The riverbed that runs east of downtown has long been a haven for taggers, an open canvas with easy entry and easy escape routes. Crews are painting over the tags and working to keep new ones out.
For as long as many can remember, the section of the Los Angeles River that runs east of downtown has been an open-air gallery for taggers. No more.
Members of the self-described “Metro Transit Assassins” used the river’s sloping banks for massive tags of their acronym that stretched for blocks and could be seen from passing aircraft. “Buket,” who gained notoriety for tagging the Hollywood Freeway overpass, put his black-bordered, mint-green moniker here at its biggest and boldest.
But in recent months, these tags and tens of thousands of others have begun to vanish beneath coats of grayish-white paint. And with the year drawing to a close, the river is almost as blank a canvas as when its concrete channel was built early in the last century.
Tags: L.A. River