MPNA's Testimony on Bill 17-846, "The Mount Pleasant Anti-Sale of Single Containers of Alcoholic Beverages Amendment Act of 2008"
Good morning Council members.
My name is Laurie Collins and I am the President of the Mount
Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance.
It’s been 8 long years, and 3 long petitions before the ABC
Board and look where we are today.
I am thrilled to be here.
I’d like to start off by saying that the MPNA
has done considerable outreach to the Mount Pleasant community on
this issue and we have overwhelming public support for Bill 17-846.
For the last month in particular, we have set up Internet
polls which yielded almost 1,000 votes---96% in favor of a permanent
ban; sent out emails to residents; discussed this in meetings; we
have surveyed people on the streets and in our parks.
We have outreached to the MPD and to Neighbors Consejo.
I have personally worked with the former and current Ward 4
Councilmember, the ANC in Wards 6 and testified in support of the H
Street Moratorium before the ABC Board, attended meetings in Ward 5,
spoke to residents in Ward 2 and of course responded to questions on
numerous occasions about Mt. Pleasant here before this Council.
Mount Pleasant has led the way and I feel like I can soon
retire as a spokesperson on this subject.
The decision to
seek a prohibition on single sales of beer and malt liquor was an
easy one for those of us interested in alleviating the visible
symptoms of this problem such as litter, public drunkenness,
disorderly conduct and public urination, and the pall these symptoms
cast over a small local business strip.
Achieving implementation, however, was much more difficult. Local merchants were concerned about loss of business. Some neighborhood activists claimed such measures just shunt the problem to other neighborhoods. On the contrary, our neighboring communities ANC 1A and ANC 1C either aren’t interested or don’t see a need in a single sale moratorium. That’s enough evidence for us.
Our intent of this moratorium was never a means
to cure alcoholism.
Alfredo Enriquez-Morales, Executive Director of Neighbors Consejo
said, “We believe that the single sales moratorium creates a better
environment for success for its clients who battle daily to overcome
alcoholism. The easy
availability of singles exacerbates the problem of alcoholism making
it all too easy to consume and thus even greater challenge for our
clients to overcome alcohol abuse.
Without the single sales moratorium, such easy access to
alcohol would be detrimental to our success in fighting alcoholism
in the community.
We have enhanced
our economic vitality as well.
Our ABC-licensed business community has shown improvement by
sprucing up its stores, stocking better wines and cheeses,
introducing other cuisines and improving displays.
Where these businesses previously made money selling singles
to a troubled clientele, they are now serving more residents who
previously avoided their stores.
We are proud to say that no one went out of business
because they were not allowed to sell singles.
This speaks volumes.
While the
moratorium on single sales in Mt. Pleasant certainly isn't the
panacea to all of our neighborhood problems, it clearly has improved
our quality of life.
As Ward 2 and Ward
6 move forward with their bills for permanent bans, we encourage and
support them as well.