MrLuigi, do you really think that this would be enforced against the types of businesses that you're worried about? Unless I am totally mistaken, this is for businesses that become a hub for criminal activity. There are a lot of takeout places that allow open drug dealing and other types of bad behavior.

What's the context of this post? How did this come to your attention?

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Check out my website!

Having a small (currently failed and being relocated) bodega, I think I have heard of this legislation. There has been some talk in the bodega owning community about efforts to restrict Stop-and-Goes. I've even heard that Michael Nutter supports some restrictions on stop-and-goes.

In various neighborhoods, corner stores are beset by undesirable drug dealers. In other places, they've multiplied in as immigrants have looked for ways to make money. Personally, I can kind of understand that little corner stores might not always attract the right kind of clients but I'm not sure that much can be done about it. Furthermore, there is the issue of who serves communities that have lots of folks without cars. I guess by shutting down a few stop-and-goes, Council will consider it a victory when their constituents have to walk a few blocks to the nearest Rite Aid or CVS. Generally corner stores are not lucrative but they sure beats empty store fronts and folks without work.

I do think the legislation will do more harm than good.

--Mike
Weeds in the Sidewalk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bodega
* A Spanish term meaning a warehouse; especially for the storing of wine usually located on the premises of a winery. Bodegas can also store other alcoholic beverages and spirits. Bodega also means (at least loosely) wine bar or winery.
* A bodeguita, a general store in Latin America
* A term used in the United States, especially in the New York dialect, to refer to a convenience store.
* A term used in Poland to refer to a brothel.
* A shoe store in Boston
* A term used to refer to the clip on the top of a pen cap to attach to your pocket.
* A town in California near Bodega Bay

Apparently, council was thinking of the Polish usage.

This is Government run amuck.

At least from a cursory look, I think this looks pretty bad. Forget needing to create another hoop for a small business person to get though to open a business- the further concentration of power within the hands of the District Council member is pretty disturbing. If the aim is stop and go's, there has to be a better way to deal with them than this.

This is something, in my opinion, we could be asking for a little more leadership at a state level on. The PLCB Enforcement branch is pathetically undermanned in urban areas. I think I remember reading there were two officers for all of Philadelphia. At the rate at which we are taxed for six-packs one would expect better enforcement capacity.

Your average bad stop-and-go violates state liquor license statutes in a number ways. There are rules regulating how much of their business is supposed to come from food service, how much seating for food customers is supposed to be available, etc. None of these rules seem to apply even remotely in your average bad urban "stop-and-go".

Look at the places with to-go beer licences even the same neighborhoods and the places (often pizza places and actual functioning corner grocery stores) that actually do a brisk food business are not where dealers congregate because the business owner has an incentive to keep his operation safe, well lit, inviting to a food customer. The places on the other hand where the business operator sells one sandwich for every 3 dozen 40's or sixpacks, where there is no seating, where the business operator and beer is completely isolated from the public behind bullet proof plexiglass - those are the operations where dealers congregate outside the door.

Call me crazy but I think the way to go after irresponsible operators with beer licenses is to go after the group of operators with beer licenses, not to dramatically expand district council power over every single to-go food business.

-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.

OK, it's a side issue (I agree that the further concentration of power in the hands of Councilpeople is disturbing - especially since you mentioned the excellent Geechee Girl), but since when are there no Muslims in Philly?:

(.1) Churches, monasteries, chapels, synagogues, convents, rectories, religious article, religious apparel stores, residential homes, or apartment buildings, hotels or Convention/Civic center;

Wawa can't open within 1,000 ft of a home, but a casino--much different story.

I am working to elect Larry Farnese to the General Assembly. Unless otherwise expressly stated, this and every comment or blog I post on YPP and any action I take hereon is solely attributable to me and not Farnese or Friends of Farnese

It will render thousands of business throughout the city as nonconforming, and will make it very hard to open up a small business in this city. The bill targets takeout restaurants which do more than 50% of business in takeout. Here's a list of what businesses will be affected:
Tony Lukes
Starbucks
Jim Steaks
Ishkabibbles
McDonalds
Taco Bell
Qdoba
Di Brunos
Delis
Ippolitos
Subway
Food courts
Pizza places
Chinese restuarants
etc.
Thinks of the adverse affect on South Street, the Italian market, center city, old city, etc. This bill is just plain awful, let alone discriminatory and unconstitutional.

A foolish reaction to legitimate problem. Crime in neighborhoods is a problem and the Beer Deli often (stop and goes) makes for a lcoal crime hotspot in many neighborhoods. I have no doubt these members of Council believed they were doing a good thing here. What continues to boggle my mind after 15 years in this is our collective inability or unwillingness to think systemically about these types of neighborhood issues.

The City Council has the power to work with various city agencies to ensure the DA's office and their nuissance task force does what it is suppose to do.....today. Council has the power today to demand that city agencies, including the police department, adequately enforce the codes, rules and regulations that govern shops, public drinking, loitering and other violations. And they have the power to hold hearings when these agencies fail to do so. Council has the staff today, working with community relations officers, to help build town watches or, through appropriations, ensure safety cameras are installed in hot spots.

But instead of looking beyond councilmanic perogative to the vast array of possibilities, they propose a measure that does too much harm than good. As a zoning attorney, this is good news. Another reason to seek a variance is always another good day for lawyers. But the concerned citizen in me wants this government to start working better and in the interests of everyone. I can't help but think that the answer to neighborhood crime problems is not tighter zoning regulations on small business people. It just isn't.

And take it from me, bills like this one could really hurt places like 9th Street, Antique Row and Fabric Row. Trust me.

Basically covering the newly revised inclusionary zoning bill and the all take-out food as "Restricted Uses" bill. Unfortunately the take out bill seems to be veering towards 11th hour passage tomorrow.

The second piece of legislation would make a “regulated use” out of so-called “stop-and-go” sandwich shops. Because they sell take-out beer and malt liquor, stop-and-gos can become a nuisance, attracting corner crowds and drug dealers.

Trouble is, the bill appears to catch hundreds of other businesses in its drag net – delis, bistros, bakeries, coffee shops, and water ice stands – by broadly defining two affected categories in the paragraphs below:

(v) Take-out Restaurant. An establishment engaged in the preparation and retail sale of food and beverages which serves food and/or beverages in disposable packaging and/or containers for consumption by patrons on or off the premises, including but not limited to delicatessens and/or a restaurant with thirty (30) or less seats.

(w) Small Retail Food Establishment. An establishment having less than 2,000 square feet of floor area, including, but not limited to candy stores and drug stores without soda fountains, grocery, meat markets, and other food stores.

By making these businesses “regulated uses” under the city zoning code, opponents fear the bill would put Wawas in a category with strip clubs, massage parlors, pawn shops, tattoo studios, and penal institutions. Regulated uses require a variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment – and typically the approval of the district councilperson – to be permitted.

Eileen Evans, deputy commissioner at L&I, the agency tasked with enforcing such a law, was among those skeptical of the legislation at Wednesday’s Zoning Code Commission meeting. The bill applies to establishments whose take out sales constitute 50% of revenue, a requirement Evans said L&I could hardly enforce.

“It’s an impossible bill,” Evans said. “We don’t have the staff to be sitting outside these places counting people’s take out items.”

http://www.planphilly.com/node/2397

For those of you who are concerned, raider.adam (remember him?) started a Council letter campaign.

-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.

I'm still waiting for a more definitive confirmation but apparently Clarke agreed to postpone (i.e. kill for this legislative session) this bill. So yeah on a somewhat improved inclusionary housing bill and yeah on waiting to deal zoning in a more comprehensive, measured approach with the new administration.

-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.