Report on Liquor Stores Praised

Social service agency leaders are praising last week’s report from a city task force that recommended 20 ways to limit the number of liquor outlets in South-Central.

Among the recommendations of the Mayor’s South-Central Community/Merchant Liquor Task Force was a proposal to ban new liquor licenses in South-Central. To make it easier for liquor stores to relocate, the report said retailers should be allowed to transfer their liquor licenses to nearby counties, and nonprofit groups should be permitted to buy liquor licenses from South-Central outlets for resale to merchants in other parts of the city.

“The over-concentration of liquor stores in South-Central has been a human disaster,” said Silvia Castillo, a spokeswoman for the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment. , which represents more than 200 agencies in South and South-Central Los Angeles. “The report deals with liquor stores as an environmental issue and public safety hazard that increases the risk of violent crimes.”

However, area merchants believe they are being unfairly blamed for alcohol abuse and crime in the area.

“I do agree that there are too many liquor stores in the area . . . I don’t agree with all the recommendations,” said John Murray, founder of the Southern California Liquor and Tavern Owners Assn. “A merchant stocks his shelf with merchandise called for by the community. A merchant does not force customers to buy his products, and he has no responsibility to give back to the community and support community activists, churches and other social organizations.”

The Community Coalition issued a statement saying the group was sympathetic to the plight of liquor store owners. “The coalition has no desire to punish store owners for what we truly believe is not their fault but rather the fault of historically poor planning in South-Central . . .,” the statement said.