Mount Pleasant DC Forum

[admin]

Please vote:

http://www.mtpleasantdc.org

[Jeanne]

This was in the Washington Post a few days ago. This ANC has a real reputation. Why doesn't this ANC stay out of it.


Beer Brawl

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) strengthened his reputation as a consensus builder this week by trying to broker a deal between Graham and council members Jack Evans (Ward 2) and Tommy Wells (Ward 6) over a ban on "single sales" -- code words for 40-ounce containers and tall cans of beer sold by liquor stores, to the chagrin of neighborhoods around the city.

One by one, council members, including Jim Graham, Wells and Adrian Fenty when he was on the council, have managed to get moratoriums on such sales in various communities. Council members Yvette M. Alexander (Ward 7), Marion Barry (Ward8) and Muriel Bowser (Ward 4) are the latest to join the anti-single-sales movement.

Wells, successful with an H Street moratorium, is looking for an expansion in Ward 6 that would put Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in charge of curbing sales in their areas. Evans wants the same for Ward 2. They had their proposals on the agenda Tuesday as emergencies but pulled them. See, Graham has a problem with the proposals, and it's called ANC 1D, a commission that has taken an unusual stance: It is against a ban on single sales in Mount Pleasant.

Giving ANCs the power to run the show in wards 2 and 6 could give ANC 1D the opportunity to reverse a moratorium that has been in effect in Mount Pleasant for eight years. Graham introduced legislation Tuesday that would extend the moratorium, which expires in October. In an interview, Graham said the local neighborhood association, unlike the ANC, favors the moratorium.

At Tuesday's meeting, he said there has been less public urination and a drop in arrests for disorderly conduct because of the moratorium.

But the ANC wants the city to come up with a better approach to public drunkenness, said Jack McKay, who is in his sixth year as a commissioner.
"Cutting off single sales is not going to change their behavior," he said of the people who drink beer on the street. "They are not going to become upstanding citizens because you cut off single sales."

"It's a feel-good solution that simply moves the problem to somebody else's neighborhood," said McKay, who has lived in Mount Pleasant for 34 years.

Mount Pleasant will have to see whether the extension stands, and if the moratoriums in wards 2 and 6 are passed as written. Gray mediated for Graham, Evans and Wells on Monday. And the next day, when Evans and Graham were bickering at the meeting, Gray put a stop to it. But Evans said he reserves the right to propose his measure as an emergency July 15.

[zrathore]

[Tina]

[jack]

From: Melissa Bird
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 4:59 PM
To: [email address removed - log in to view]
Subject: ban on singles in Ward 1?
Councilmember Graham

I appreciate that you are holding a hearing on the ban of singles in ward 2 and 6 but I am wondering why you are not addressing this is ward 1.

After the prolonged fight with Seven Days grocery on 14th street and the ongoing problems of drunk loitering, especially at Girard Park, I am certain there would be tremendous community support for a ban in Ward 1 or at least in problem areas. What can do to move this forward in Ward 1?

Thanks
Melissa Bird


An informative summary from Councilmember Graham:

From: Jim Graham [mailto:[email address removed - log in to view]]
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 8:42 AM
To: 'Melissa Bird'
Cc: Keith and Dotti Wade ([email address removed - log in to view]); 'thomas Smith'; Gregg Edwards; 'Bryan Weaver'
Subject: RE: ban on singles in Ward 1?


The Ward One situation is complicated. There is division on the question.

ANC 1A is against the ban, and ANC1B (7 day grocery) has not taken any position. It was on the agenda (I was told) for June but I am not sure what happened.

ANC1C (Adams Morgan) has informally communicated that it feels it is not necessary there. (The west side of Ward 2 and Ward 3 have taken a similar point of view.) ANC 1D (Mt Pleasant) is against the continuation of the ban which has been in place for more than 8 years by voluntary agreement. There does seem to be strong community support....since it was a concerted community effort that put this into place years ago with voluntary agreements.

I am copying the ANC chairs for any comment that they may wish to make.

In summary it is a developing situation. I will be making a decision on this soon. Bests Jim

[jack]

[zrathore]

[MPHS]

There's no real ban on single beer sales. Just go to the bar and order a beer, and they'll serve you up a single.

However, there would be a real impact of repealing the ban on single beer sales from liquor stores. And the impact would land on my alley and my front porch. The impact smells like piss and looks like puke.

There is no question that banning single sales limits public drunkenness in our parks, porches, and alleys. It's nice that the ANC is concerned about displacing the problem to other neighborhoods, but they seem to have followed their own logic to a twisted conclusion that makes no sense for THIS community.

And, if you care at all about preventing chronic alcoholism among the poor and homeless, then limiting access to cheap alcohol is absolutely the right policy. It may not cure a chronic alcoholic of the disease, but it certainly can marginally limit the damage.

[jack]

[Laurie]

Jack:

You state that the ANC won't support something that clearly transfer our problem elsewhere. Ok, so (1) where has the single sale problem been transferred and (2) what proof does the ANC have that our problem has been transferred to that neighborhood?

As to the person who wants to buy the single to cook etc., those people have to be in the minority.

--Laurie

[zrathore]

[jack]

[ClancyMac]

I agree with everything that Zrathore's said.
A single sale ban is one tool of many to combat public intoxication and substance abuse issues.

Of course there needs to be widespread treatment programs available, but some abusers simply will not avail themselves of them. In those instances, making it less socially acceptable and more difficult to engage in public drunkenness is a perfectly rational policy decision.

The ANC's position that "pushing the problem onto other neighborhoods is not acceptable" is amazingly naive. Does the ANC really believe that all DC neighborhoods are morally compelled to host their "fair share" of noxious social behaviors? I highly doubt that the rest of the ANCs in the city share that view. Put another way, does the ANC believe that MtP residents shouldn't complain about junkies shooting up in the Irving Street alley because MtP shouldn't be pushing its drug abusers into other neighborhoods?

If a single sale ban shifts public drunkenness onto other neighborhoods (and mind you, the ANC can offer no evidence of this), then the answer is for other neighborhoods to push for their own single sales bans.

One issue that Jack hasn't raised is that the ANC Commissioners have frequently expressed the view that the single sale ban is "classist"---with the analogy that if single sales of malt liquor are prohibited, then sales of bottles of chardonnay should be too. (Gotta love that class warfare the ANC frequently resorts to). But the truth is that single sales of wine are already prohibited---a bottle of wine is the servings equivalent to a six-pack--not a single---and no liquor store can legally sell wine by the glass.

[Laurie]

[Laurie]

P.S.

Jack, you said "the easiest thing for him to do is to walk to Columbia Heights and do his buying and drinking there."

But have they done so?

It seems pretty clear from your own posting from Jim Graham that ANC 1A (Columbia Heights) doesn't want a single ban and ANC 1C (Adams Morgan) doesn't feel they need one. So where have Mount Pleasant's problems gone---Cleveland Park?

If the ANC really thinks the reason they don't support a single sale ban is because it pushes the problem to other neighborhoods, please, now is the time to provide that evidence.


LC