Institute for the Study of Societal Issues

For over a century, Los Angeles (LA) has been the site for the extraction, refining, and consumption of vast quantities of petroleum. Yet as active drilling wanes, as land becomes increasingly scarce, and as affordable housing shortages reach record levels, cities must confront the legacies of oil production.  In Vista Hermosa, a neighborhood a mile north of downtown LA, residents have sought to decommission hundreds of wells in one oil reservoir, the “LA City Field.” According to residents, the wells buried alongside their homes, schools, and parks are dangerous despite not producing oil for decades. Law co-produces urban infrastructures like oil wells, and with those infrastructures, new kinds of uncertainty and risk. This article analyzes the foundational role of law in creating this legacy of deserted urban oil wells; the work of residents to make visible Vista Hermosa’s petroleum past; and the effects of rapid real estate development in the neighborhood.