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Lt. Jimmy Cunningham said police have taught the owners of the hotels how to conduct background checks and how to use the city’s court records search, but so far, police have not seen much improvement. Jayesh Patel, of New Jersey, owns Parkway Inn, and Steve Land owns the Ranch Inn.
After one meeting with Patel, who flew in from New Jersey, police were told the business plan was to level the hotel and build retail businesses. That plan must have fallen through, Cunningham said.
The hotels, located about one mile apart, are “notorious for drug activity” and have a “high population of addicts,” Cunningham said.
MORE: Police concerned about high number of calls made to Parkway Inn
Police also are concerned about what impact the hotels are having on local businesses and residents.
Cunningham said the gas stations and drug stores near the hotels are reporting a rise in shoplifting and there have been drug overdoses in the McDonald's bathroom and parking lot — crimes that police blamed on the hotel residents.
People stay at the hotel and “order their drugs,” Cunningham said.
“That’s the theme,” he said. “It’s an ongoing thing.”
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Janie King, who lives on Tytus Avenue, just down the street from the Ranch Inn, said she drives her 12-year-old son to his friend’s house near the hotel because she doesn’t want him walking past the business.
Her son, a student at Miller Ridge School, used to get picked up at the bus stop near the hotel, but King said she called the district and requested the stop be changed.
King said there are signs of the heroin epidemic everywhere in the city.
“You can’t go everywhere without someone begging you for money,” she said.
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