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…