Linden Bar -- a necessity?
A reader is taking issue with my Baltimore Sun column about Linden Bar and Liquors being padlocked by city police. I described the store and others like it as being both a necessity and a contributor to urban blight. In hindsight, the word necessity was a poor choice of words. I was trying to convey that they do serve a purpose in that many poor neighborhoods don't have grocery or drug stores, and people are forced to rely on corner shops.
Here's the email, with the author's permission:
"Dear Peter Hermann:
I read your story today about the owner of the Linden Bar's lawsuit. Don't you think you were stretching it to say that the Linden Bar was a "necessity"....??
"The Linden Bar and Liquors on West North Avenue and Jimmy's Carryout on East Hoffman Street are similar in many ways. Neither establishment has windows. Both occupy stretches of Baltimore real estate that residents, officials and everyone else gave up on long ago. The stores are a necessity in neighborhoods abandoned by other merchants, but also contributors to neighborhood blight."
I fail to see the reasoning behind this rather poor choice of words. A liquor store, no matter how nice (and this one was FAR from "nice", believe me, I live a block up the road from it) is not a "necessity." You might have been able to logically say that had this been the typical mom 'n pop "grocery store," but this was not that. You write at the end of your piece "It's not easy to clean up a neighborhood," and your column illustrates one of the reasons why: a failure to see such stores for what they really are ... not "necessities" but rather IMPEDIMENTS to a neighborhood ever coming back from neglect and blight!
Regards,
Chris Forsberg
Eutaw Place"
He added this later:
"I know what you're trying to say and even agree to a point about many city neighborhoods suffering from abandonment not having many stores. It's just ironic that the very stores that DO often remain in such neighborhoods wind up hurting the residents (or taking advantage of them). My wife used to work for the Community Law Center, where she helped get another corner "grocery" store shut down. They were selling green meat, expired baby formula and other such wonderful items, at prices higher than one could find at chains such as Giant and SuperFresh, for example!) The Korean merchant's assoc. fought that, too, if I remember correctly."
Comments
"prices higher than one could find at chains such as Giant and SuperFresh, for example"
If, of course, Giant and Super Fresh had stores in that neighborhood. Rotten meat is something to be addressed, as are questions of violence. But closing a place down seems like it would be your last resort, especially if there are people using the store in a safe and legal manner.
Posted by: Cheap Jim | September 15, 2008 11:06 AM
once you start allowing the police to do whatever they want to hard workimg small businessmen then you will start to see a major abuse of power byh the police in baltimore. the police already abuse there power in so many ways , this just gives them another tool to trample on peoples rights!!!
Posted by: Mike B | September 23, 2008 2:09 PM
Mr Forsberg is right. In addition to not being necessary, that particular liquor store has had a long history of problems. Everyone knows that the liquor-board gives business WAY MORE than a few chances to get their act straight. Linden Liquors had their chance and them some.
Perhaps now a business owner who is capable of getting a grip on crime in their own store can step up and do the right thing.
Posted by: h23 | September 23, 2008 2:32 PM
Yea it's a hole in the wall alright......but for the poor people who want to get products nearer to their home,,why shut them down.
If you have a drrug problem in that area....remove the drugs...not the store where the juveniles hangout to peddle their drugs.
I want a beer and I don't want to travel "x" blocks up the street to get it. That's more gas and time spend because the police can't do their job properly.
Max
Posted by: MAX POUNDER | September 23, 2008 6:56 PM
"I know what you're trying to say and even agree to a point about many city neighborhoods suffering from abandonment not having many stores. It's just ironic that the very stores that DO often remain in such neighborhoods wind up hurting the residents (or taking advantage of them). My wife used to work for the Community Law Center, where she helped get another corner "grocery" store shut down. They were selling green meat, expired baby formula and other such wonderful items, at prices higher than one could find at chains such as Giant and SuperFresh, for example!) The Korean merchant's assoc. fought that, too, if I remember correctly."
Amen, I agree 100% Places Like Linden do no one any good they are part of the problem. Not the solution!
Posted by: Tony C | September 23, 2008 8:28 PM
Restricting law abiding citizens' means to legal, gainful employment may not be the best approach to fighting crime in the city. Baltimore City should revisit the Padlock Law and consider another approach...like arrest, convict, and imprison the actual criminals, and not shut down stores where they pass by...
Posted by: ddk | September 23, 2008 11:27 PM