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Re: Stupid black Democrat Mayor Bass Moved About Two Dozen Homeless People Into A Motel Known for Criminal Activity and Prostitution

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Kurt Nicklas <namblamembers@gop.org> wrote in news:sqn1h8$sem$1@news.dns-
netz.com:

> Richard Clayton Wieber wrote
> 
>> Dumb people elect dumb leaders.  Look at Biden.

Last month, the city of Los Angeles mistakenly moved people living on the 
streets into a motel that was previously declared a “public nuisance.” 
According to officials, it had been a source of criminal activity for more 
than a decade.

During an Inside Safe operation in early May that took “months of 
coordination and focus,” according to the local councilmember, roughly two 
dozen unhoused people living along a median in the Miracle Mile 
neighborhood of Council District 5 were moved approximately 15 miles to 
the 108 Motel, a one-story motel in South L.A. next to the freeway that 
the city has been trying to shut down for years.

The city council declared the 108 Motel a public nuisance in 2018 “and 
required the discontinuance of the motel’s use and any similar land uses 
at the property.” 

This month, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson introduced a new city 
council motion to padlock or fence off the troubled motel at 10721 South 
Broadway after the owner reportedly removed a fence erected earlier.

Harris-Dawson’s motion calls the 108 Motel “a public nuisance” that “has 
continued to be a source of criminal and other nuisance activity.” The 
motel has been a magnet for prostitution and violent crimes for more than 
a decade, according to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

“Given the owner’s failure to secure the property, the Department of 
Building and Safety must now ensure that the building is vacated and 
secured using chain link fence, gates, or padlock,” Harris-Dawson wrote in 
the June 6 motion.

In a phone interview with L.A. TACO, Harris-Dawson said that it’s a “long 
process to get the city to declare a building a public nuisance,” and in 
that time, the motel owner was given “several chances to correct the 
conditions.”

The pandemic extended that process even further, and in that time, the 
motel was “sold” to a family member, Harris-Dawson said. At some point 
this year, the new owner “back channeled” to the mayor’s office and 
offered their rooms for Inside Safe.

Councilmember Harris-Dawson believes that Bass’ office “should have known” 
that there were issues with the motel, but he doesn’t place all of the 
blame on them. 

“The city does such a terrible job enforcing its own rules on business 
owners,” the council member said. 

Despite the council member’s efforts to shut it down, the 108 Motel has 
continued to operate as a motel intermittently since being declared a 
public nuisance.

Harris-Dawson’s office was notified that the mayor’s office was planning 
to use a motel in his district for Inside Safe but they did not specify 
which one, according to the council member. The mayor’s office does not 
typically identify hotels being used for Inside Safe by name due to 
privacy and safety concerns.

After Harris-Dawson’s office realized that the 108 Motel was being used 
for Inside Safe, residents living there were moved to a nearby motel.

Overall, however, Harris-Dawson believes that Inside Safe has been more 
successful than past efforts to bring people indoors, and he welcomes 
anybody in need of a bed into his district. 

“I’m very reluctant of council members being in the mix of where people 
can sleep,” Harris-Dawson told L.A. TACO.

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In response to a detailed list of questions, Zach Seidl, spokesperson for 
Mayor Bass explained in a statement that prior to moving people to the 108 
Motel, “staff visited the 108 Motel, checked its business tax registration 
certificate, verified habitability with the County Department of Public 
Health, and reviewed the owner’s insurance policy.”

According to Seidl, “The motel owner signed an agreement stating that he 
had a legal right to operate the motel and that he was in full compliance 
with all federal, state, and local laws.”

Seidl said, “Once it was determined that the owner did not have the right 
to operate the motel, the Mayor’s Office conducted outreach days in 
advance to notify the Inside Safe residents there that they would be moved 
into a different nearby motel.”

“The Mayor’s Office worked quickly to place the residents in the nearby 
hotel a few weeks ago, and all participants agreed to move,” Seidl said. 
“If there is an issue with the living conditions of Inside Safe 
participants, we take action to fix it.”

Seidl added that “The Mayor’s Office is refining the motel vetting 
procedure to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Some participants of Inside Safe have criticized city officials for 
shuffling people from one location to another with little transparency or 
notice and failing to provide basic resources like food.

Undercover LAPD investigations revealed that rooms at the motel were 
allegedly rented out by the hour and used for prostitution. There was also 
often no security guard present at the location, or they were unlicensed, 
according to police. 

One anonymous Inside Safe participant living at the Silver Lake Hotel 
earlier this year said that they were notified they had to move the 
following morning after they had changed their address on their ID and 
started receiving mail at the address, according to a testimonial. 

“I’ve been applying for jobs with THIS address. My girlfriend is in the 
program here with me and is eight weeks pregnant. So this sudden eviction 
is really worrying us both,” the Inside Safe participant said.

During Mayor Bass’ first six months in office, more than 1,300 people were 
moved from tents and encampments into motel rooms through Inside Safe, 
according to the mayor’s office. According to a report from the City 
Administrative Officer, the city expects to spend more than $7.5 million 
on renting motels and $11 million to rent more than 450 rooms at the L.A. 
Grand in DTLA by the end of the month.

It’s unclear if the 108 Motel owner has invoiced the city or been paid.

‘The Most Nasty Ass Motel’
According to city council files and reports, issues with the 108 Motel 
date back more than a decade.

In 2016, the LAPD reported that the property was associated with crimes 
that included homicide, rape by force, prostitution, assault with a deadly 
weapon, battery, kidnapping, and burglary. Between 2011 and 2014, the LAPD 
reported more than 25 calls for service at the 108 Motel and nine arrests 
for homicide, rape, and robbery.

That same year the motel was cited for illegal construction during a joint 
investigation between LAPD and Building and Safety. Undercover LAPD 
investigations revealed that rooms at the motel were allegedly rented out 
by the hour and used for prostitution. There was also often no security 
guard present at the location, or they were unlicensed, according to 
police. 

The property owner responded by saying many of the LAPD’s allegations were 
“hearsay” and that they had corrected previous concerns. 

“In a neighbourhood (sic) of 80% homeless people who can not afford to 
rent the room for a day, they rent a room for an hour to take a shower 
take some rest,” the owner at the time, Amit Kumar Shah, wrote in a 2016 
appeal to the Planning and Land Use Management Committee. Shah said hiring 
a 24-hour security guard would cause him to “go bankrupt in 6 months.”

In 2018 the city council declared the property “a public nuisance” and 
ordered the owners to stop running a motel on the property. Around that 
time, the property changed hands, according to Councilmember Harris-
Dawson. “I say ‘sold’ in air quotes because it was sold to a relative,” 
the council member told L.A. TACO.

The 108 Motel doesn’t appear to be currently renting rooms online. On 
Google, they received just over three stars. And on Yelp, two and a half 
stars. Reviews range from suspiciously positive to terrible. Complaints of 
roaches, mold, and poor customer service go back years.

“If you are broke and don’t mind sharing a small room with roaches this is 
the place to be,” one Google reviewer wrote.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mayor-bass-moved-about-two-dozen-
homeless-people-into-a-motel-known-for-criminal-activity-and-
prostitution/ar-
AA1cC40s?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=14188624d7b145c791e2a79debc49533&ei=30

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Re: Stupid black Democrat Mayor Bass Moved About Two Dozen Homeless People Into A Motel Known for Criminal Activity and Prostitution Dumb and black <dumb-and-black@splcenter.org> - 2023-06-16 10:14 +0200

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