Like a ravenous Tyrannosaurus rex, the backhoe tore again and again into the ramshackle structure, quickly reducing it to a pile of snapped lumber, wires and twisted metal.
David Esperanza, who lives on a nearby street, found the feeding delightful. Coffee in hand, it was breakfast and a show, one he’d hoped for years to see.
Crews gathered early Monday morning to bulldoze two abandoned properties on Long Beach Boulevard just north of Victoria Street that city officials and neighbors say had become a crime magnet and shelter for squatters and stray animals for nearly two years.
Starting at 7 a.m., crews quickly leveled the first structure, a former Chinese food and Louisiana Fried Chicken restaurant.
A couple of hours later, the second building — previously a gas station — was razed, after police checked the property for any lingering homeless people who may have been still sleeping inside.
As the dozer ripped off the front walls, the inside was revealed: stained walls, smeared with graffiti and floors carpeted with trash, human excrement, busted appliances and grungy bedding.
Within a couple of hours, a two-year period of frustration for nearby residents was reduced to two truckloads and a wafting cloud of dust.
“This couldn’t happen soon enough,” Esperanza said.
A rare sight in Long Beach, officials say it’s very difficult to bulldoze private property in city limits.
It often requires undergoing a bureaucratic process to prove the building has become a threat to public safety before inspectors will push for demolition. There must also be a lengthy search for owners, which some contend is too time-consuming. Long Beach has recently tried to strengthen penalties for absentee property owners.
This lot, officials say, has been the source of complaints starting as early as June 2024, with spikes to 911 calls to the address over vandalism, uncontrolled fires and criminal activity. Code enforcement declared the site substandard in May 2025, after inspections found, among other issues, the buildings were being occupied by homeless people.
They described the boards ripped from doors and windows, windows smashed, trash, including wine bottles, strewn around the property and walls covered with graffiti. Crews, in preparation for the demolition, entered the building to find needles, liquor bottles, spilled gasoline, oil and some hazardous waste that one worker said would be shipped to a facility in Yuma, Ariz.
One worker named Eddie said those squatting there had at some point tapped into a dead SoCal Edison power line to siphon power. “I don’t know how they didn’t all blow themselves up,” he said.
The city filed at least three notices and offered a number of extensions to give the owner ample time to abate the property.
Records show the buildings are owned by Golcheh Developments and Investments, a Los Angeles-based developer focused on gas stations and discount stores. The group has properties across the region, including listings in Compton, Santa Ana and Hawaiian Gardens.
The city will spend about $300,000 for asbestos testing and demolition of the structure. A lien will be placed against it, barring any sale or transfer of ownership without payment.