Advertisement
California

Stay out! 10 images of caution tape in places you wouldn’t expect to see it

Skatepark at Venice Beach
A skateboarder ignores the yellow caution tape placed around the skate park at Venice Beach to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
By Marc Martin

Caution tape. It’s our visual prompt to stay away.

We are conditioned to see it at crimes scenes, construction zones and natural disasters.

Where we are not used to seeing it is at playgrounds, skate parks and wrapped around a bear statue at the La Brea Tar Pits.

Welcome to the Southland in the age of the coronavirus outbreak, when stay-at-home orders have given new life and purpose to caution tape.

Torrance

De Portola Park in Torrance
Robert Hennie, 51, an independent filmmaker, gets in a workout on the children’s playground at De Portola Park in Torrance.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Santa Monica

Santa Monica Farmers Market
Caution tape helps kept people in an orderly line at the Santa Monica Farmers Market.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement

San Diego

Caution tape is strung across the edge of the Sunset Cliffs in the Point Loma community of San Diego.
(K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Mid-Wilshire

La Brea Tar Pits
A statue of a prehistoric short-faced bear is surrounded by caution tape at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

Thousand Oaks

Arby's restaurant in Thousand Oaks
A customer leaving with his takeout order walks past outdoor tables wrapped in caution tape at an Arby’s restaurant in Thousand Oaks.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Venice

Basketball courts at Venice Beach
Raymond Bartlett of Venice exercises next to yellow caution tape near the entrance to the basketball courts at Venice Beach.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Sherman Oaks

Sherman Oaks Recreation Center in Sherman Oaks
People ignore the caution tape and work out at Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks Recreation Center in Sherman Oaks.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

Encino

Lake Balboa Park in Encino
A man walks on a path at Lake Balboa Park in Encino near caution tape placed around a children’s play area.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement

South L.A.

Central Park Recreation Center in South Los Angeles
A closed playground is wrapped in caution tape at Central Park Recreation Center in South Los Angeles.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones/Los Angeles Times)
ORANGE, CA -- TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2020: Armando Mendoza, 53, of Anaheim, who was the hospital's second-ever COVID-19 patient, spent 45 days at St. Joseph Hospital, the longest local stint of any COVID-19 patients, celebrates with gratitude to God, all his health-care professionals (his nurse, Puynh Nguyen pushes his wheel chair and his doctor, Dr. Jooby Babu to his right) and his family and supporters as he is released to his awaiting family with applause and salutes from hospital workers in Orange, CA, on May 5, 2020. Mendoza was healthy and had no underlying health conditions when he contracted the virus. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

California

These striking photos reveal how California is changing

These are some of the unusual new scenes across the Southland during the coronavirus outbreak.

LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 20: Maricela Moreno, manager at El Tarasco in Marina del Rey, disinfects cash at the restaurant. She said a lot of customers pay with Apple Pay or credit cards. Marina del Rey on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

California

The coronavirus crisis in visuals

Los Angeles Times’ visual coverage of the coronavirus crisis

SOUTH AFRICA: South African police officers enforce social distancing as they make shoppers stretch their arms in front of them to ensure that they are at least one metre apart from one another while they queue outside a supermarket in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa.

World & Nation

Coronavirus social distancing around the world

Scenes of coronavirus social distancing around the world.

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -MAR. 26, 2020. Words on the Orpheum theater marquee try to bring levity to the current situation along the normally bustling commercial area on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, which is largely deserted because of the coronavirus lockdown. . (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

California

Here are 8 bizarre scenes from empty downtown Los Angeles

As we all adjust to our new lives under the umbrella of the coronavirus, Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco gives us a look at downtown Los Angeles with the spotlight on Broadway.

More to Read

CaliforniaScience & MedicineCOVID-19 Pandemic

More From the Los Angeles Times

Podcasts

Most Read in California

Advertisement