Having put down the neighboring church’s first attempt to shutter the shop with a temporary restraining order, the Central District’s I-502 pot shop Uncle Ike’s was back in court Friday as lawyers for Mount Calvary Christian Center made their case again that the marijuana store never should have been allowed to open in the first place at 23rd and Union.
UPDATE: Ike’s camp tells us the temporary injunction was denied and that the shop will be open as usual to serve your holiday shopping needs. The larger case against the shop, state, and city isn’t scheduled to go to trial until next year.
“The Washington Legislature enacted provisions to protect children from marijuana retail business operations, not to protect retail marijuana businesses, and invoke mandatory directives regarding location and distance of such exposure,” the plaintiffs wrote in the motion filed in King County Superior Court. “The defendants completely ignored that directive.”
Lawyers for Uncle Ike’s, a CHS advertiser, counter that the store’s ownership followed the letter of the I-502 law in security the shop’s license and that Mount Calvary’s Teen Center at the center of the dispute is used primarily for non-protected religious services and hasn’t hosted non-religious youth activities for several years:
Ike’s defense also countered that “no evidence has been presented that marijuana from Uncle Ike’s is being sold to minors or that store-level security measures are not presently working.”
Based on the shop’s eye-popping revenue totals, Ike’s lawyers have also called for the requirement of a sizable bond to protect the shop against losses of $20,000 in sales per day and its $2 million start-up investment should the injunction be granted:
CHS first reported here on the Mount Calvary lawsuit against Ike’s ownership, the state and the City of Seattle and have reported that city officials have said they are looking into better local management of the I-502 process. A similar fight could come up again in the area as plans are hatched to bring a new pot store to 15th Ave E. In one filing, Mount Calvary claims Mayor Ed Murray agrees that Ike’s shouldn’t have been allowed to open:
The church also seems to be fighting for respect from Uncle Ike’s owner Ian Eisenberg:
We’ll see what the judge has to say about it, soon.
Years ago, there was a bar and grocery at 22nd & Madison called Deano’s (bar subsequently renamed Club Chocolate City). Large numbers of destitute looking people (I regularly counted 25) congregated there selling dope and themselves – on one occasion the first 7 people I passed on the sidewalk each offered to sell to me.
When Deano’s/Club Chocolate City was closed, the crowds vanished and a similar sized crowd gathered outside Thompson’s Point of View (where the Neighbor Lady now is). I cannot speak to what this latter crowd was doing.
I am unaware of any efforts by any churches in the neighborhood to reach out to these destitute drug dealers. I was aware of (and participated in) outreach efforts spearheaded by the Lt. (now Captain) John Hayes of SPD to connect with the crowds.
I’ll just keeping contributing to Uncle Ike’s “legal defense fund” and continue to shop there. Keep your Church off my State.
If this church really wanted to protect children they would stop brainwashing them.
The Church should know that not only Uncle Ike’s thinks their concerns are a joke.
Also, the Church should stop lying about that “teen center” which any local resident with eyes knows is mostly un-used.
Don’t bear false witness, because if you piss off Your God I live in the smote-zone and He’s so bloodthirstily eager to punish the strays from His flock, and stuff.
Protect The Community!
10 Commandments reference FTW!
“mostly” unused? You’re being very very generous.
(how Christian of you!) ;-
Has anyone walked through the parking lot where the Post Office is/was? Holy smokes! I feel for Sam’s Sandwich Shop (which is DELICIOUS) trying to bring in customers.
I walk through there a lot. Agreed – Sam’s is good.
What’s the problem?
And therein lies the root of many of OUR objections to Mt. Calvary’s hypocrisy: decades of open-air drug-dealing right on their doorstep, by people selling TO their children, and they didn’t raise so much as a whisper in protest. But now a LEGAL cannabis store opens next door and suddenly they’re all “think of the children!” Bull. If they had truly held that attitude, they would have been out protesting at that intersection every day since the church was established there, but instead they were nowhere to be seen while the dealers plied their “trade” in plain sight.
Whenever I need to go to the P.O. I’m always on guard..for anything. I’ve seen groups of guys openly ‘shooting dice’, smoking weed and generally acting as if they’re not in the least bit concerned about anything and anybody else around them; including the law! Zero regard and respect for the elderly, the handicapped, kids..no one. I’ve said it before here…I for one can’t wait until “that” block all the other planned residential/retail projects have replaced and displaced all of the residual shady riff-raff in the vicinity. I absolutely do not care about the cries of ‘gentrification’ and loss of ‘Black’ residential identity. Change is progress, if not good entirely.
Is “shooting dice” a euphemism for something or are you just really anti-gambling?
@ Hutch..
Please excuse my “faux pas”. I used that expression as it was called in the 70’s back-in-the-day in Atlantas’ black neighborhoods. I guess saying, “playing dice” is more tasteful to your curiousity?? :rolled eyes:
As to the gambling question, I’m a firm believer that ‘a fool and his/her money are soon parted.’ _`>`
” If they had truly held that attitude, they would have been out protesting at that intersection every day since the church was established there, but instead they were nowhere to be seen while the dealers plied their “trade” in plain sight.”
Protesting, civil disobedience, and lawsuits are ineffective tactics for dealing with people who are disobeying the law.
Mt Calvary opposed same sex marriage too. IT’s them that don’t reflect our community’s values. THEY need to take their gay hating religion out of Seattle.
It’s a shakedown.
Amen
if the church is so concerned about the youth, maybe they should actually have kids at their “teen center”? all I ever see there are church services (I drive by it multiple times per day).
there is a liquor store and bar across the street, as well as a vacant post office which is a hangout for the neighborhood drug dealers.
the church doesn’t seem to mind those things though, because they didn’t buy up the property that the church wanted to use as a parking lot.
[…] — if you’re keeping track for the history books. Its first months brought protest and legal challenges… and lots of sales. City officials have said they are looking into better local management of […]
[…] either. In December, a King County Superior Court judge denied Mount Calvary Christian Center’s attempt to shut down Ike’s while their lawsuit against the business moves through court. The church is suing the pot shop for […]
[…] shut down Uncle Ike’s dropped its lawsuit earlier this week. The Mount Calvary Christian Church sued Uncle Ike’s claiming Eisenberg violated the state buffer rule by opening within 1,000 feet of a teen center the […]
[…] church and community group has been dropped, the Seattle Times reports. CHS reported here on some of the early legal victories for Eisenberg’s store. Last month, Eisenberg told CHS he is planning to open a second I-502 […]