Commentary: Tear down Costa Mesa’s problem motels

You do not have more than 500 9-1-1 calls a year if you’re a safe place to live.

You don’t have Yelp reviews mentioning broken wires, non-working smoke detectors, bedbugs, fleas and heroin needles in the mattresses, if you’re safe.

Yet protesters will have you believe that the Costa Mesa Motor Inn is a safe, affordable place to “raise” a family.

Many people in town know if you want a hooker or drugs, go to the Inn. Violent drug addicts who aggressively panhandle and steal call the Inn home.

How selfish can you be to expose your children to that? The right thing to do, if facing living in a motel, is to treat it like you’ve been told you’re dying of cancer. Find someone you trust to raise your kids or surrender them to social services until you can get on your feet.

But it’s hard to exploit your kids for money if they’re not with you. I know I’ve opened my own wallet for people claiming their kids are hungry, only to see them with their hungry child still trailing after them as they carry a 24-pack of beer and a new pack of cigarettes.

The children are being doubly exploited now by the protesters. These protesters seem to want Costa Mesa to be a cesspit of crime and debauchery. They don’t care about the residents of the Inn. They care about their warped political agenda.

The “residents” are getting up to $5,500 to relocate. The whole “Costa Mesa has no affordable housing” is a lie. We actually have more than the law requires.

Costa Mesa does not need slum motels. We need nice apartments and homes. We need high-class hotels and even a high-class RV park to bring in tourists, since we’re close enough to the beach and Disneyland to be of interest, but far enough away to be competitively priced.

Children need bug- and drug-free places with kitchens, their own rooms and where they can have a pet.

So tear down the problem motels. The time for these drug and prostitution dens is over.

Don’t believe the protesters. Believe the truth. Believe the reality. Believe in a safer Costa Mesa.

JAMI JOANNE RUSSELL lives in Costa Mesa.