Walls Become Props as Owners Figure Out How to Rebuild

Scattered around the city of Los Angeles are 68 fenced lots, each with only one or two building walls propped up.

The sites look as though they are ready for construction crews to start raising the rest of the walls and installing roofs and windows.

But the lonely walls, shored up with wooden and pipe braces, are the remains of buildings destroyed in last year’s riots.

Rather than level the sites, property owners left a portion of each building in hopes that it would make reconstruction easier and cheaper.

In some cases, insurance companies said they would not pay to raze walls that are still structurally sound.

In other instances, owners felt they could get permission to rebuild more quickly if part of the old building remained. The work then might be construed as remodeling, instead of construction, and city approvals might be easier to get.

Had the owners turned to the government for assistance in clearing their property, all the walls would have been razed. Rules for federal demolition assistance require that buildings be leveled to the slab.

Though some consider the walls an eyesore, the structures can stay as long as the owners wish. Officials say the city cannot force their removal as long as the bracing and fencing are in place.

Therefore the walls, many scrawled with graffiti, may be reminders of the riots for months or years to come. “The walls keep (the riots) in the forefront of people’s minds,” said chief building inspector Russell Lane.