Previously: Bridge Over Fancy Waters: Marina’s SRO Sued in City Atty’s Suit
A San Francisco residential motel that the city says is a haven for crime and squalor needs to be addressed immediately, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said today.
Herrera sued the owners and management of the Bridge Motel, located at 2524 Lombard St. in the Marina District, in October, citing “an egregious pattern of housing, fire and health code violations.”
Today he asked a San Francisco Superior Court judge to impose a preliminary injunction to force the owners and management to fix the problems immediately, even before the case is fully adjudicated.
“The Bridge Motel is a tragedy waiting to happen, and the continued defiance of its owners makes clear that a court order is needed to fix potentially deadly problems as soon as possible,” Herrera said in a news release.
According to the city attorney’s office, police have been called to the Bridge Motel 91 times since April of last year for alleged illegal activity including fights, trespassing, domestic violence, people with knives and guns, grand theft and assault.
Since August, police have made arrests at the motel for armed robbery, burglary, theft, forcible entry, battery, domestic violence, possession of stolen property, counterfeit currency, failure to register as a sex offender, drug sales and possession, vandalism and other violations, the city’s complaint said.
Other alleged unfixed problems include fire safety violations, lack of heating, inoperable bathrooms and faucets, water leaks, broken windows, structural damage, piled up garbage and rodent infestation, according to the city.
The motel, located in a more affluent part of the city than other residential hotels in the Tenderloin and North Beach, has not been singled out over worse offenders, city attorney’s office spokesman Matt Dorsey maintained.
“The reality is, we’ve done these kinds of cases all over the city,” Dorsey said. “And these are typically referrals from the front-line enforcing agencies, so I’m not in the position to speak to every residential hotel in the city that the building inspection department may evaluate or that the fire department may inspect.”
“But we are in a position to judge referrals from those agencies, and this is an unusual level of defiance,” he said.
According to the city attorney’s office, 31 notices of violation and six orders of abatement issued by the city’s building, fire and public health departments over the past five years “have gone virtually unheeded.”
Dorsey called that “an issue that we have no choice but to pursue aggressively.”
A hearing on the preliminary injunction is scheduled for Feb. 10. If granted, the ownership and management of the motel would be required to immediately fix the problems or face court-ordered receivership.
