Badly pruned mess of a eucalyptus or maybe a ficus.

My guess is that it had severe storm or freeze damage to the branches and they pruned it back like this.

Yes like lazy_gardens said, and I would guess that this is a ficus. What you are seeing here is a large tree that was cut down to maybe 5 feet of trunk and is now sprouting back.

I see these more in subdivisions and it never occurred to me that this was a post-frost treatment for trees that were badly damaged. I just assumed it was another weird tree training thing, like the poodle olive trees. It is a weird effect to be sure.

I too was thinking a heavily pruned ficus of some type (F. nitida most likely), we love plant mysteries do definitely take some pics of the whole thing, the bark, and the leaves (with your hand, ideally to show size). Fun post. Happy gardening!

Lol at those weird poodle olive trees!!!!

I can't tell you how many once beautiful trees I saw that were butchered by amateur tree trimmers when I lived in So. Cal. It made me sick.