A Masked LA Artist Is Installing Benches at Neglected Bus Stops

On LA’s Eastside, several bus stops that once lacked any place to sit are getting an upgrade thanks to an anonymous local artist. According to the Los Angeles Times, the man got the idea after a knee injury found himself waiting for the bus with no place to rest. Noticing a huge deficit of functioning benches in the area, he decided to take matters into his own hands. And he does it wearing a bright waq’ollo mask typical of the Peruvian Andes.

“Over the past 11 months, the artist has surreptitiously installed more than a dozen wood benches around the Eastside, and he has it down to a science: He props a ladder next to the bus sign, slips a handmade wooden bench over the pole and proceeds to screw, hammer and glue it into place. In about 15 minutes, the stop has a brand-new bus bench.

“‘This is allegedly the new biotech corridor,’ he says, gesturing at the neighborhood around us. We are less than half a mile from LAC+USC Medical Center. ‘But they don’t care about the health of the people already here. It’s like the city has refused to build benches for them.’”

Read more about this industrious Good Samaritan here.