Residents go after Hillcrest Motel again
Dimond District neighbors on MacArthur Boulevard call it a site for violence; owners from Hillsborough deny allegations
By Laura Casey, STAFF WRITER, Tribune, May 12, 2003

 For about 25 years, some Dimond District residents have considered the Hillcrest Motel on MacArthur Boulevard a blight that needs to be removed.

They twice have dragged the motel owner into small claims court and won both times by citing provisions of the city's public nuisance laws. Now, as they work on a third case to bring before the judge, the city is beginning to come down on the business too.

The two-story motel at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue is, according to neighbors, a magnet for prostitutes, drug addicts and dealers, violent criminals, and the homeless.

"It has been going on for so long that even if you put a church there, people would go there for three months to buy drugs before they realized it wasn't the Hillcrest anymore," neighbor Deborah Roberto said.

David Roth, an attorney representing Hillcrest owners Yurning, Yufong, and Kaiying Chou of Hillsborough, said his clients flatly deny charges that crime is rampant at the Hillcrest.

"If you look at the city Crime Watch Web site you will see for yourself the main area (for crime) is right in the 7-11 parking lot and there is a second area up Lincoln," Roth said.

Roth said his client has poured money into the hotel and will continue to spend more to make it a better place for its residents.

It is an asset to the city because "the motel provides affordable housing," he said.

Roberto has a different story. In the two years she has been living directly behind the Hillcrest Motel, she said she has witnessed a fire belch from the window of a room dangerously close to her kitchen. It was one of three fires she has seen at the motel.

She said residents toss diapers and beer bottles in her back yard. Her social book club gets interrupted by residents screaming they are going to kill each other.

She calls the police over and over again.

"You own a home and you work very hard and you can't come home and enjoy it," she said.

Marcel DeGross and his wife Geri Haslett know several people who have moved from the neighborhood to get away from the Hillcrest.

The couple moved into their Boston Avenue home six years ago and have been fighting to clean the place up ever since. Years of meetings with city officials have only resulted in promises of better landscaping -- dirt and weeds surround the hotel -- and a few other

improvements such as an onsite security guard.

DeGross says prostitutes rent rooms by the hour, homeless rent by the week.

The rooms are filthy, he said, and a good portion of one building is boarded up after a fire burned out a few rooms.

Oakland Police Lt. Eric Breshears said he is very aware of crime that occurs in and around the Hillcrest Motel.

Officers have arrested tenants for drug dealing and possessing guns and stolen property.

"We believe that crime does exist not only at the Hillcrest but in the surrounding area of the Hillcrest, and it is a possibility that the crime in the surrounding area is a result of crime at the Hillcrest," he said.

Neighbors are taking the Hillcrest owners to court again.

DeGross and Haslett have won two settlements each in small claims court against the Hillcrest owners, in the spirit of the Safe Streets Campaign started in Oakland in the 1980s.

They and other neighbors monitor the property, keeping logs of possible illegal activity.

When enough evidence has been gathered, neighbors send a demand letter to the Hillcrest owners asking them to clean up the property.

If the property owners fail to resolve the problems, the neighbors go to small claims court and argue that the owners are maintaining a public nuisance by allowing illegal activity to occur on their property.

Under the rules of small claims court, each neighbor on the claim is eligible for up to $5,000 in damages.

"The way I figure it is we have got more time than (the Hillcrest Motel owner) has money," DeGross said.

And as the neighbors' third case heads to the courtroom, Councilmember Jean Quan's (Montclair-Laurel) office has brought the issue through the city's legal channels.

The motel was deemed substandard April 28 after the Community and Economic Development Agency Building Services filed an unchallenged declaration against it.

The city's Building Services, through the City Attorney's Office, also filed a notice that the owners of the motel are violating their operating permit with the city by allowing alleged criminal activity and reported nuisance conditions to occur there.

"We're not only looking at the physical plan of the building, but we are also holding the owners responsible for the operations," Quan said.

A hearing has been set for 7 p.m. today in Hearing Room 2 of Oakland City Hall, One Frank Ogawa Plaza.

Residents who have been affected by activities at the motel are encouraged to testify.