A Hollygrove motel turned hotspot for violent crime this week became the first property shuttered under New Orleans' "padlock" ordinance, officials announced Wednesday.
Saturated with vermin, sewage and mold, the London Lodge Motel was a nuisance to both health and public safety for residents in the 9300 block of Airline Highway,?District Attorney Jason Williams said at a media briefing.?
Situated on a strip notorious for sex trafficking, the roadside inn hosted at least 16 violent crimes over the past year, according to police. Among them were a narcotics-related homicide, an aggravated rape and an armed robbery. The motel also saw health hazards including a natural gas leak, and it was without smoke or carbon dioxide detectors.
Williams credited a "strategic and surgical" partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement for helping drive the closure pursuant to the city's new?ordinance.
New Orleans City Council president Helena Moreno said she drew inspiration from a similar law in Baltimore that allows police to shut down businesses that repeatedly harbor violent criminal activity. She worked with former NOPD superintendent Michael Harrison, who later served as the top cop in Baltimore, to draft an ordinance that would work more swiftly than city code enforcement.?
"Businesses in our city who are putting people's lives and safety in danger are going to have a real problem operating in the city of New Orleans," Moreno said Wednesday while announcing the London Lodge as the first target under the ordinance, which passed early last year.
The coroner van tries to leave as the New Orleans Police Department continues to investigate the scene of a homicide at the London Lodge Motel on Airline Highway in New Orleans, Tuesday, June 20, 2023. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune)
The troubles at the motel have included the January shooting of a 3-year-old boy as he walked with his mother in the motel hall, according to NOPD.
One homicide was reported at the motel last year, along with frequent reports of?drug and firearms sales. In April 2023, a man tried to shoot a tenant's attacking pit bull and missed, striking another man.
This year, at least 20 people have called 911 reporting fights near the property, NOPD call logs show.
As of June, the city also recorded at least five open code violations at the motel's address, along with infractions for raw sewage and electrical hazards and an unpaid $4,500 fine.
While it marks the first use of the new ordinance, the motel's forced closing is the latest in a broader effort to reduce violent crime by targeting hotspots.
Williams' office helped engineer the shutdown in October of a?Treme corner store, after the?June closure of a?24-hour tire shop,?both seized under asset forfeiture laws. The legal mechanism is different for the London Lodge, but the idea of reducing violent crime by targeting its environment is the same.
"This is the first of many," Williams said Wednesday. "We are going after the root causes (of violent crime)."
The city's Health Department and department of Homeless Services and Strategy assisted the Louisiana State Fire Marshal in relocating motel residents, after NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick initiated the process through a nuisance notice on May 28. It's unclear how many received the help to move.
The motel's general manager, who asked not to be named because she feared retaliation, wrote in a response that the motel's guests "have resided here for years, some even almost a decade." The manager claimed in a June 3 letter that they were working to improve conditions and abate crime.
"What we have here is nothing short of home for many people," the manager wrote. Reached by phone, she said police had not consistently offered the support she and other managers repeatedly requested, and that for many guests, a $70 per night room was all that stood between them and the streets.
Williams said he hopes to replace bad actors with good and bring a positive business to Hollygrove.
If London Lodge's owners, Lian Tsu Yua and Lan Sheng Yua,?can follow their crime abatement plan and work with the fire marshal, Williams said they may be able to reopen the storied, low-slung motel, which served as the inspiration for a Tony Award-nominated Broadway play, Airline Highway.
"They have a long road ahead of them," Williams said.
