Tachowa Covington, whose nickname is ‘Rollerball,’ has been living for about seven years in a construction shed and a watertank along Pacific Coast Highway, near the mouth of Potrero Canyon. He calls the shed his office, which until a recent fire had included a television, a sofa, a chair and a steel desk containing pictures, paperwork and a Bible. He also fixed up the water tank behind the shed so that he could sleep there. ‘It does get hot in the summer and cold in the winter,’ Covington told the Palisadian-Post Tuesday, ‘but it’s real nice. I saw a lot of dolphins this morning.’ Unfortunately for Covington, his compound has been targeted by several community activists and organizations, including the Pacific Palisades Community Council and the Pacific Palisades Residents Association, who want the City of Los Angeles and Caltrans to clear away abandoned structures, construction equipment and unsightly debris from along PCH, between Potrero and Temescal Canyon. Community Council member Stuart Muller reiterated those sentiments in a September 16 e-mail to Mayor Villariagosa, City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, the LAPD and Community Council Chair Janet Turner, among others. Muller wrote that ‘the Potrero Park construction gatehouse/water tank/’caretaker’ situation has gone on way too long’and I ask you to take definitive actions and remove the decrepit gatehouse [and] its longtime inhabitant’ASAP. The shack is not built to code and is not permitted for human habitation. The same man has lived there for many years and the City of L.A. has known this.’ According to Muller (following a conversation with LADP Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore), Covington had apparently worked for the construction contractor who was filling Potrero Canyon to create an eventual park. When the contractor left over the project in a dispute with the City, Covington was given verbal permission to stay in the gatehouse and watch over the area. On Tuesday, Covington said he had never worked for the Potrero contractor, but that as a transient he had simply taken possession of the gatehouse. He also disputed Mueller’s allegations, stating he now owns the land he is living on because of adverse possession’that traditional common law provides a method for someone to obtain title to land through use. This means title to another’s property can be acquired without compensation, by actual occupation under circumstances as to constitute reasonable notice to the owner. Possession must be continuous and uninterrupted for a specific length of time and is some cases the holder must pay all taxes levied. ’When I came here the water tank was abandoned and rusted inside,’ Covington said. ‘I cleaned it up and I’ve lived here seven years.’ He said that officials appreciate that he keeps the graffiti cleaned up in that area and that he keeps it clear of transients. ‘I don’t do anything wrong,’ he said. In fact, Covington told the Post, ‘a company has been making a movie about me and how I live in the water tank. It’s a story about how I made something of nothing.’ (The videos, ‘Something From Nothing’ and ‘Tachowa 2010’ by Cash Productions, can be viewed on YouTube.) On September 13, a fire in the construction shed caused extensive smoke damage to Covington’s possessions. Thanks to a call from a passing motorist who spotted the fire, firemen from Station 69 on Sunset were able to quickly respond and save the shed. Captain Jerry Bedoya said that that the cause of the fire was undetermined. ‘It wasn’t a cooking or electrical fire, because he didn’t have any power to the structure,’ Bedoya noted. Shortly after the fire, Covington sat on his smoke-damaged sofa and puzzled over what he should do next. ’I need to call the Red Cross; all my clothes are all smoked,’ he told a Post reporter. He asked a local resident who was also on the site how he could contact the Red Cross, and the resident promised to do it for him. Indeed, the resident drove to the Santa Monica office of the Red Cross and spoke to Mark Solnick. ’We help everybody we can,’ Solnick later told the Post. ‘We have certain rules, and if it doesn’t fall under our guidelines, we’re connected to a vast network of nonprofits that can help.’ On September 14, Solnick called and said that Covington, since he had an address (15145 Pacific Coast Highway), had been given three days in a hotel, plus money for food and to wash his clothes. ’He may not take the hotel,’ Solnick said. ‘He was worried about his water tank [that someone might move into it].’ Covington, 51, told the Post this week that he had stayed in the hotel and had used the money for food, but not for laundry. He was still dismayed over his smoky clothes.
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