Bid to Sell Liquor at Store Rejected

A city zoning administrator has refused to grant a liquor license to a store owner after objections from neighbors, church leaders, police and Councilman Richard Alatorre’s office.

Corona Market owner Kiumars Gahvarehei said he has not decided whether to close the market, which employs 20 people, appeal the ruling or reapply for the liquor license next year. He wanted to add beer and wine sales at his month-old store at 1913 E. 1st St.

“We’d like the support of the neighbors,” Gahvarehei said after the hearing last week. “They think that it is the alcohol that is causing the gangs and problems, but I cannot change that.”

Neighbors told Zoning Administrator James J. Crisp that several nearby bars and liquor stores are contributing to local crime. Police say the area of 1st and State streets has the highest crime rate of the Hollenbeck Division.

“We do not need another alcohol-vending place in our area,” said Yolanda Robles, who heads a Neighborhood Watch program. Residents at the hearing complained of gang members who loiter and litter in the alley behind the store and of vagrants harassing children at a day-care program at nearby Bethesda Tabernacle Church.

Crisp said he received numerous phone calls and letters from residents opposed to the liquor permit. Robles said she and her neighbors have been fighting local alcohol problems for some time. But the Eastside has not seen the organized opposition to liquor sales that has taken place in South-Central, said Henry Gonzalez, planning deputy for Alatorre.

Residents look at several factors, such as whether a store owner is willing to work with police and Neighborhood Watch groups, and the incidence of crime before they decide whether to fight a liquor license, Gonzalez said.

“It is probably not as organized. However, there is a general sense of concern throughout the (14th) District toward the licensing of liquor stores,” he said. “Neighbors are more informed and much more aware of the process, and there has been an increase in the Neighborhood Watch program.”