Calif. city looks to put a cork on liquor storesOakland considers banning new shopsOAKLAND, Calif. -- A crackdown on corner liquor stores is looming in this city, as officials consider a moratorium aimed at reducing the number of alcohol outlets in beleaguered neighborhoods that already have more than their fair share.
Oakland has more than 900 stores that sell alcohol -- about one for every 450 residents. The city has been grappling with the problem for decades, say community activists who have long sought action, particularly against neighborhood beer shops concentrated in some of the city's most impoverished, high-crime neighborhoods. ''It's been very difficult to get any kind of attention. For years, residents and communities were making the connection that alcohol and liquor stores were causing so many of the problems in our neighborhoods . . . but they weren't getting any action," said Joan Kiley, founder of the Alcohol Policy Network of Alameda County. Activists say corner liquor stores contribute to neighborhood crime and quality-of-life nuisances. They have protested about loitering, graffiti, and litter. They say liquor stores often attract the wrong elements -- not only drunks, but also drug dealers and prostitutes. ''For the past 20 years there have been three major crime issues in the city -- drugs, guns, and liquor stores," said Ed Kikumoto, a community organizer for the network. Earlier this year, a man was killed outside one of the four liquor stores in Karin Mac Donald's neighborhood, in a part of town that has the city's highest concentration of beer shops. ''These liquor stores are preventing our neighborhoods from recovery," said Mac Donald, who moved to West Oakland a decade ago. ''These liquor stores are toxic; I consider them environmental pollutants. We need to figure out how to revoke their liquor licenses or find some way to shut them down." In addition to a moratorium on new liquor stores, the city is exploring ways it can use zoning rules to force alcohol outlets to solve chronic problems or face shutdown. The City Council expects to take up the issue next week. With 359 corner liquor stores, this city of 400,000 has an ''undue concentration," according to formulas established by state authorities. It is not as though there has been a proliferation of new liquor stores. In recent years, the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which has sole authority to grant or revoke liquor licenses in California, has issued very few licenses in Oakland for new neighborhood liquor stores. Most of Oakland's liquor stores have been around for decades, before state laws that sought to limit their numbers. Many began as neighborhood markets or delis. As large supermarkets began luring away customers with fresher produce and lower prices, alcohol became the primary product of many of the mom-and-pop stores. Some envision transforming liquor stores back to their traditional role, as small, neighborhood groceries that stock less drink but more food, particularly fresh produce. ''I'm saying we can make something out of them besides places that sell liquor," said Frank Rose, a retired postal worker who is a member of several community organizations, some of which have been tackling Oakland's liquor-store woes. ''Instead of trying to shut down these corner liquor stores, which would take forever to do, let's do something more productive about them," Rose said. It's not so easy, said Adel Ali, secretary of Oakland's Yemeni-American Grocer's Association. As many as nine in 10 of the city's corner liquor stores are owned by Yemeni-Americans. Economic realities prevent most store owners from being able to make wholesale changes to their businesses. Selling fresh produce would be an economic risk, said Ali, whose family runs a neighborhood market east of the Oakland airport. Liquor stores should not have to shoulder all the blame, Ali said. He added that the city needs more police to patrol the streets and to control the ''open-air pharmacies" that spring up on sidewalks, particularly near liquor stores. ''There's no question that there are bad liquor stores," Ali said. ''By all means we need to go after the bad stores." But many shop owners, he said, are making sincere efforts to clean up their businesses. More than 100 owners of liquor stores have signed a pledge to stop stocking drug paraphernalia, to be more careful about selling alcohol to minors, and to close by midnight -- two hours earlier than specified by law. ''They blame all the crime on the liquor stores. If there weren't any liquor stores in Oakland, does that mean there would be no crime? We are being used as a scapegoat. I guess they have to blame somebody," said Kaiyd Aljamal, who runs Sav Mor Liquor on Peralta Street, where a fatal stabbing took place in January. ''He was killed out on the street -- why should that have anything to do with me?" An unpublished study by the University of California at Berkeley suggests that a quarter of all calls made to Oakland Police were related to alcohol. ''A fair proportion of the problems" came from corner liquor stores, said Friedner Wittman, a researcher at the university's Institute for Study of Social Change. It indicates ''a problem that merits immediate attention," he said. A comprehensive analysis of the impact of liquor stores on the city has never been done, said Alexander Nguyen, executive director of the Neighborhood Law Corps, a project of the City Attorney's Office. He said the city's problems are probably no different from those experienced in other communities that have seen a proliferation in liquor stores. The corps recently compiled a report that identified ''the good, the bad, and the ugly" among the city's liquor stores. Nearly a fourth were deemed ''bad," meaning they were the subject of repeated nuisance complaints or occasional violations such as selling alcohol to minors. About a dozen were considered ''ugly" because of chronic violations of law. All except one of Oakland's seven districts are deemed by state alcohol authorities as oversaturated with liquor stores.
''People are just frustrated," said City Councilwoman Nancy Nadel, who represents West Oakland, a district that has 84 neighborhood stores that sell alcoholic beverages -- 28 more than the limit suggested by state authorities. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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