December 24, 2009
Little bottles part of a larger problem
The ABC store at 25th and Venable Streets, rumored to be the most profitable in the state, this year became the only ABC store in the state that does not sell minis (singles, airplane bottles) due to community pressure. Working with Delegate Jennifer McClellan and the ABC Board, the Union Hill Civic Association worked to make this happen to combat trash and vagrancy along the 25th Street and Venable Street corridors.
12 Responses to “Little bottles part of a larger problem”
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This is great news, for the community.
This has been an amazing year for the Union Hill Civic Association. This is just one of the ways that Union Hill has shown itself to be a unique and wonderful place to call home. The degree to which neighbors are civically engaged and care about the long-term health of the neighborhood (for all of its residents) is remarkable and shows great promise for achieving the integrated, mixed-income, healthy community we are striving for.
Delegate Jennifer McClellan and ABC Board Chairman Susan Swecker deserve the credit for making this happen and for responding swiftly to the requests of Union Hill.
#2 “care about the long-term health of the neighborhood (for all of its residents) is remarkable and shows great promise for achieving the integrated, mixed-income, healthy community we are striving for”
Who is the “we” that you are referencing here? I bet the folks who live in the area and purchased the “little bottles” would have a whole different perspective.
Stop blowing the smoke-screen and tell it like it is. What you are doing is slowly driving these folks out of the area they call home. “the requests of Union Hill”…Just because you have a loud voice doesn’t mean you speak for the community. Gentrification is not what made Union Hill the “wonderful place to call home”. Give it a break !
Is every attempt to fix up a neighborhood now gentrification?
I live a bit north of Union Hill but close enough to 25th Street and Venable to be familiar with that particular area. I don’t know anyone who is invested emotionally, historically, or financially in the neighborhood that doesn’t think that this is a good idea.
“Is every attempt to fix up a neighborhood now gentrification?”
How in the world is stopping the sale of “little bottles” an attempt to fix up the neighborhood?
What are you trying to accomplish by stopping the sale? What will the impact be on the folks who bought them? Stop blowing smoke and call it what it is!!!
UHCA describes it as a move to cut down on trash and vagrancy. This seems like a good move as well towards pushing back on public drunkenness.
RIGHT! You’ve got to be joking. This will absolutely have no impact on public drunkenness. Have you ever heard …”where there’s a will…there’s a way”?
What UHCA has tried to accomplish is sweep the problem under the rug and hope the folks go away…where are they to go? This sure sounds like a gentrifiers solution to the problem.
Back to my original question: can’t folks try to do something about the social ills facing their neighborhood without it being gentrification? What if this ban on minis is supported by long-term residents of the area?
This is my fault- I was in a rush to visit family and just put up a standard, boilerplate response to this posting instead of taking the time to fully explain what was intended by this action and its origin.
In early Fall the UHCA decided to make Venable Street the focus of our energy over the course of the next year. We held a meeting at a Venable Street residence that was attended by well over 60 people of incredibly diverse backgrounds, including many of the other longtime residents of Venable and environs. For Union Hill, that’s a ton of people. The one thing everyone had in common was a genuine concern for the long-term health of the Venable corridor.
As a community, we discussed the issues facing Venable and set goals in four broad categories: community building, safety, aesthetics, and infrastructure. One of the specific concerns that was brought up repeatedly to me that evening (and for months prior) was the large amount of litter on the street, much of which was attributed to the miniature bottles sold by the ABC store at Venable and 25th Streets. At the conclusion of that meeting, we redoubled efforts to ask our representatives in state government to solve the issue, which they did.
Since the sale of the miniature bottles was halted, there has already been a marked decrease in litter in the area. I know because I live one block from Venable, myself.
Yesterday evening I was shopping in Carytown and needed a special bourbon for a Christmas gift. Out of curiosity, I asked the Carytown ABC clerks if they sold minis. They told me that the Church Hill ABC store is the only one in the state that has stopped their sale. They lamented that their store had not followed suit, because of the non-resident vagrants and inebriated people the sale of airplane bottles brings to that location.
This was just one very small step toward improving the lives of area neighbors, both old and new. We look forward to accomplishing the rest of our goals for Venable, including the planting of the new street trees that the UHCA has already purchased for Spring. Those who genuinely care for our neighborhood and the Venable Corridor are also welcome to attend our free Brunswick Stew event on Sunday, January 3rd. More information will be forthcoming.
Merry Christmas!
I’m certainly one of the “we” in Union Hill who considers the ABC’s decision to cease selling “minis” from its Venable Street store a good thing. How bizarre to think that public drunkeness and litter is beneficial to a neighborhood. Those who enjoy the drunks and litter would probably dislike ridding Union Hill of the drug dealers and prostitutes too, because to do so may well “drive a few more folks out of the area they call home.” Lack of access to minis certainly won’t stop public drunkeness but hopefully will mark the end to years and years of picking those little bottles out of yards and gutters.
So… what’s going to happen when the new Gov sells the ABC stores? Will private businesses be forced to limit what products they sell?
I can tell you from experience that problems with this type of thing do not discriminate – they hit across the board.
Public drunkenness and littering is not a race issue, nor is it a class issue. Been to many holiday parties this year? How about driving around town while folks are returning from their celebrating? Lots of folks act like a nuisance when hammered, or well on their way. There are reasons why it’s against the law. Wasted people are a pain in the ass.
Identifying the ability to get drunk for cheap, throw trash around for other people to clean up, and make choices that are associated with not being all-there as a “community right” is real sad. Don’t coddle people as though they can’t get better. They can.
Quit holding people down in the name if defending them. It’s lame.