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Brewerytown Organizers Threaten to Boycott Rita's Water Ice
Submitted by journalists4mumia on Sun, 05/18/2008 - 10:03pm.
This was just made a feature at Philly IMC:
--Brewerytown Organizers Threaten to Boycott Rita's Water Ice
by Al Alston, African American Business and Residents Association | 05.18.2008
On May 15, 2008, community members in Brewerytown, held a meeting to create a preliminary plan for how to address the imminent opening of a Rita's Water Ice franchise at 2829 W. Girard Avenue. The attendees were responding to eight years of frustration over the way Rita's handled the rape of an 11-year old African-American girl by two white Rita's employees at Veteran's Stadium in 2000. Neither Rita's nor its new franchise responded to recent attempts by the community to obtain more information about Rita's actions after the rape or why they still have not accepted a level of moral responsibility for the child victim of their employees.
Read the Letter Brewerytown Community Members sent to Rita's Water Ice here:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/media/2008/05//97282.pdf
After speaking with the attorney for the child's civil case against her attackers, as well as a reporter who covered the story, AABRA (African-American Business & Residents Association) representatives hosted this critical meeting, gave detailed updates, and learned that there is ample support for a boycott until community demands are met. Unless a settlement is reached, there will be a major community meeting on May 27, 2008 at the Songhai City Cultural Center, 3117 Master Street (time to be determined - though it will likely begin at approximately 6 PM).
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8 years is a long time
And generally from my understanding, the worst of the problem was more with the family court judge who let the assailants off so lightly not so much with Rita's corporate offices itself (though feel free to spell out where you or Alston feel Rita's corporate went wrong).
How closely connected are individual franchises to the corporate chain in Rita's? I'm all for corporate accountability but I'd like to see the case laid out as to why the Girard Ave. store is particularly responsible for the actions of employees of the Vet's Stadium fanchise 8 years ago.
Not to be cynical but I wonder why other Rita's in other parts of the city are not the targets of similar boycotts or why the boycott was not organized in a more timely fashion. Is there particular bad blood between this Rita's franchise and Alston and AABRA? I see in the letter there is a demand for a job fair that I presume would be run by AABRA. Is that correct?
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
I am soooo tired of this dude!
If we leave it up to Al Alston, Brewerytown and Strawberry Mansion will never have anything. He protests everything positive in our neighborhood! He actually protested Mural Arts in my neigborhood. I'm tired opf him, and he doesn't speak for the community. Trust me; there will be a one-man boycott. Everybody in the neighborhood are very happy that Rita's is opening on Girard Avenue.
This is Al Alston's way of extortion. He attempts to do it to every business and every developer who attempts to invest in Brewerytown and Strawberry Mansion. People like him are the worst things that ever happened to poor disinvested communities. He's the reason they don't thrive.
Interesting
Honestly, I don't personally know a whole lot about this, but I thought folks here would be interested to know about it... So, I am interested to hear what folks think.
im with Esquisite
i dont understand al alston. i know that he smart. im not sure where he is coming from. most of the time i think that although he tries to bring up racially guided acts by others he digs himself a hole that only he and very few understand. instead of canvassing the area for peoples support or non-support, he takes it on himself to represent the community. there are many in this community that cant stand him and are disgusted that he has chosen to represent the community in this fashion. it makes us look silly, racist, irrational and just plane stupid. i hope to attend al's meeting about this. many times the meetings are insular and do not involve the community at large.
i think that in the end you will find that al will blow his horn and nothing will come of it. at some point people stop listening to loud noises. like the train that runs along glenwood, the noise becomes just another sound in the neighborhood. and that loud horn that used to keep you up at night falls silent to the sway of the trees as you fall asleep.
the tragic thing is that we have had some serious problems in the neighborhood. there has been a street war going on for the last 2 weeks. we have heard 5 people die from gunfire from our 3rd floor window at night. i have heard that there has been more shootings then that even. where is al on these very important issues when his community needs him?...sitting in his office trying to figure out his next move on gentrification? its sad that so much energy gets wasted. good luck to you al....
rob sutherland
1523 n 27th st