In a statement issued through their attorney, the Inmans portray their properties as a necessary respite for the less fortunate.

By Dean L. Inman

Published on September 08, 2009 at 9:00pm

Last Tuesday morning, the City of Seattle Attorney's office, directed by Mayor Greg Nickels' office, issued a press release, showed up unannounced with a combination of 12 SPD officers, lieutenants, and sergeants, city council members, DCLU representatives, relocation representatives, code-compliance representatives, and housing-enforcement representatives. They knocked on every door of my five motel buildings, telling all of my tenants and all of my resident employees to move out by 12:00 noon Wednesday and they were all eligible for $3,000.00 each in cash relocation assistance (which is then forcibly paid by me) to move "because of unpaid utilities." The utility company had not issued shut-off notices indicating payment needed to be made by 5:00 that same day. Later that day, the Relocation Office called with a tentative bill of $106,000 in cash assistance I would need to pay if all applications were received and approved. They indicated 30 people had already turned in applications that afternoon.

I paid the utility bills within hours, still unsure and confused as to what was really going on. My guests were also upset and confused, and some also moving out. The buildings are operating as their legal use, which has been hotel/motel since they were built. This was obviously a politically motivated and an organized "assault" on our tenants, staff, and me. This was by anyone's standards a total abuse of government authority and power.

I had an incredible experience last Thursday night that I want to tell you about.

Frankly, before I walked into the Langston Hughes Cultural Center, I feared the event might be hokey, a total bust.  But by the time I sat down and looked around the room I knew it would be a remarkable event.  Never before done in Seattle, the Drug Market Initiative (DMI) Call-In was dramatic, powerful and profound.

The call-in was organized by Seattle police officers and City Attorney Tom Carr.  The invited guests, the police called them "candidates," were 20 low-level street drug dealers from the Central District who had plied their trade around 23rd Avenue and East Union Street, along Jackson Street, and near Garfield High School, disrupting the neighborhood, spreading fear and anger, and bringing other criminal behavior to the area.  Eighteen of the 20 showed up, along with their family members or closest friends.