The can-shaped brown paper bag could be on its last legs on H Street.
A petition to ban the sale of single-serve alcohol containers out of stores along the busy corridor in Northeast is scheduled to be considered by the District’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board during a Jan. 17 hearing. If approved, about seven grocery and liquor stores that line the street would be impacted.
The ban is being sought by Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6A. Rapidly gentrifying H Street is on tap for a $25 million revitalization and the moratorium is part-in-parcel with the cleanup, said ANC Chairman Joseph Fengler.
For the H Street corridor to be revitalized “it cannot continue to be a site of criminal conduct, public drinking, public intoxication, urination, and litter,” according to the petition, filed in September. The consequences of single-sale 24 ounce cans and 40 ounce bottles “contribute to an overall perception of an unpleasant and unsafe area, thereby discouraging people from shopping or dining along the corridor.”
“It’s about removing street curbs as bar stools,” Fengler said.
Liquor and convenience store owners oppose the moratorium, citing what they fear would be devastating economic impact.
“Most people want one single beer, one single beer,” said the co-owner of Sun & Moon Grocery at 1387 H Street, who identified herself as Ms. Shin. “I think if we can’t sell single beer, I think most H Street businesses out of business.”
The proposed H Street ban is patterned after a similar initiative on Mount Pleasant Street in Northwest. The Mount Pleasant moratorium, according to the petition, yielded a 51 percent reduction in calls to the Metropolitan Police Department for disorderly conduct.
The ANC has struggled to control single sales over the years. First it tried and failed to protest liquor licenses, then to develop voluntary agreements with store owners. And if the moratorium fails, Fengler said, the ANC will turn to legislation.
District Mayor Adrian Fenty, who unsuccessfully sought a similar ban across Ward 4 as a D.C. Council member, said he supports neighborhood-driven moratoriums.
“There’s just too much of a concentration of stores that sell a high percentage of their inventory in large bottles of beer,” Fenty said.
ABC board single sale hearing
» 11 a.m. Jan. 17
» 941 Capitol St. NE, 7th floor
To testify, contact Cynthia Simms at 202-442-4496 by Friday.
