Judge Orders City of Tombstone to Allow Six Gun City to Reopen Outside Patio
Mike Carrafa, the owner of Six Gun City, had his day in court Thursday May 21st. The case was heard in Sierra Vista where it was moved to as Six Gun City’s lawyer did not feel they would get a fair and impartial hearing in front of a Tombstone judge.
I was not there but I spoke with some who were, including Mike Carrafa himself and I was told the judge said (and I paraphrase as I do not know the exact quote) that this had gone on long enough and that he was not going to shut down the business. The judge then ordered the city to tell Six Gun City what had to be done to comply with the Tombstones building code (Mike had been trying to get a hold of the city’s contracted inspector since the beginning of April but was given the run around and then told he was ‘on vacation’ and thus unavailable) and get the patio back open by 5Pm. They were back open on Friday.
I also heard that the city was told to ‘get over it you lost’.
The Tombstone News, owned by Mayor Dusty Escapule, which seems to consistently spin the news in the mayors favor reported as its headline for the May 22 edition “Six Gun City to Comply With Preliminary Injunction”.
Ok, so Six Gun City agreed to do what had to be done to comply with the building code and complete the construction on the outside patio - which is what owner Mike Carrafa has been trying to do ever since the city all of a sudden decided that the previous inspectors inspection was invalid and the venue was not in compliance with international building code.
The paper makes it sound like the city came out on top and that is definitely *not* the case. They were in court to try and shut down Six Gun City *completely* - the inside *and* the outside - effectively putting the venue out of business. Instead the city was told to get the patio back open and produce whatever documents that were needed so the owner could complete the construction in compliance with the building code.
Even in light of this decision there are people in Tombstone who still want to insist that Six Gun City didn’t win the case. This boggles my mind. It amazes me that some people are so dense.
The bottom line is that Six Gun City’s owner forced the issue because he *wanted* his day in court, he got his day in court, and he was proven right. I am going to see if I can get a video interview about the court case with Mike Carrafa to post here on the site.
I’m happy to report that, not only were we open for business today but we had record crowds as well. There were a LOT of folks (tourists) I spoke with who had seen the news reports on the patio situation and who told me they were happy to hear the city was unable to shut the venue down.
As a sign of defiance (towards those who will obviously try anything, no matter how low and underhanded, to try and stop Six Gun City’s growing success as a restaurant bar and show venue) and in a nod to the movie Tombstone, while they were on the streets advertising the show, all the Six Gun City gunfighters wore sashes made of the yellow caution tape that had previously marked the patio as closed
Of course, this time the cowboys beat the marshal and the city…
