TOLEDO, Ohio -- Outside a Shell station in Toledo, Ohio, a community coalition leader raised his bottle of King Cobra malt liquor for the news cameras on Sunday afternoon. His dozen supporters cheered: Denounce the 40-ounce!
So it was at a news conference organized by a coalition of four community groups fighting what it calls the saturation of convenience stores throughout the city, according to the Toledo Blade.
The coalition was announcing its support of a proposed six-month citywide moratorium against issuing new [image-nocss] permits for convenience stores that sell alcohol and cigarettes. We have zero tolerance for more alcohol, beer, wine and cigarettes in our neighborhood, declared Deborah Younger, executive director of ONYX Community Development Corp.
Organized Neighbors Yielding eXcellence, along with the Lagrange Development Corp., Neighborhoods in Partnership Inc., and North River Community Development Corp., form the Weed and Seed coalition initiative.
The moratorium proposal sprang to life last week when Toledo Plan Commission members voted to recommend that City Council adopt it. Coalition members said they first suggested the moratorium to the Plan Commission to give the city time to form a task force that could deal with the long-term issue of convenience stores.
Moratorium supporters argue convenience stores that sell alcohol and cigarettes attract crime, alcoholism, drug use, prostitution and other undesirable elements. The news conference was staged across from a Shell station that began selling alcohol this year after council approved the required special-use permit.
Although the council initially rejected the permit request four years ago, a Lucas County Common Pleas Court judge ruled in 2004 that council didn't give a good reason for denying the application.
The moratorium proposal is gathering support among some council members, who would have to muster a three-fourths majority nine votes to overturn the plan commission's recommendation, according to the newspaper.
Personally, I don't have a problem with a moratorium for six months as long as it's legal, council president Rob Ludeman told the newspaper.
But for Najah Jarouche, whose husband owns a Dairy Mart in the city, a moratorium against convenience stores selling alcohol and cigarettes doesn't make sense. We're not forcing them to buy this stuff, she said. If there's no convenience store, then they'll go to the grocery store.
Jeff Lenard, spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said the City Council should consider forming its task force before taking aggressive measures such as a moratorium, which he told the newspaper would hurt small-business owners and benefit larger chain stores. It's punishing the local business and could push business to those who don't have the local roots, he said.
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