There will be other important demolitions in Long Beach.

But yesterday’s dismantling of the crime-ridden Avalon Motel came with a free Southern lunch, served after Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal clambered into the cab of a towering Caterpillar front-loader for a de-construction worker’s perspective, as the city struck down the blighted building.

The 20-unit First District stop-over had become so crime-ridden that, as Karen Robes notes in this morning’s Press-Telegram, it served as something of a training ground for the Long Beach Police Department.

Had the Caterpillar stalled, the gumbo and hot links–part of the tender Southern meal put up by Willie Thomas of Thomas Land Clearing Company, which did the demo–probably had enough explosive red pepper power to do some demolition of their own.

Wait–Southern food at a land clearing? When the city used dynamite to take down the Omar Hubbard apartment building in the 1970s, we’re guessing your meal was not included.

“The reason we’re going all out in this one is, this motel was such a nuisance property,” said Victoria Ballesteros, spokeswoman for the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency. And so the city purchased it, hired Thomas to knock it down–and he and his crew brought the lunch.

“What we’re really thinking to do is [buy] the bar next door, and then we’ll be able to put together enough land to do a small office building,” said Craig Beck, executive director of the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency, which actually bought the Avalon. Thanks to a 1990s lawsuit, Beck noted, the city can’t exercise eminent domain on the west side, and has to go around buying land like the rest of us.

So, how bad was crime at the Avalon Motel?

“I joined the Long Beach Police Department 18 years ago,” Deputy Police Chief Robert Luna told the crowd, after some had noshed on Southern hospitality, and City Manager Pat West had said his thanks for the gumbo–tender morsels of chicken and shrimp in a zesty broth. “And this was one of the first places they brought me. This truly does help reduce crime.”

Then, Thomas’s people fired up the front-loader and knocked loose a wall in the 1942 motel, and used its huge bucket to bring down a section of Spanish-tiled roof. After grilling our lunch since 6 a.m. (Thomas made the gumbo himself), actually getting down to business must have been almost a relief.

Next up for the crew: smoothing and salvaging the site of the late Johnie’s Broiler–the Googie-style Downey drive-in illegally demolished last year. It’s slated to become a Bob’s Big Boy franchise, reportedly with much of its 1950s car culture design restored.

No word on the menu for that event.

Tags: Add new tag, Avalon Motel, blight, California, City Manager Pat West, Craig Beck, Dee Andrews, gumbo, hot links, Johnie's Broiler, Long Beach, Omar Hubbard apartment building, Southern California, Southern food, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, Thomas Land Clearing Company, Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal, Victoria Ballesteros, Willie Thomas