City Attorney and mayoral candidate Dennis Herrera filed suit last week in Superior Court against landlord John Wai, owner of a 48-unit apartment complex at 245 Leavenworth. According to the public nuisance suit, Wai has allowed the place to become not only a festering cesspool of vermin and bedbugs, but it's also essentially being overrun by members of the Cambodian Crips, who also go by the local names Thug Lords, "TL," and, tellingly, "245."

To wit: "In addition to bedbug infestations, garbage piled outside, mold and mildew, and a damaged elevator and apartment doors inside, Herrera alleged that Wai allows the building to be used as a headquarters by members of the Cambodian Crips to sell drugs and conduct other criminal activity."

As for the innocent Tenderloin denizens who are forced by circumstance to continue living in this dump, they tell Herrera and police that they feel like "prisoners in their own homes." In one incident, a resident chased a man from his apartment after the man punched a whole through a window, only be "swarmed" outside by ten gang members who punched him in the head and neck. Swell, right? Kind of makes your overpriced studio sound a little better...

[Note: The source article refers to 88 units, but this listing for the building, which appears to have recently been on the market, shows it only to have 48 units.]

[Examiner]