PHOENIX — Residents near I-17 and West Bethany Home Road have new hope for their community now that the U.S. Attorney shut down a local hotel that was a center of crime.
With boards over windows and doors the Royal Inn is no more.
"Kids walking to school everyday and seeing prostitutes lined up like fast food operation here on Palo Verde and that's not right," Jeff Spellman.
"This makes me very proud to get rid of this hotel because of what it was doing to the neighborhood," Betty Guardado said.
Guardado is the Phoenix District Five Councilwoman. She says the property had been a haven for drugs, prostitution and other crime for too long.
"It took away that lifestyle, that healthy lifestyle where parents want their kids to be riding their bikes, playing outside, being able to feel safe in their front yard and that was taken away from them by this hotel," she said.
It's why she and so many others are celebrating after the property was seized Tuesday, coming after a years long investigation by the Phoenix Police Department and the FBI. The building though part of a much bigger issue facing the 27th Avenue Corridor. It's an area that spans from Dunlap to south Metro Center all the way down south of Indian School Road.
"There are a lot of assets in the area but we've continued to be plagued with problems," Spellman said.
Spellman is part of the leadership team for the Violence Impact Project Coalition. It's a group that works to address crime, blight and the revitalization of that corridor.
"I liken the problem to Whac-A-Mole that game in the arcade where problems pop up, you pound them down and the faster you pound them down the faster they pop up," he said.
Still closing the Royal Inn, he feels, is a big hit and a huge step forward in turning the area around.
"You know, it's how do you eat the elephant?" he asked. "One bite at a time. And this was a pretty big bite right here at the Royal Inn. It is going to have an impact."
Leaders and residents know closing one building doesn't fix everything and work is still needed.
"We're going to continue looking at these hotels and challenges and tackle them because we're not done," Guardado said. "I mean this is a huge success and I think this is going to ease a lot of the problems that we see along 27th Avenue but the issues are not over. We're going to make sure that neighbors continue to take their neighborhoods back."
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