GRANDVIEW HOTEL NOT PEORIA'S ONLY NUISANCE LOCATION

The temporary closure of north Peoria's Grandview Hotel by a local
judge because it's an "aggravated chronic nuisance" to its neighbors
raises a number of issues, not all of which are comfortable to confront.

On Tuesday, Circuit Judge John Barra agreed with City Hall that the
Grandview and its owner, Kris Jain, were in violation of the city's
nuisance ordinance and ordered the establishment shuttered for 30 to
90 days. The current 16 occupants of the 100-room hotel must be
evicted by Nov. 11.

What prompted the court order were the drug-related arrests of one
hotel resident twice in two months. But in fact, the Grandview - near
the intersection of Prospect and Knoxville, at Junction City shopping
center - has a long history of visits from police responding to
drugs, vandalism, domestic abuse and worse. A year ago, a woman was
shot in the head in her Grandview room. In 2000, a paroled sex
offender broke into a nearby home where young children lived.

Given those incidents, one can appreciate the response of nearby
residents, many of whom packed council and judge's chambers to
express their fears for the safety of their children and the value of
their homes and businesses. This is proof that democracy can work for
those who go to the effort to participate, and keep at it. No one
should have to tolerate such activity.

And yet this closing also raises some eyebrows, on several fronts.

Hotel operator Jain is not the only one who has leveled charges of
city discrimination against people "because they don't have good
clothes (or) they're not the right color." City Councilman Gary
Sandberg and others have also questioned the consistency of the
city's crackdowns on nuisances in other, less affluent and involved
parts of town where "police incidents ... dwarf those at the Grandview."

City Manager Randy Oliver says the city has sent out a dozen chronic
nuisance letters the last few months, so the Grandview is not alone.
Neighborhood activist and former City Council candidate Angela
Anderson also is sensitive to the perception that this is a "rich
versus poor" situation, "because it's not. It's safe versus unsafe."
That may be so, but no one with any knowledge of Peoria would put the
Grandview neighborhood in the city's 10 worst for crime, not even
close. The city's preoccupation with the Grandview is what has opened
the door to these allegations.

Beyond that, not everyone at the Grandview is a criminal. For some
it's a shelter of almost last resort, though at $400 to $600 a month
rent, they're not getting much of a deal. Let's be honest: If put to
referendum, housing for the down and out would not be permitted
anywhere in central Illinois. Where are these fellow human beings to
go, a tent in a cornfield?

Finally, we have always been troubled by the way the city skirted the
U.S. Constitution with its demands on the Grandview to hand over the
names of every guest to police. It's important to protect
neighborhoods, yes. It's also important to do it the right way.

No one should confuse our concerns as a defense of the Grandview or
Mr. Jain, whose cooperation with the city and surrounding
neighborhoods has always seemed half-hearted. Maybe he'll see the
wisdom of being more helpful now.

This remains a healthy neighborhood, and no one wants to see it go
the way of so many others in the central city. It's just that all
neighborhoods deserve City Hall's attention as much as this one.