Petition Drive Against Rebuilding Liquor Stores Gains Momentum

When a South Los Angeles coalition began its petition drive to “Rebuild South Central Without Liquor Stores,” they hoped to collect 1,000 signatures by Aug. 1.

By midday Sunday--five weeks after they began--they had 25,700 names, and the numbers were climbing.

“Keep liquor stores that were burned down from being rebuilt,” volunteer Jacqueline Hills, 16, a high school student, called out to parishioners at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church as they left morning services.

“We have too many liquor stores,” Mid-City resident Ann Smalls said as she signed. “It’s time for business people to think about what they’re bringing into a community.”

The grass-roots effort to influence reconstruction was taken to eight South Los Angeles churches Sunday by the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment, which is spearheading the campaign.

“We need to figure out how to rebuild this city with quality and turn tragedy into opportunity,” said Karen Bass, the coalition director. South Los Angeles, she pointed out, had before the riots more than twice as many liquor stores--728--than the entire state of Rhode Island, which has 280. And the stores in South Los Angeles serve a population of 500,000, while Rhode Island has 1.3 million people.

The group has tapped into longstanding frustration over the concentration of liquor outlets in South Los Angeles, and the unique situation created when rioting and looting destroyed roughly a quarter of them.

The coalition Bass heads started out three years ago as an alcohol and drug abuse prevention program, but branched out last year to fight against the concentration of liquor outlets.

After the riots, the coalition, composed of more than 250 groups and agencies, churches and individuals, shouldered the campaign against reopening all destroyed liquor outlets.

“The overabundance of liquor stores compromises the quality of life in the community,” Bass added, “and we hope this demonstrates an overwhelming public concern about the issue.”

Liquor stores have the legal right to rebuild, state licensing officials say. Owners, many of them Korean-Americans, say that changing those rules would rob them of their livelihood. But the coalition has formed a legal team to study alternatives. The group has also been publicizing studies showing the relationship between alcohol abuse and accidents and crimes such as homicide.

“We are trying to show public safety should be placed before the narrow business interest,” said coalition member Sylvia Castillo, who is directing the campaign.

Jabari Heeldy, a 16-year-old volunteer collecting signatures, said he passes six liquor stores on the half-mile route he takes each day to school. Two were gutted, he said.

As South Los Angeles resident Carolyn Milligan signed the petition outside First AME on South Harvard Boulevard, she said that in her five-mile drive from home to church, she used to pass four liquor stores. All are now destroyed.

“I’d like to see malls instead, movie theaters, and something for the kids,” said Milligan, a manager at the Pacific Stock Exchange.

Fewer stores would help youngsters, Ladera Heights resident Bill Demery said, because “they provide a bad environment for children.” In one area, according to Bass, 22 of the 64 burned-out stores had documented licensing violations, many for selling liquor to minors.