When a group of National City officials descended on the Stardust Inn on East Plaza Boulevard the morning of June 4, what they found was eye-opening.
Trash and debris had piled up in what was the lobby. A series of fires over the past month had damaged part of the structure. Insulation, plumbing and electrical wires had been stripped out of the wall, and nearly every window at what was once a 34-bed motel was broken.
As officials moved through the property they encountered seven transients who had been living there.
In total, the city found 367 separate violations of local and state codes at the property on the city’s main commercial thoroughfare.
Yet when officials contacted the owner, Elianna Reuben, about fixing the numerous problems with the property, Reuben said she did not have the funds to do the work, according to a city staff report earlier this year.
As a result, National City took on the chore, boarding up windows and hauling off trash, according to the report. In all the city set aside some $450,000 to pay for the work.
Now fenced up and with a security guard, the Stardust Inn — a place of no stars, and plenty of dust — was more than just a development project gone bad.
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