eliminating funding for all four of the county’s existing Safe Parking sites. 
• Reducing funding for DPSS’ benefits advocacy by half — $5 million
• Eliminating  $10 million in direct funding to Glendale, Long Beach and Pasadena.

Why the cuts?

County officials say there's a large projected deficit in funding for homeless services next year.

The shortfall stems from three main factors.

Measure A, the county's sales tax for homeless services, has generated less revenue than anticipated as consumer spending declines.

Additionally, several sources of temporary federal and state funding have expired or are expiring, according to county officials.

Lastly, the rates the county has to pay service providers to operate shelter beds has gone up. The county is proposing to spend 46% more (an additional $86 million) to operate about 6,000 “interim housing,” or shelter beds, next year.

Officials said that new spending would not add any beds, but would maintain existing beds, at increased costs.

Community concerns

The county has been conducting community engagement sessions since July, working with the consulting firm Changewell to gather input.

During the virtual town hall Thursday, frontline workers and advocates raised alarm about the human impact of the cuts. Mahin acknowledged the concern, saying it's why the department wants the Board of Supervisors to approve the plan in January to allow adequate time to “ramp down programs.”

Mahin said the county is trying to be proactive by releasing the draft plan well before the budget deadline and soliciting extensive public comment. She said the plan also attempts to coordinate with the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, which administers separate funding for homelessness prevention and affordable housing.

Next steps 

The new county department is soliciting public comment on its website until Dec. 5. Officials will then draft a revised spending plan and present it to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in January.

The proposed funding changes would take effect in the budget year beginning July 1.

L.A. County residents could soon be getting more transparency about payouts to county executives after LAist revealed a secretive $2 million settlement with the county’s CEO.

Citing LAist’s coverage, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath is proposing to require the county to publicly post details of all future settlements with county executives. It’s scheduled for approval by the full Board of Supervisors on Dec. 2.

What Horvath says

Horvath’s motion says the settlement with CEO Fesia Davenport “was only disclosed in response” to LAist’s public records request, and that otherwise “it is not at all clear how the public generally would have any idea that a settlement was reached.”

The county supervisors “can do more to make the public aware of how the Board conducts business and how public funds are being spent,” she added.

The backstory

Last month, LAist brought to light that the county had quietly paid a $2 million settlement in August to Davenport. The settlement had been kept under wraps from the public and county workers.

The settlement was in response to her claims that the supervisors harmed her reputation and caused her distress by putting a measure before voters — which was approved — that will create an elected county executive position. It’s among multiple reforms to restructure county government under last year’s voter-approved proposition, known as Measure G.

What Horvarth is proposing

Among other things, her motion would order county officials to report back in 60 days “on pathways to improve transparency for settlements with County executives” — including creating a public online dashboard showing “as much settlement-related information” as allowed by law.

That would include details like the executive’s name, the dollar amount and when it was approved.

Multiple executive payouts

Davenport was one of several county executives who’ve gotten sizable settlement payouts over the past few years.

Her predecessor as county CEO, Sachi Hamai, was paid $1.5 million, plus full-time private security funded by taxpayers over her claims that she faced “brutal” harassment by the then-sheriff.

Four additional county executives received payouts, according to Davenport’s claims that led to her settlement.