No excuses for Motel Trouble
A nightmare lingers at least a few miles from your home, depending on where you live.
The doors swing open at the Rainier Motel. You can check in anytime you like and commit a crime before you leave.
The Rainier Motel is deserted. It's been deserted for more than a decade. It stands on one of the busiest streets in Lakewood. It's on South Tacoma Way between 96th and 100th.
A man was found dead inside one of the motel rooms. His body had been cooking inside that room for two weeks.
Any death is tragic. Any homicide is intolerable. But there is a larger problem here than one death. The Rainier Motel is an invitation to do bad.
The Journal found clear evidence of occupation: bottles of booze, bottles of urine cigarettes, mattresses. And no wonder. The doors are wide open.
This is intolerable. Lakewood does not deserve this sort of treatment. We pay taxes for public protection. We demand to get something for those tax dollars. There is no way in Hades that in this day and age, dozens of doors in an abandoned building should be swinging open, an invitation to arson and an invitation to crime.
The county says it enforces laws when it receives a complaint. This is not a criticism of the building official quoted in our story, becaquse he has supervisors who are responsible for setting priorities. They have decided it has apparently been too inconvenient since at least 1984 to drive around and look for threats to life and property.
Fine. Let's complain.
If you think the county should do something about the abandoned buildings that threaten our community, speak out. If you think the county should close down the Rainier Motel, let the county know that Lakewood has some pride. We don't have a city government yet to defend us. And the county is still getting our tax dollars. Here are the people to call or write: (We printed three addresses and numbers) If you send them a letter, please send a copy to us.