— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Valencia Whole Foods, soon with better and wine (maybe) [Photo by Jill]
We've long felt the city needed to ease up the restrictions in the 1996 Mission District liquor license moratorium—making it easier for grocery stores and markets to remain viable in the neighborhood—and legislation introduced by Supervisors Scott Wiener and David Campos is going to do just that. The Chronicle has the scoop:
Wiener and Campos try to address a number of problems in their measure, which they planned to introduce at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.
Neighborhood stores under 5,000 square feet would be allowed to sell beer and wine, as long as it doesn't take up more than 15 percent of the floor space. It would also allow businesses to close for up to 120 days for repairs and upgrades without surrendering their liquor licenses. The current 30-day limit discourages business owners from making improvements to their establishments, the supervisors said.
It also will require the Planning Commission's approval for a full-service restaurant to move into a former retail space. The new rule, which is used in North Beach and other commercial areas of the city, recognizes the need for businesses that serve the community, as well as visitors.
The 1996 law was created in part to combat the proliferation of corner stores that were blamed for public drunkenness and neighborhood violence. However, the unanticipated drawback of the law is that nearly two decades later, neighborhood residents cannot buy a six pack at their corner grocer despite “tourists and well-heeled visitors [being able to get] a drink at any of the pricey restaurants in the area.” The new legislation aims to change that.
We've already heard that Valencia Whole Foods would stay open later if allowed to see booze, and the forthcoming Local Mission Market has previously declared the vitality of alcohol sales to their market's success, it is hard to imagine much controversy around the proposed changes. But with the changes to the restaurant openings in retail spaces process (sacred cow!), who really knows.
[SF Chronicle, via Ellen Huet]
Comments (8)
You forgot “, won’t pass.”
Nice! More common sense legislation from Sup. Campos! Weird to see Wiener’s name attached to it, though.. That guy is a tool.
Does anybody even want this ban anymore? Is there anyone who seriously thinks the ban has had the desired outcome?
Won’t somebody please think of the children?
What neighborhood residents can’t buy a beer at their “corner grocer”? I can’t think of a single place in the Mission that doesn’t have a liquor store within 2 blocks.
Right, it is already convenient to buy beer, and this is not about making it more convenient.
But those historical inherited morality laws make it difficult for the small stores run by families to be viable. This could help.
The city should walk-able, and public transportational, rather than one that requires a car to buy groceries at Costco and Safeways. This would help by removing the morality laws that tilt the field away from the mom and pop stores.
Thoughts on “It also will require the Planning Commission’s approval for a full-service restaurant to move into a former retail space. The new rule, which is used in North Beach and other commercial areas of the city, recognizes the need for businesses that serve the community, as well as visitors.”
Not sure about applying the rational given here, cause, even with the new restaurants opening, it would be hard to make the case that there are not businesses that are serving the community.
Seems like the problem is too many restaurants on Valencia, and not enough on Mission Street where the infrastructure and building size is more appropriate to restaurants. But Mission Street is more of a policing issue, and housing the meth heads in SRO issue, then a businesses not serving the community issue.
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