Writing Shotgun

DEMOLITION TODAY OF SOME BUILDINGS NEXT TO ACRES OF BOOKS

Theo DouglasMon. June 09
 

It’s on: this morning at 10, Second District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal and a cast of city folks will ceremonially begin the demolition of four vacant businesses near Acres of Books in the so-called Broadway Block, bounded by Third Street, Broadway, Long Beach Boulevard and Elm Avenue.

If you’re in the neighborhood, you can watch from a safe distance as Jack’s Liquor and One-Stop Office Furniture Store, located at 242-256 Long Beach Blvd.; and High Gain and Life Steps, located at 330-338 E. Third St. are mightily smoten by some sort of giant earthmover.

The stone-faced Jack’s is the visual standout among them; its main store sign dates most likely from the late 1950s or 1960s (though possibly as late as the 1970s)–and other vintage exterior signage listing the store’s actual contents whimsically boasts both “fine wine” and “imported wine.”

(You may be forgiven for wondering which it is–though, technically, not all imported wine may be fine wine.)

No telling how long these four businesses will take to come down. But if the recent demolition of the blighted Avalon Motel on Santa Fe Avenue is any indication, this morning’s proceedings will likely last a couple hours. A demo crew took about half a week to bring down the Avalon Motel.

And why, you ask, are these buildings being eighty-sixed? Well, they–and the partially historically significant Acres of Books building–are in the way of what will one day be mixed-use retail: a condominium complex, possibly of as many as 450 housing units, above ground-floor retail and very likely, some type of arts space.

The project is being developed by Portland-based Williams & Dame Development, perhaps best-known for turning an abandoned 34-acre railroad yard in that city’s Pearl District into a mixed-used neighborhood of more than 5,000 residential units.

And yes, some day Acres of Books will go too. The city purchased the 74-year-old store for $2,854,000 in April, giving the store owners one year to vacate from the time escrow closes. Store owners Philip and Jackie Smith of Newport Beach are currently looking for a new space in which to relocate.

The purchase went forward despite the store’s status as one of the world’s great used bookstores and a Long Beach historic landmark because the entire building was never deemed historic–just its Streamline Moderne facade. That portion is slated to be carefully saved and, somehow, reused.

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    What a misleading headline - and so needlessly too!

    The headline suggested a demolition of both Acres AND the next-door buildings. It would have taken no more (indeed fewer) letters and syllables (and more standard English, to boot) to write: "Demolition today of buildings next to Acres of Books."

    Of course, this sort of headline, suggesting an erroneous and thereby panic-inspiring situation, does get reader attention. It got mine, because I had been under the impression - confirmed in your actual story text - that Acres still has time.
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    Fine, I'll change it.
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    What is holding up the progress toward getting rid of that last holdout for meaningful Change down there? We need Acres of Rubble before we can have what any self respecting citizen is demanding for that poorly occupied space--a decent return on the taxpayers investment! How do you think we will meet our future expanding expenses without maximizing our asset valuations? For God's sake, get out of the way!
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    After they demolished the pandemonium i cant cry any more. I cant wait till those condos go for 10 grand. PS Let Acres go... Bring back Smittys Book Store on 4th!
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    Yes, Acres of Books is the sole impediment to the the stucco box transformation of Long Beach into that shimmering Quizno's/Carl's Jr./99 Cent Store city by the exhaust-choked Port, confirming everyone's belief that Long Beach is actually part of Orange County. Just not the rich part.
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    Who is going to live in the 450 condos they build on the site? Why doesn't anyone ask that question? I've seen the kind of people that buy/lease condos, and looking around at my neighbors (whom I happen not to loathe or feel ashamed of) I don't see the demographic they're reaching for. Maybe there is a factory somewhere churning out office jockeys in striped shirts..... wait, I remember now, they're called MBA programs. The truth of the matter is that more condos don't equal affordable housing or "revitalization". We'll still have thousands of people living on the margins and on the street. The city and the RDA want to push the working class people further inland. The people who work in the malls and serve you your lattes and clean the restaurant toilets just aren't pretty enough to deserve to live downtown. That's what this fight is all about, because anyone who really knows Acres of Books knows it not only as a bookstore but as a bastion of social equality. EVERYONE is welcome at Acres. This makes people like Suja and Theo uneasy. After all, what self respecting white collar pantywaist wants to dirty themselves by mixing with the hoi poloi? I'm not against the project, though, I've seen the building plan and it has lots of awnings and little manicured lawns where the homeless will find some shelter in the wee hours of the night. And as the proud new residents of the condos wake up on their Ethan Allen sheet-set with matching chamois and pull on velour track suits for their morning jog and make their way down endlessly uniform corridors to the unnecessarily large freight elevators and out into the smoggy Long Beach morning they will be greeted by the smell of urine and the jangling of a cup and the toothless maw of a man laughing mirthlessly: the last laugh, echoing on the walls and shiny cars lined neatly in the subterranean parking lot. Can I get a Hallelejuh?
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    poodle finkerstein, fortunately I think the homeless will eventually move out of downtown so your scenario won't come true. I'm actually pretty optimistic that the demographic in downtown is changing (driven mostly by these higher end residential developments). It's not as fast as some would like but we are getting there. The next step is better retail to serve the changing demographic.
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    It would seem to be far more cost effective to just round up all the less desirable people down there and have them put in remote camps where they would not be contaminating our environment or blighting our visuals when we promenade...but then there would be no development money sloshing about so I DO see the point in destroying the heritage buildings--they really only deserve our contempt anyway inasmuch as what we build is so superior and will doubtless last several decades.
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    Oh yeah G.F. Babbitt, they better hurry up with that project since we're guaranteed to get a fantastic return on taxpayer expenditures...just like every other ballyhooed L.B. retail redevelopment (see PIKE) that was supposed to team with tourists and flood the city coffers with revenue?
    If you still believe that line, I got a bridge to sell you...
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    Long live Acres of Books!!!
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    The current downtown construction projects should offer instruction in how greater efficiencies might be instituted when building the condos replacing that Acres of Books eyesore. Rather than simply awarding jobs to every Tomas, Richardo, and Geraldo who comes along, labor contracts might be signed with the governments of Jalisco, Oaxaca, Michoacan--the several states, such that each could compete to exclusively provide labor at a reduced total cost to the contractors. It's time we wised up and took advantage of the catbird's seat we find ourselves sitting in.
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    I was concerned that due to the credit crunch and housing downturn the proposed developments for 90802 would not go forward had they not already begun. So I'm glad to hear that this development is going forward as I was glad to see the earth movers on Third and Daisy beginning that mego condo highrise. I own a condo in 90802 and I'm not particularly fond of many of the behaviors of the neighbors of my complex. I'm not talking about the homeless who I don't distain or fear. I'm talking about the families living in the substandard housing all around 90802. I'm not the least bit unpleased to see them displaced. A lot of them (I'm guessing 15 to 20 percent) behave in really unneighborly/ghetto ways. It may take a decade or so to completely remake 90802 into a zip code with a much higher median income but for me it will be worth the wait. With that change I predict the percentage of people who act in really ghetto/unneighborly ways will drop.
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    What I wish, though it is impossible, is that I could PICK the type of economic diversity I want in 90802. I would gladly pepper 90802 with low-income housing for the disabled and for people 65+. Seniors and the disabled, in my opinion, are not typically problem neighbors. But I have no power to do such picking. So I'd rather see the majority of my current neighbors priced out of 90802 because 15%-20% of them make 90802 a crappy place to live with their ghetto ways. When 90802 is remade I won't be among the high income inhabitants. But I'd rather be broke among the moneyed and better behaved than relatively moneyed among the low-income and unneighborly. I'm sick of seeing people throw trash on the street. I'm sick of seeing people not pick up after their dogs. I'm sick of seeing people keep chickens/hens in their front yards. I'm sick of not being able to even say something nice to someone while waiting for the light like "Oh, what a pretty dress your little girl has on." because the adult does not speak English. I'm sick of overly loud ranchero and rap music that I can hear in my home with all my windows closed. I'm sick of hearing kids screaming at earsplit level in the vacant lot across the alley when there is a public park right across the street. I'm sick of watching kids tie trash bags to public signs to play tetherball because their adults are too lazy to walk them a block to Chavez park. I'm sick of stomping on the roaches who come out at night to feast on the bread people throw into the street in front of their homes in the morning to feed the pigeons. I'm sick of stepping over oil stains on the sidewalk which come from the dripping goop the "corn on the cob cart" man slathers over the sticks of corn which I'm sure he sells without a health permit. And I am sick sick sick of the vegetable truck icecream man who plays tin music box Christmas music all year round. I love Christmas music and this icecream truck man is just ruining it. Whatever negative comment might be able to be made about the people who will occupy the newly built condo units going up around 90802, I seriously doubt they will bring the kind of behaviors of which I am sick.
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    Hey Adreana, while I'd love to see LB less ghetto (and I share your sentiments about the trash-throwing folks and taggers)...you might think about moving to Irvine.

    I live in that stucco-box adjacent housing, in a 100-year old house that I've spent a couple years rehabbing. And some off the nicest, sweetest folks walk by, English-speaking or not, so that's a bit of a broad stroke to condemn everyone who's not just like you.

    But you're not cut out for a real urban environment. For well over 100 years kids in cities, scream and play wherever they can. Roaches are part of the urban ecosystem whether folks are tidy or not. And music, whether with tinkling ice-cream man bells or with extra distorted Kraco bass speakers, is also an endemic part of real cities.

    What you want is the sterile, faux urban areas of the OC or the New York City experience that's actually in Vegas. I moved to LBC from Redondo because RB was getting mega-mansioned and LB ain't ever gonna be that.
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    Andy, the Irvine comment is unfair. Just because people want to see downtown classed up a bit does not mean they want Irvine. Irvine sucks and we all agree about that. But higher end condos, retail and the people that go along with it doesn't have to be sterile and boring like Irvine. There are homeless and crappy people in SF but you don't pay as much attention because it's in moderation and there is also a good mix of high end stuff. Yes, true urban environments have some of the problems mentioned above but there is a medium. We've got the crappy stuff. Now let's continue to work in some of the nicer stuff.

    And as far as LB not getting mega mansioned, you clearly haven't spent time in Belmont Heights, Naples, or the Peninsula. Plenty of mega mansions going up there.
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    Which is why I don't live in Belmont, Naples, or the Peninsula.

    But if you're complaining about things like noise, funny smells, and cucarachas, don't live in a real downtown, urban environment, like Downtown Long Beach will always be.
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    And the demolition of Acres of Books is exactly the type of "renewal" that will make the downtown character "sterile and boring," but with the noise, funny smells, and cucarachas.
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    I propose we change our fair city's name. Who wants something as plebeian as "Long Beach"? There's already one in NYC, and clearly we haven't achieved the cache so desperately longed for by our city officials. Perhaps we should change our name to Adreanopolis. Doesn't that sound oh so Eurosophisticate? And everyone will address each other as Adreana. And we'll be the first city in America to establish English as our official language, publicly enforceable by law.
    If you really want to get friendly with your neighbors and break down those language barriers, you could start with a smile and some eye contact.
    The homeless are already displaced, but that's okay because who notices them anyway, right, Adreana? Let's displace the families that are already struggling and living in squalor, trapped by low pay, limited opportunity, slumlords, and lack of access to credit and healthcare. Not to mention the kind of education necessary to reverse sociological trends of poverty in minority populations. I like the way you think, Adreana. Why should we even attempt to clean up our neighborhood parks and turn them into safe places with adequate equipment when they serve just as well as places for drug deals and gang activity? Not to mention their service as dormitories for the homeless you so generously refrain from "distaining".
    Of course you would like to live among the disabled and the elderly. They don't make a lot of noise, since they either shuffle or just wheel themselves about on rubber tires. And best of all, they die very quietly. No fuss, just a little smell until the mortician arrives.
    You don't want to live in a city, Adreana, you want to live in a graveyard. I know you'll find your plot, and there you can pipe in Kenny G's Holiday Album for your undisturbed eternity.
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    You're right. No opportunity or access to anything in America. Free education, free emergency rooms, food stamps. Freedom to start any business you'd like. Absolutely correct. It's a wonder anyone can survive in this country. The reason people struggle has nothing to do with poor choices they've made.
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    Ergo, if you're struggling, you've made poor choices.

    We're all born equally smart, able, with a stable family environment, and have the same opportunities from day one.

    Seriously, some folks are lazy, some are a-holes, some are Lowenthals, but most are not.

    Now back to the topic.