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Liquor stores in Baltimore that were damaged during the mid-April protests of Freddie Gray’s death will not receive city recovery aid unless business owners of the stores move or no longer sell alcohol.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the affected 23 liquor stores continued to sell liquor despite the zoning ban on alcohol sales within the city of Baltimore. Because of this, the loan and grant programs that help the city rebuild will not be accessible to these sorts of businesses. On Monday, Mayor Rawlings-Blake said of the issue, “I have a great amount of sympathy for those stores that have been damaged, and we want them to rebuild. We want them to reopen. But with all the grants and the loan programs that we have available we have a unique opportunity for these nonconforming liquor stores to convert into uses that can uplift our community.”
Overall, 400 business were damaged, 40 of them liquor stores. Of the 40, only 23 were located in residential areas where the zoning laws banned them. The other liquor stores that were located in commercial areas will receive city aid.
Sharon Green Middleton, who serves as the city councilwoman for Baltimore’s Park Heights neighborhood, said of the city aid liquor store debate, “Crime and grime is around liquor stores. So if they’re not going to work with the community and change, they need to go.”
Do you think business owners should change their business concept or move in order to receive city aid?
via Hip Hop Wired
