Posted on 06/15/2015 1:52:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Baltimore City will not extend riot recovery money to liquor stores that operate outside of zoning regulations, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Monday.
More than 380 businesses across Baltimore were damaged by riots and looting at the end of April, including 23 liquor stores that operate in residential areas. The city has banned alcohol sales in residential areas, but many liquor stores have been grandfathered into current zoning rules.
If those stores plan to continue to operate as grandfathered liquor stores in their current locations, they will not be able to receive recovery money being made available to other businesses through the BDC. The BDC is offering damaged businesses storefront grants of up to $5,000 and no-interest loans of up to $35,000 that can later convert to grants under certain circumstances.
Nonconforming liquor stores can seek assistance from the city, Rawlings-Blake said. But they will have to change to a different line of business or relocate to an area that is zoned for liquor stores.
"I do not believe it is appropriate for the city to provide any money for nonconforming liquor stores to rebuild as liquor stores in those same neighborhoods," she said. "Many of the businesses and the individuals who have donated to the business recovery fund have said the exact same thing. They didn't want their money to go to rebuilding liquor stores in these communities."
The mayor discussed the funding decision in Baltimore's Park Heights neighborhood Monday morning, flanked by members from community groups, City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana S. Wen and City Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton. Wen said the move is an opportunity to convert liquor stores to grocery stores in communities that have been labeled food deserts because they lack access to fresh food.
Middleton has been part of a long struggle to reduce the number of liquor stores in neighborhoods like Park Heights, she said.
"It's a food desert," Middleton said. "We have reached out time and time again to these outlets. There has been no communication. If they're not going to work with the community and change, they need to go."
The push against nonconforming liquor stores comes as efforts to rewrite the city's zoning code have sparked strong opinions over liquor stores in recent years. City Planning Commission member Cheo D. Hurley, who is also executive director of the Park Heights Renaissance nonprofit group, said he understands the business argument for liquor stores. But high concentrations of liquor stores in neighborhoods are not healthy, Hurley said.
"From a business perspective they're like, 'We can make the best margins,'" he said. "But is that the right thing? Really it's about quality throughout the city. Communities like this are not the only communities where people drink alcohol, but we have, for some reason, a higher concentration of liquor stores. And that's a problem."
Hurley wasn't aware of any nonconforming liquor stores in Park Heights that were damaged in April's unrest and seeking city assistance, he said. But the location of Monday's announcement was still important because of the number of liquor stores in the area, Middleton said.
Nonconforming liquor stores have other avenues for recovery assistance. The U.S. Small Business Administration does not limit its physical disaster loans based on alcohol sales, said Spokeswoman Alana Chavez.
Maryland's Department of Housing and Community Development amended regulations prohibiting funding to liquor stores so that it could provide assistance after the recent unrest in Baltimore, said Director of Business Lending Programs Michael Haloskey. But the department needs a local resolution to distribute funding, so it's likely the city could block state assistance for nonconforming liquor stores, he said.
This will likely not stand legal scrutiny
My businesses were forced shut by city of Nashville during the 2010 flood
For about 5 weeks
For no good reason just purely emotion
We hired lawyers and lobbyists and got our money back
FEMA won’t help much either
Money after riots or disasters is all about politics
Nashville city council is around 40% black
We “persuaded” them to our way of thinking and they vote in block
That solved all our problems
This will — or at least should — be struck down by the federal courts as unconstitutional.
It should...in a non-upside down world. I’m sure Loretta Lynch is looking in to it’s unconstitutionality, as well. /s
It’s not that Prohibition won’t work, it’s just that we haven’t had the RIGHT people in charge of it yet.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. /s
Another left wing outrage.
These stores would still be in business if the mayor had not wanted to give her people the space to riot. Now she has taken their livelihoods away through the back door.
No T-Bird for you!
Maybe it's because business is good there.......................really good......................
The bum wine lobby (Thunderbird, Night Train) will lobby to get this ruling reversed. They are too big to fail.
If the customer base supports multiple vendors of a product, then so be it!
Well Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, there shouldn’t be ANY so called “recovery money”!! This was no accident or natural disaster... you and your people deliberately burned that city down.
People have died because of your incompetence and racism, you shouldn’t be deciding who gets a dime of the publics money, instead, you should be counting piles of fly sh!t on your cell wall just to pass the time away....... and wondering what’s on the prison menu for today.
As the old saying goes, “This is not my circus, those are not my monkeys.”
Now there will be liquor deserts....
I see it. I saw it. So?
Why should any get our money?
And it is our money. You know most will be federal money.
baltimore is about HEROIN not booze
what do you think the pos was selling when he ran from the cops in the first place...
he ran to a building dumped the dope and doubled back towards the cops and got arrested...
It’s not that any or none should get our money, it’s that the woman that caused a lot of this damage gets to pick and choose who gets disaster aid.
There was not a disaster.
I am not outraged by this.
No one should be.
I pointed out the distorted reporting.
Nothing is stopping these businesses from continuing.
This is an interesting area of talk. First the amount of shoplifting prevents a store from making a profit. Then there is the lack of civics as you mention that drive people away. Lastly You see people looking at the boarded up buildings. There is a limited amount of money to purchase goods and services. They can only support so much.
Just because it was man-made instead of nature, it is still a disaster to these businesses.
Baltimore, you are a lost cause... I mean, if I had a grandfathered liquor store in a residential neighborhood, and it was damaged I can’t get a grant to fix my store, yet if across the street, a liquor store wasn’t damaged it can stay open. I’d sue the city...restraint of trade.
I believe Maryland taxes booze at 9%. There may be federal and city taxes on top of that. I hope they lose all that revenue.
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