South Dallas Sheds Another Hot-Sheet Motel
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The Dallas City Council just voted on an agenda item in Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway's wheelhouse: permanently shuttering a South Dallas motel surrounded by "ladies of the evening at all times of the day and night," as Caraway put it before begging Carolyn Davis to continue going after hot-sheet motels in her district. The motel at issue is the Colonial House Motel at 3103 Colonial Avenue, which applied for a specific use permit to continue operating there. The council voted unanimously to deny the permit.
The Board of Adjustment had ruled in April that the motel was "non-conforming" and, last summer, ordered it shut down by December 31, 2008. The owners -- Jitendra Patel and Meena Patel -- filed a temporary restraining order to keep their doors open, but the court ruled in the city's favor. Which is an enormous victory for nearby St. Philip's School and Community Center, whose executive director and headmaster, Terry Flowers, spoke against granting the SUP. Said Flowers, when students would look out the window and see the prostitutes wandering the streets, "they wonder why this exists in their community." Said Mayor Tom Leppert, the council's decision is "a vote for the future of this neighborhood."
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