Up in Flames in Koreatown

Early this morning, LAFD extinguished a burning building at 8th Street and Hobart Boulevard in Koreatown.

3455 W. 8th Street, formerly Dong Il Jang restaurant, was declared a knockdown.

Dong Il Jang, which closed about four years ago, was visited by Anthony Bourdain on "Parts Unknown" and had many longtime patrons. While the pandemic was certainly the likeliest reason for the restaurant's closure, the space stayed empty. KTLA called it "abandoned".

Google Street View pictures show "For Lease" signage on the Hobart Boulevard side of the building from at least February 2021 to July 2022. In the most recent picture (June 2024), the signage is gone and the building has been defaced.

A 251-unit mixed use complex has been planned for the site since at least 2019. The plan calls for razing the entire north side of 8th Street from Hobart to Harvard Boulevards. (Parking is likely to get even worse in Koreatown: the building, which will also have retail and office space, will only have 284 parking spaces. Yikes.)

While I am a big fan of of adding apartments above a commercial property, and while I also approve of the future building's proposed courtyard space and 29 low- and very-low-income units, I strongly disapprove of fires.

I do wonder if the restaurant was thoroughly secured against intruders, or if there may have been any deferred maintenance that could possibly have contributed to the fire (the cause has not been determined yet). LADBS lists an "Abandoned or Vacant Building Left Open to the Public" complaint dated March 4. The few permit details on file for the restaurant are from the '90s (a commercial cooking hood and exhaust system were installed in 1999, a quarter-century ago, following an order to comply).

The restaurant building's days were numbered, but it should have been safely demolished. Instead, it released soot and smoke into one of LA's most densely populated neighborhoods.

3455 West 8th Street, Koreatown.