On the Watts Towers Watch

It took Simon Rodia 33 years to turn steel, concrete, seashells and glass from broken dishes and bottles into a monument to the imagination. By 1954, the unschooled Italian immigrant had left his mark on a city that was otherwise short on interesting public structures. Since then, the sculpted spires known as Watts Towers have survived natural disasters, vandalism and political corruption--not to mention bureaucratic ineptitude and indifference.

Today Rodia’s folk art masterpiece reopens to the public after a seven-year seismic restoration. A weekend-long celebration, organized by the Friends of the Watts Towers Arts Center, will offer dance, music and poetry performed by community groups. Syncopated jazz will commingle with romantic old Neapolitan tunes sung by Italian artists from the region where Rodia was born.

When the music fades, though, the old question of how to take care of this historic monument will resurface. Even before Rodia’s work was finished, city building inspectors tried to have the “dangerous towers” demolished. Instead, it was earthquakes and neglect that almost toppled them. The deed for the property has gone from private to city to state, and even Washington has pitched in to keep Rodia’s life’s work standing. Most recently, money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency was used to repair the towers after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Astonishingly, over the seven years of work the city’s Cultural Affairs Department requested no funding to maintain the landmark.

Margie Johnson Reese, the department’s general manager, has promised she’ll make sure a budget request is made this year and in the future. That’s the right attitude. And the city’s private art patrons could also come up with cash to create a trust fund to ensure the future of this tribute to a humble man’s spirit, ingenuity and persistence.