carmody.qxd
Your writers need to verify their “facts.” The Reader states that the Best Steak House has a “spotless record”–please check again to see if they were closed just this summer for selling to minors. The owner claims that his employee was misled into signing a petition; I don’t know how that happened. Not only did all petitioners involved attempt to secure signatures honestly, but the petition was written in full above each signature page, with the businesses involved listed. If the employee didn’t understand the implications, perhaps that person is not intelligent or responsible enough to be serving alcohol in any area. The article implies that the business owners had no knowledge of this movement, but the owner of Azusa Liquors talked to me personally as I walked my dog to ask me to revoke my signature. He volunteered in that conversation that the Kenmore Street neighbors had been asking him to make changes.
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The Reader article unconscionably failed to mention the laws involved, which seem to be anticommunity. I was one of the 70 residents to take time off from my job to attend the May Liquor Commission hearing about Sunrise Liquors. Commissioner Mardis informed us of the technical difference between a crime at a store’s location and one outside the premises. Unfortunately, this semantic difference allows the store to stay open; it will be irrelevant if a resident gets shot.
46th Ward
“A responsibly-run business” already exists (for now, anyway): the Best Steak House. No one I spoke with had a specific beef with the restaurant and Mike Boyce from the Liquor Licensing Commission confirms that this establishment was not closed for any sort of liquor violation. Perhaps Mr. Carmody is confused about the restaurant being closed for six months following a devastating, building-wide fire in November 1996.
