City Government

City Attorney Sues Owners of West Grand Hotel for Appalling Conditions

Published

12 years ago

August 6, 2014

The Oakland City Attorney this week sued the absentee owners of the West Grand Hotel, a single room occupancy rental property that has a reputation for for drug activity and unsafe, inhumane living conditions.

For years, the West Grand Hotel at 641 West Grand Ave. has been a nuisance to the neighborhood and a danger to the dozens of people who live there, according to the City Attorney’ OFFICE.

< p>The property has long been a center of drug activity, including sales, storage and distribution of cocaine and heroin, the City Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Since April 2013, Oakland police have arrested at least 23 people for drug sales and other drug crimes connected to the property, and officers have recovered firearms and large amounts of drugs packaged for sale inside the building.

City inspectors also have documented dangerous building and fire code violations, including lack of fire extinguishers or alarms, exposed and unsafe wiring, broken windows, infestations of mold and cockroaches, overflowing dumpsters, nonworking toilets and showers, cooking appliances used in the hallways and extremely unsanitary conditions unfit for human habitation.

“The owners of the West Grand Hotel are responsible for the appalling conditions in the building, and for allowing their property to become a public nuisance in the neighborhood,” City Attorney Barbara Parker said.

“Every tenant in our City has a right to safe and humane living conditions,” Parker said. “We have many responsible landlords in Oakland. Unfortunately, the owners of the West Grand Hotel treat their tenants as nothing more than ATM machines while their buildings literally fall apart.”

The lawsuit, prosecuted by the Neighborhood Law Corps unit in the City Attorney’s Office, asks the court to declare the West Grand Hotel a public nuisance and shut it down for a one-year period.

The lawsuit seeks damages for years of unpaid Rent Program service fees and substantial civil penalties and damages from the owners.

In addition, the lawsuit asks the court to appoint a receiver to take control of the property, relocate the tenants and make all necessary repairs, with the owners responsible for all costs. The lawsuit also asks the court to order the owners to live at the West Grand Hotel until the nuisance is abated.

The West Grand Hotel is owned by Oakland JMO, LLC, which is not licensed to do business in California. The LLC was incorporated in Georgia in late May 2012, just two weeks before the company bought the West Grand property. Rent checks are sent to the address of a Beverly Hills attorney who acts as an agent for the company and is named as a defendant in the city’s lawsuit.

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Related Topics:Barbara Parker City of Oakland fire code violations health code violations Oakland Oakland City Attorney West Grand Hotel

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”