Good Reasons Behind Rules for Liquor Store

In his article “Business Shouldn’t Have to Foot the Bill for Fighting Crime” (April 23), Gideon Kanner refers to conditions imposed on Jeff and Roy Muchamel’s convenience store as regulatory horrors perpetuated by local officials. In fact, these conditions stem from the conditional-use permit, a hard-won process that is the only means available to local residents and neighboring business owners to have some say as to the kind of businesses and land-use that operate in their communities.

Because we have some experience in working with community groups who are concerned about the correlation between liquor outlets and increased crime rates, we obtained a copy of the zone variance denial for Smiley’s Market (the store in question) dated Dec. 3, 1993. Evidently, after the denial, the Muchamels appealed the ruling to the Board of Zoning Appeals. At this point, they were granted a liquor license provided they agreed to comply with a specific set of conditions.

Before deciding that these conditions are arbitrary, Professor Kanner should have considered the history of Smiley’s Market and the reasons for the initial denial. The following is from the variance denial:

“According to testimony of two officers from the Van Nuys vice section of the Los Angeles Police Department, several investigations were done at the site when the applicant operated the previous building. Several ‘drug buys’ were conducted by officers in the parking lot of the former Smiley’s. . . . There was public drinking of alcoholic beverages, gang members would ‘hang out’ and there was urination and defecation in the parking lot. Statistics for Police Reporting Districts 917 and 918 show a 41% decrease in robberies and a 66% decrease in murders when comparing the one-year period preceding the destruction of Smiley’s Liquor with the one-year period thereafter.”

Limiting the offering of individual cans of cold beer and small bottles of liquor referred to by the professor as “attractive merchandise” makes sense when one takes into consideration the fact that generally the people who purchase these items are those who drink in public and cause the problems. As far as security guards are concerned, there is no evidence from supermarkets, banks and even small businesses that they reduce the number of customers.

Interestingly, the professor writes off the USC study conducted by Richard A. Scribner, David P. MacKinnon and James H. Dwyer as inconclusive on the correlation between the number of liquor outlets and increased crime rates. The LAPD Van Nuys Division statistics indicate otherwise.

We maintain that business owners who choose to sell alcoholic beverages must conduct their businesses in a responsible manner that takes into consideration the well-being and safety of their neighbors as well as making a profit.

ILENE SHAPIRO

JOANNE WRIGHT

Burbank

Shapiro is the director of Community Challenge, an alcohol abuse prevention program of Bridge Focus Inc. Wright works as community liaison with the same program.