By Leslie Collins

Northeast News

July 20, 2011

“It’s been a convenience store with packaged liquor for 21 years. We never had any problems,” co-owner of the former Git-n-Go building Michael Siragusa told the Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee.

That’s because the problems traveled across the street to the subsidized Greenleaf Apartments, said the apartment managers.

When the convenience store closed a year and a half ago, managers of the Greenleaf Apartments thanked God.

“That store being closed has saved lives here,” Greenleaf Manager Jody Pryor told Northeast News. “The crime rate was at least tripled, maybe more than that, with the liquor store there.”

Both Pryor and Greenleaf Assistant Manager Sheryl Clinton said they worry crime will escalate if the store reopens.

Michael and Joe Siragusa are asking the city to approve a proposed ordinance change to waive the density requirement from 9th Street on the north, Oakley Avenue on the west, East 11th Street on the south and Hardesty Avenue to the east.

For years, the convenience store at 5402 Winner Rd. operated with a packaged liquor license, but when the previous tenants let the liquor license expire, it closed the opportunity to obtain another one due to current density requirements.

“Our community has been inundated with easy access to liquor for quite some time and a new store doesn’t seem to be in the best interest of Northeast,” Dist. 40 State Rep. John Rizzo wrote in his letter to Regulated Industries Manager Gary Majors. “While I do encourage small businesses to locate in the Northeast, I believe a liquor store at this location will cause more harm than good.”

Pryor and Clinton agree.

“The theft in the parking lot, the fighting, the aggressive behavior has dramatically decreased (since the store closed),” Pryor said. “It has made a major difference so much so that we were able to go from armed off-duty police officers to a security company.”

Easy access to alcohol late at night was like feeding sugar to a diabetic, Pryor said. It also meant more damage to the apartments and grounds.

“They get loud and keep people up. There’s litter because everybody’s out there and it becomes a party,” Pryor said. “Everything changes (with alcohol).”

More than half of the Greenleaf residents receive monthly utility checks and many cashed them at the Git-n-Go. Instead of using the checks to pay utilities, they’d spend it on alcohol.

“Most of the time it’s not even intentional,” Pryor said. “They have one drink and it leads to two and three and four and your utility check’s gone.”

As a result, utilities would be shut off and if the tenant couldn’t restore utilities in 30 days, he or she would be kicked out of the apartment.

With the convenience store closed, prostitutes no longer roam the streets and drug dealers no longer peddle their wares behind Get-n-Go, Clinton said.

“I feel safe walking to church if I have to walk, but when it (convenience store) was open, I didn’t,” Clinton said.

As female tenants walked by the Git-n-Go, drunk loiterers would yell vulgarities, Clinton said.
“You also have to pass that to get to the bus on Independence Avenue and a majority of our people don’t have cars,” Pryor said. “Mothers with their children have to pass there.”

Now the area is peaceful and quiet, Clinton said, and both women feel safe at night.

A matter of convenience
During the Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee meeting June 29, the Siragusas said their convenience store provided a service to the neighborhood.

“It’s what the neighbors want,” Michael said of reopening the store with a liquor license. “Without this business, from what our neighbors have told us, they’re burdened with finding the means to travel outside their immediate neighborhood. Some don’t have cars, they’re older, some are handicapped, they can’t walk up the hill to Thriftway.

“But, to walk down the hill a short distance and get your basic necessities and go home, by god, let them have the convenience that you and I take for granted.”

Michael touted the store offered staple grocery items like bread, sandwiches, milk and eggs. It also offered check cashing, money grams, money orders and Western Union, he said.

“For our neighbors, it’s terrible to lose a convenience store that used to be across the street,” Michael said.

Michael failed to mention the two other nearby options residents currently have: Inner City Oil Co. Inc. and Abarrotes Lore Restaurant Bar. Inner City is directly across the street from the former Git-n-Go and Abarrotes, a restaurant with a small grocery store, is caddy corner from Greenleaf Apartments. Inner City features gallon-sized milk jugs, cereal, candy, flour, burritos, BBQ pork sandwiches, baking powder, hygiene products and more. Abarrotes expands on what Inner City offers to include eggs, raw pork sausage links, ham, hot dogs, bread, full-sized fruit juice cartons, vegetable oil, cheese, tortillas, butter, pasta, rice, canned vegetables, tuna and other staple grocery items. It also features a rack with 64 different spices.

Both Inner City and Abarrotes also have an ATM machine, and Abarrotes offers money grams.

Although Abarrotes serves liquor and beer, the Greenleaf Apartments managers said the restaurant never caused them problems. Patrons can’t take the liquor to go.

Thriftway also sells liquor and beer, but residents think twice about climbing the hill, Pryor said. Thriftway also closes at 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and at 7 p.m. on Sunday, limiting the hours to purchase alcohol.

“The health and the welfare of the tenants, although that’s not my responsibility, is very important to us,” Pryor said. “It’s a very close-knit community family and you care. You really care how things turn out and what’s happening to the people.

“It’s out of caring, not just what it costs us. We’re talking about their health, their lives.

“To watch it all start again would break my heart.”