Test Suits Likely to Compel Razing of Golden Eagle Hotel and Other Structures Condemned; Other Courses
Although its time has expired, the according to a ruling some time ago by the city board of condemnation, the Old Golden Eagle hotel still stands at the corner of Sixteenth and San Pablo, and the city legal forces are now considering three ways of eliminating the edifice, according to officials in the city attorneys office. The board of condemnation last night, at a meeting, ascertained that its order of condemnation had not been carried out. The board then resolved to ask the city attorney to "take take proper legal steps" to abolish the old landmark which is the property of William C. Jurgens.
Bestor Robinson, deputy city attorney, to whom the job was handed, says there are three methods of going after the building:
1—Physical destruction.
2—Criminal prosecution against the owner.
3—Sue in the superior court for abatement of the building as a nuisance.
SUIT IS PROBABLE
Robinson intimated that the third method would probably be followed. Robinson asserts that "the city ordinance concerning the condemnation of old buildings has never been tested," and therefore it might be dangerous to "go right ahead and smash down the building."
Robinson asserts that the second alternative, criminal prosecution against the owner, is possible but might not stand if the basic ordinance were found to be inoperative. It was intimated that the Jurgens case, being the most important of its kind, might be brought into court as a thorough test of a city's right to condemn aged buildings after which the city's rights in the matter will have been established.
Oakland Tribune, Thursday Evening, May 15, 1924
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