Near the corner of Temple and Hoover there was a fenced in lot that slowly got demolished over the course of several months earlier this year.

Before it disappeared tags had gone up all over it. Everyone knew it was coming down, so most of this seems like "practice" for lack of another word (and there might very well be other words that are more appropriate, like "creative expression").

Still, there were a few interesting tags, like this wide-lettered "B M" along on the top of a shell.

The whole thing was like watching a film of urban decay playing in fast forward. Every day there were more tags and yet fewer walls.

Now the destruction of the old buildings has been completed, and it's just an ugly, empty lot. Dirt. Across the street sits the weird, new freighter-like public school, dry-docked into the wedge of Temple, Virgil, Silver Lake and Beverly.

No great artistic statements here. But interesting anyway.

More after the jump.
Photos by Mark Mauer

Recently I found myself wandering outside the back of Union Station and beyond the Denny's that sits under the Hollywood freeway. There'ss some prime, free downtown parking there by the way, but you'll want to lock up your car extra tight.

Under the highway there are literally dozens of LAPD squad cars, covered in dust, but mostly looking unused. There's also a ton of graffiti all over the freeway supports.

No tags on any cop cars though. Though it seemed completely deserted at the time, there's surely no easier way to make your own life difficult than messing with a cop's car.

Crawling through each arch leads deeper under the highway and closer to the rail yards and the banks of the L.A. River. This is really not recommended for most people by the way.

All photos by Mark Mauer. More after the jump.

On the spot where the old French Cottage used to stand - which you can see here - there was a nice clean brick wall just crying out for some tagging.

Pemex, Arek and Blah filled the bill with color coordinated pink and yellow.

These pieces will be gone before you know it.

Another great batch of pieces that I noticed have been whitewashed recently include the 8-bit Che on Santa Monica. I had hoped this one would remain since it looked like it might have been approved by the building owners. But I guess not.
It looked like everything from that post is now wiped away.

All photos by Mark Mauer. More after the jump.