Notorious Seattle strip club in trouble for taking too much off top

shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
A Notorious strip club is in big trouble with the city of Seattle for taking too much off - off some trees, that is.
Complaints started coming in last week when five lush trees fronting DreamGirls at Rick's on Lake City were dramatically topped and shorn of the majority of their branches, Lake City Live first reported.

The club has previously kept a fairly low profile after the feds seized it from the previous owner and sold it at auction to the DreamGirls chain. But now it's drawing the ire of the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance.

The Seattle Department of Transportation's Urban Forestry Division has determined the club cut the trees illegally and improperly, spokesperson Mary Beth Turner with the Seattle Department of Transportation says.

"They did it without a permit and they were topped, which is an absolute no-no with trees. The trees that were cut are a total loss."

The strip club will have to pay for the city to replace the five trees on SR 522 and restore the area to its former appearance. The city won't say how much it will cost to remove the damaged trees and replace them with new trees of similar size. "The cost will be 'substantial'," Turner says.

DreamGirls did not respond to a request for comment.

8 comments

Latest

Club_Goer_Seattle
10 years ago
I go to this club sometimes. It's not my most-frequented, but I'm familiar with it. Two thoughts:

1. At first I thought the article was serious about the "taking off too much part," because my last time in their, a dancer I was with immediately began removing her top once in the VIP. Washington state lap dances legally, are bikini only. But she said, "No one told me I couldn't take my top off." So, right there, I was in for a better-than-usual dance.

2. As for the real part of that story, the city of Seattle has done an extremely poor part of maintaining its portion of the public right-of-way in front of the club. The sidewalk needs replacement, and there are several curb cuts (for driveways) that are no longer needed. The city could have even conditioned prior property owners (Talents West, and now Deja Vu) to do that as part of building permit approvals, but neglected to even send a building inspector out to the site to see what improvements might be necessary that could be charged to the permit applicant. Now the city is complaining about its street trees being trimmed too much? As Farmerart would say, "Sheesh!"
alabegonz
10 years ago
This requires a full report from a certified ARBORIST.

Anything less than that is considered malpractice. The agency could get in trouble for violation.
SlickSpic
10 years ago
Where's Julia Butterfly Hill when you need her?
motorhead
10 years ago
They should just leave
steve229
10 years ago
Sounds like they were barking up the wrong tree
shadowcat
10 years ago
Save a tree. Eat a beaver. :)
crazyjoe
10 years ago
Always hire a certified, licensed and insured arbotist
Club_Goer_Seattle
10 years ago
After I read this thread yesterday afternoon, I saw "coverage" of it on last night's 11:00 p.m. news on KOMO-TV. Yep, the "tree trimmers" took off more than the girls inside do. They barely still look like trees. There are two pics of the damage at this link (scroll to the bottom for the second. It also shows one of the unused driveway aprons I mentioned above):

http://lakecitylive.net/2014/05/23/stree…

I couldn't find KOMO's film on line. It gave a little better view than these pics do, but it was a very brief story, probably not worth posting on their website.
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