'Enough is enough': Residents fight new liquor stores in poor areas

Bailey Loosemore | Courier Journal

If Jackie Floyd is looking for a drink, she can find it at one of the four stores that sell liquor within a mile of her Russell home.

She lists the stores by distance: There's Liquor City that's just three blocks away and the Express Mart that's down at 15th Street and Broadway. If she's in a walking mood, Floyd can hit West Grocery and Liquor on 10th Street, or she can hop over to the Platinum Food Mart that's right next door.

"I think that's really stupid," Floyd said of the stores' proximity. "It's becoming over-saturated."

On July 30, Floyd will join a group of neighbors in protesting two more stores that want to sell alcohol in that one-mile vicinity — a pair of Family Dollars at 1234 W. Broadway and 1419 W. Jefferson St.

The corporation owns about 30 stores in Louisville and, on July 6, applied for licenses to sell alcohol at 23 locations that are predominantly based in the west and south ends.

Spokeswoman Kayleigh Painter said by email that Family Dollar is "simply trying to provide our customers with a convenient option to purchase adult beverages while shopping for their everyday needs."

But Floyd and other people living near the stores say the move is intended to further exploit their low-income communities that already have too many places to buy alcohol.

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"I believe these businesses target our neighborhoods and exploit our neighborhoods," said Metro Councilwoman Jessica Green (D-1), who represents the Parkland and Park DuValle area. "They want to make a quick dollar and don't typically give back to the communities they're sucking dry."

In recent years, neighborhoods like Russell, Smoketown and Newburg have pushed back against new businesses that apply for licenses to sell packaged beer, wine and spirits in their neighborhoods.

They've held protests and sent letters of opposition to the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

The efforts, for the most part, have worked. Since 2016, the state ABC board has denied licenses to four businesses in those areas and placed restrictions on one other.

The residents say they aren't against new businesses in their communities. They just don't want the problems that can come with too many liquor stores.

National studies have routinely linked a high concentration of liquor stores with higher levels of substance abuse, which can lead to increased violence and a number of health disparities, such as lower life expectancy.

The 2017 Louisville Metro Health Equity Report shows that the average life expectancy for people living in Louisville's west end falls between 69.6 and 71.8 years. The life expectancy rate for all of Louisville is 76.8 years.

The report suggests the city adopt a policy that limits the density of liquor stores to "prevent over-concentration in certain neighborhoods."

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Will Ford, a spokesman with the city's department of code and regulations, said Louisville does not have a regulation that restricts a new liquor store from opening within close proximity to an existing one. But the department does take an area's concentration of liquor stores into account when reviewing applications, he said.

Louisville ABC Administrator Robert Kirchdorfer approves or denies every application that comes through the codes department.

If an application is denied, Kirchdorfer sends the applicant a letter explaining the reasons behind the denial. And the applicant is able to appeal the decision with the state department of alcoholic beverage control.

Residents are given 30 days to submit letters against a project, and Floyd said she's already begun collecting letters in opposition of the Family Dollar applications.

"I carry my folder of opposition letters with me everywhere I go," Floyd said. "I explain the issue, and I have no problem getting people to sign. ... Neighbors are saying enough is enough. We want to change our community. We have to use our voice, our power to speak up and speak out."

Councilwoman Green said she has been inspired by the people of west and south Louisville who are pushing back against developers who try to "shove things down our throats."

"People are sick of outsiders deciding what's best for us, deciding what it is we're going to just take," Green said. "... I'm so inspired by the people who live in our neighborhoods. Folks will stand up and articulate what it is that they want and, most importantly, what it is that they don't want in their neighborhoods."

Metro Councilwoman Barbara Shanklin (D-2) said what her district wants is more sit-down restaurants and small grocery stores.

Shanklin represents the Newburg area where, this week, a group of residents protested a liquor application for Metro Liquor at 4845 Poplar Level Road.

"We had little kids with signs saying they want an ice cream parlor," Shanklin said. "There are a lot of different things they could put there."

Bonnie Cole lives in the Shawnee neighborhood, where residents voted in 2008 to make the majority of the area dry.

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Cole said the vote was a last resort, but since the neighborhood's liquor stores closed, she's noticed a decrease in crime and an increase in community pride.

"When we got rid of some of the liquor stores in our neighborhood, I think people felt like their identity was back," Cole said. "... I think some people believe that maybe we're willing to accept anything rather than nothing. We don't believe that. We believe that we can hold out and we'll work with companies and businesses that want to come here and benefit the community. Not make us revert to where we were in 2008."



Bailey Loosemore: 502-582-4646; bloosemore@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @bloosemore. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/baileyl.

LOUISVILLE'S LIQUOR STORES

The below map depicts the location of 175 liquor stores that are currently open across Louisville.

To make the map, the Courier Journal referenced a Louisville Metro database of every business with a liquor license. The points on the map are each classified as liquor stores that hold licenses to sell packaged liquor.

FAMILY DOLLAR PROTESTS

Residents in Russell, Newburg and other neighborhoods plan to protest the liquor license applications for 23 Family Dollar stores in Louisville. The residents will meet outside their local Family Dollar stores at 6 p.m. July 30.