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Last week Wednesday, the city demolished a single family home in the Northeast neighborhood of Glassell Park. 3304 Drew Street, known as the "Satellite House," was the center of gang activity and drug trade in the neighborhood for the Avenues gang.
It was "the very symbol of the Avenues Gang here on Drew Street," City Attorney Rock Delgadillo said. “Make no mistake, we are committed to returning the Drew-Estara neighborhood to its law abiding residents and reclaiming this neighborhood for the hard-working people who live here. And we are going to use every tool at our disposal to get the job done.”
And then the excavator raised its arm and began to tear down the home.
The home has been used for gang crime for more than 20 years, according to the city attorney's office, who used their program, aptly named Project T.O.U.G.H. (Taking Out Urban Gang Headquarters), to ultimately destroy the house.
Following years of crime, Delgadillo filed a a nuisance abatement lawsuit. The court sided with the city and ordered the owner--a gang member--and others to improve and vacate the home, stay away, and rent it out. That didn't happen so the courts fined them $75,000 and ordered them to sell it. Once again, that didn't happen and the court ordered the property to be barricaded for a year, but there was evidence the home was "breached" three times. Then the city ordered it demolished, but allowed time for the owners to rehab the place making room for a possible reversal in demo orders. Of course, that didn't happen either.
A letter to the editor of the LA Times called the highly publicized event "an astonishing legal throwback to the Middle Ages. In 11th Century England." Marc Haefele wrote that "in 11th Century England, if an animal or object caused someone's death, it was declared a "deodand" and could be tried and punished by forfeiture or destruction." Later he duly noted that it would be better if "the house were renovated and sold to some worthy, uncriminal family for a healthy 6-figure payment to the city's depleted General Fund."
That prompted city attorney Mary Clare Molidor to shoot off a response, which was published on LA Observed: She said the home was "not only a headquarters of the Avenues criminal street gang but also the very symbol of the terrifying grip that the gang had over this neighborhood. Today, because of the resolute pursuit of the legal process by the City Attorney, that symbol is no more."
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I kind of agree with the letter-writer. From the pictures, the house looks like it's in good shape. I'm sure a nonprofit gang-prevention organization would love to have run an after-school program there. That would have been symbolic too.
I was surprised at the nice condition the house looked to be in, too.
I lived almost right across the street from that house a couple years ago. It would have been wonderful if it could have been used for something else, but anybody trying to do that would be risking their life. There are a lot of gangs in LA, Avenues is one of the worst. That was *their* house and if anybody else tried to use it they would have made an example of them.
The only real problem was that the gangsters were not inside the house when it was destroyed.
They should've just taken the house away, if they can demolish the property they can take it away and sell it themselves. From the pictures it looks as if someone would've purchased the place as-is.
I think they metioned on TV news that the city did try to sell it but people were afraid of gang retribution, and abandonded they just broke in and kept using it.
I'm not a big fan of property seizure laws, but I do applaud this one.