A friend of mine sent me a link regarding a report about violence and alcohol outlets. In some places, like wealthy neighborhoods, a lot of bars are not a problem. But in unstable poorer neighborhoods, a lot of bars are a problem.
Speaking of, Jim Berry, our fearless leader, said something along the lines that actual bodies challenging liquor licenses need to appear at the ABC hearings. Jim is welcomed to comment on this to clarify (or send a short 5-10 sentence email).
One thought on “Bars and neighborhoods”
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This is something that a few years ago, I had been quite involved in. Your post was forwarded to an e-list I am on to which I wrote:
This is the same kind of conclusion reached by Dennis Gorman and others, in research that I brought to the attention of City Council in 2002. (See this old blog entry “Local Involvement is So Much Fun” for a reprinting of the testimony.)
It’s the kind of research that was based in close observation of reality. The kind of reality that fueled the efforts of people like Earle Rand, may he rest in peace, the guy on 7th Street NE (Hispanic, once active in Near Northeast Citizens, but family duties called him away from DC), whose name escapes me at the moment, and Jessica Ward. These efforts are easily forgotten as time goes on.
And by the way, is similar to an article sent to the list in 2004 about Seattle and their efforts (which continue and are expanding by the way) to limit open alcohol consumption in parts of the city–remember the point in that article that the top 20 “consumers” of emergency services in King County, mostly alcoholics from the center city of Seattle, cost the County more than $2 million annually.
(See “Seattle may extend alcohol-sale limits to much larger area.”)
My sense is that Class A, B, and C sales and density of outlets is really a dependent variable. The independent variable is poverty and disconnection from society (cf. _Code of the Street_ by Elijah Anderson). Add alcohol, boredom, weapons, etc., and it becomes a potentially explosive mix. (The same factors influence late night violence in entertainment places such as in Adams-Morgan.)
Note that I am quite big on research. Although, in this arena, there has been enough work done that the obvious need not be belabored.
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Spatial Dynamics of Alcohol Availability, Neighborhood Structure and Violent Crime DM Gorman, PW Speer, PJ Gruenewald, EW Labouvie – Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 2001 – ncbi.nlm.nih.gov OBJECTIVE: This study examined the relationship between neighborhood social structure, alcohol outlet densities and violent crime in Camden, New Jersey.
This might be of interest to people as well, something from last year, “Restaurants and liquor licenses–How much is too much on H Street?” which looks at a lot of the work done in the UK wrt “The Late Night Economy.”