At one point, it was the campus of a small charter high school serving hundreds of students, but as the number of school-age children in Los Angeles continued to decline, the school could never break even. Now the building sits empty, marred by holes punched in the walls, widespread water damage, and char marks from fires. The Miramar campus cost $34 million to build, and the Los Angeles Unified School District spends $20,000 a month to secure it. It is both a monument to California’s decline and a preview of what is to come throughout the state.

The sports fields surrounding 1215 Miramar Street are decently maintained and used by other public schools in the area, but the angular, three-story modernist main building is an eyesore even from a distance and is even uglier up close thanks to the widespread graffiti.