Both Stores of No Value

(Mr. Beatty sent this letter by e-mail to an Excello protestants listserv. It is reprinted here with his permission.)

I would like to share a few thoughts on the Excello/In a Minute protest. I tend to agree with Jessica Ward that we should fight the presence of a Class A liquor license on 13th St. NE. The presence of these stores has no value whatsoever to the community.

[Attorney Paul] Pascal/Lee's assertion [in the Oct. 26 Corner Forum] that selling singles was a "service" of some sort to low income customers is absurd on its face. Since when is feeding someone's addiction a service? Why should we "play ball" with people who come in from Maryland, take advantage of the most vulnerable members of the community, and then take their money and run back to Maryland?

For years they have ridden this community's downward spiral and profited from it the whole time. Now, when there is a chance of real progress being made in turning this area around, they seem to want to continue with the dysfunctional status quo.

They have made no efforts to help keep the drunks and drug dealers away. There have already been two voluntary agreements which have both been ignored by Excello.

The Lees are different? I don't believe it. N-A Minit is an eyesore as much as Excello. The Lees could have already taken steps to clean up their space. I don't see that they've been a good corporate citizen.

There seems to be almost a sense of resignation that the liquor board will do nothing. If I'm not mistaken, there have been some new people appointed to the board. I'm not opposed to rolling the dice and seeing if there's a little backbone in the new members of the board.

It seems to me that, at its core, the problem is a lack of responsive government. The liquor board, the investigators, the police—none have been responsive to the concerns of the community. Instead of rolling over, we should get louder and more insistent.

The argument that we have no real say in what type of business occupies the Excello space, in the event that Excello goes away, is also false. Anything that negatively effects our quality of life and property values is open to challenge by us as a community. Why do you think Winter Company was so solicitous of our opinions on the redevelopment of Lovejoy School?

We have a lot more power than we realize. No, I don't want a laundromat. A dry cleaner would be OK, but I think that there is probably something else out there that's even better. This is happening in our own front yard.

We may not win on the first try, but most worthwhile things are not easy. §