Paper: Anchorage Daily News (AK)
Title: Anchorage mayor says enough's
enough: -
City sues, calling motel a public nuisance - Recent slaying just the latest incident at downtown hot spot
Author:
KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News
Staff
Date: March 7, 2007
An infamouslocal icon has crossed the line,
becoming such a magnet for crime and criminals that court action and a threat of being shut down is the only way to deal with
it, said Mayor Mark Begich on Tuesday as his office filed a lawsuit declaring the Mush Inn Motel a public nuisance.The downtown
motel drew more police calls - 535-- than any other single Anchorage building last year, according to the city.
A
36-year-old man was shot and killed in a room there late last month.
"I decided I had enough of it," Begich said.
The city lawsuit was filed in Anchorage Superior Court under the state's new nuisance laws. A few miles east of the courthouse
Tuesday, the motel's current owners seemed surprised. They bought the business about two years ago, they said, and have since
installed the first security cameras ever. They regularly turn away problem customers. They said the lawsuit came without
warning and they aren't sure what exactly the city wants them to do.
Young Kim co-owns the business along with her
family. Minutes after learning of the lawsuit, she gave a short tour of the motel, which sits between Fifth and Third avenues
along Concrete Street, wedged between downtown and Mountain View.
Kim, who is from South Korea, plucked an empty tea
packet from the ground and threw it in the trash as she showed off her establishment. First, the least-expensive rooms, which
cost $50 a night; then the monthly rooms with kitchens, where a bottle of juice and box of Rogaine sat in one of the windows.
She
pointed out open stairwells where she said homeless people sometimes sleep and doors with wooden signs that read "Fantasy
Room" and "Slumber Room." Locals who have never spent a night at the Mush Inn have heard of its special theme rooms.
On
Feb. 24, David Hubbard was shot and killed after what prosecutors called a cocaine party. He died in the "African Room," which
costs $184 a night and includes a jacuzzi. A triple murder/robbery in 1991 occurred in the "Alaska Room."
Kim wrapped
up the tour in the driveway, not far from the "Sweetheart Room." As she stood in the snow, warming her hands in the sleeves
of her coat, a man stopped to talk.
"You got a cigarette I can buy?"
She didn't.
"It's good you don't
smoke," the man said, ambling on toward Third Avenue.
Kim said the motel's location makes it vulnerable to trespassers.
The Anchorage Jail is visible from the parking lot. The Brother Francis Shelter is a few blocks away.
But Begich said
the volume of police visits to the business can't be ignored and are a sign that something's wrong with the way the motel
is run.
"You don't think people on the street know that is the place to go because nobody is really watching the store?"
he said.
Begich said the owners talked to city officials Tuesday and appeared willing to cooperate, which he called
a "great sign."
Jeanne Steve rents a monthly room and has lived at the Mush Inn since October. The night Hubbard was
shot to death, she heard three loud bangs.
"I've seen a lot of action down here. A lot of transactions," she said as
she waited for a cab.
Across the parking lot, John Homstad visited friends who have been staying at the motel for the
past few months. He said: "I feel safe here."
Alaska's nuisance laws say a person can be held accountable for owning
or maintaining a place that's regularly used for criminal activity. The case is a first for the city, but city attorney Jim
Reeves said a judge could require the motel owners to make certain changes or risk being shut down.
The inn ranked
No. 2 on the list of the police's most visited locations last year, according to the city. The area of 13th Avenue and Gambell
Street, near the Carrs store, was first.
An announcement from the mayor's office describing the lawsuit says police
calls for drugs, prostitution and other crimes prompted the suit. But according to a list of calls, only one was labeled as
a "vice" or "gambling/prostitution" visit.
Police spokeswoman Anita Shell said each police call is listed by
the original complaint - not how the case actually turned out.
"Certainly prostitutes operate out of places that are
as inexpensive as possible," she said.
The Mush Inn lobby smelled like coffee Tuesday morning. Drawings of mushers
hung on the wall and the daytime desk clerk, who said he's worked there seven years but wouldn't give his name, sat behind
the counter.
Images from four security cameras played on a nearby television screen. The clerk said prostitution is
rare here and the recent killing could have happened anywhere in town.
Begich and Shell both suggested the motel might
need to better screen its customers. The clerk said he already does, and pulled up computer files showing the names of people
banned from renting rooms.
"I always put a reason why," he said of the blacklisted names.
One person
who wasn't welcome back had taken the key and TV remote, the computer said. Another refused to pay the rent.
Another
name on the list was Rodney Averill. He was arrested in the Feb. 24 shooting at the motel and charged with second-degree murder
so probably won't be trying to check in soon. But just in case:
"08:18 AM Shot fired and someone died," read his file.
"Do not re-rent ..."
Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins can be reached at khopkins@adn.com.
SPEAK OUT: What do you think? Voice your opinion on our online forum.
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Mush Inn
troubles at a glance
* Three people murdered, two wounded in drug robbery, Jan. 8, 1991.
* No. 2 location for
police calls in 2006, 535 times.
* No. 1 location for police calls in 2005, 485 times.
* David Hubbard shot
to death, Feb. 24, 2007.
Police calls to other problem locations
*13th and Gambell, 547 calls in 2006
*
Bragaw and Mountain View, 358 calls in 2006
Source: MOA/ADN archive
The Mush Inn Motel is on Concrete Street near
downtown.
