Friday, July 02, 2010
CVS, lose the booze
Cruising on the light rail next to the backside of CityScape (yes, as predicted CityScape turns its back to the light rail stop and the Luhrs buildings in true suburban fashion) one can see that the soon-to-open CVS store seeks a liquor license. Again, CityScape and its tenants demonstrate a profound lack of understanding for their downtown environment. The last thing downtown Phoenix or the poor souls struggling with addiction need is another place to purchase single-serving alcoholic beverages. CityScape’s CVS should follow the lead of its sister store at Central and McDowell as well as some of the Circle K stores nearby and abandon its pursuit of a liquor license.
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2 comments:
I'm not sure I agree with this... I rarely drink alcohol, but think we just need better policing of people who are publicly drinking and intoxicated in public. Plus, not all drunk people are violent - granted, some can be, but for the most part they're just messy... it makes it easier to pick someone up and take them away if they're drunk in public rather than just plain schizo.
It'll be quite strange if CVS cannot sell alcohol while at the same time 200-300 dispensaries for medical marijuana could pop up by the first of the year.
A little bit about dispensaries... regardless of how you feel about pot, this is an initiative that could help eliminate the black market on marijuana, which would mean a significant reduction in violent crime and related costs... also, if 300 dispensaries open (that's less than one for every 15,000 people residing in the county), we could be looking at the absorption of around 1.2 million square feet of empty retail space! That's a LOT of retail space, which means a lot more taxes being paid (property, income, and sales taxes), a LOT of jobs created, and the humorous end result is that the restaurant and grocery industry will probably see a nice big spike in sales due to everyone being hungry all the time.
I think the point is moot. They got their license June 2 at a Council working session. I've been told Councilman Johnson's office will be working with CVS to "mitigate concerns".
I find it interesting that they've covering up the beer/wine sign ever since I wrote to Councilman Johnson's office about it, specifically my concern not about liquor sales(as Oakville Market and even Lucky Strike Lanes have "Series 9 licenses), but whether there would be restrictions on single-serving and fortified wine sales.
If they don't self-restrict it, then Cityscape will be the closest liquor sales to the shelter system and homeless, i.e. a twenty minute walk from C.A.S.S.
Isn't there some irony in that one of the main pushes for razing Patriot's Park and making it a mall was the "terrible problems" with the park and its transient population? Now, it may very well be that they can't rest from the heat there, but they can use the mall to buy their booze?
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