Don’t take my liquor store away!
In my neighborhood, where I have lived now for 10 years, things are changing rather quickly. I live 2 blocks off N Interstate and the new zoning proposal is really going to change the landscape. Where single family homes currently stand, high rise apartments and/or condos will soon dominate. Boy, the ghosts in my 1890s home would be miffed.
I’m not against development. I am actually for it in my little neighborhood. I want to see some of the detritus removed and if condos come in as the replacement, so be it. Slowly the neighborhood cleans up. [For all you haters who think I'm supporting the negative side of gentrification, email me offline your home address and I'll send over some of my neighbors and neighbor's "friends" to come over and shit in your lawn, steal your flowers and plants or knock on your door @ 1am looking for cans.] Change can be good.
And yet…. The photo to the left is of a couple of houses just a block from my house which are boarded up. In total, there are currently 7 single family homes on that block of 9 that are boarded up. These houses range in age from 54-104yrs old. Seriously, one of the houses was built in 1904 and will be razed in a few short weeks. See, they are razing the entire block in order to build a mixed use complex with condos, apartments and retail space right off the Prescott MAX stop. An amazing location for anyone to be sure. It saddens me to see these old houses go, but it saddens me more to see my liquor store go.
Yep, the liquor store! I live 2 blocks from a prime liquor store, the only one within many miles. There are no liquor stores on NE MLK, nor on N Interstate. Whole neighborhoods are going to be left wanting when this liquor store closes in a couple of weeks. All in the name of development. Where will I get my whiskey now?
Yikes! Maybe a grocery store in your area (I hope you have those) will step up and get their license. Truly a lucrative business decision. My neighborhood has one and it is open 7 days a week 7:00am to 10:00pm. And there doesn’t seem to be an increase in crime or public drunkeness, etc. in the area. One stop shopping. How can you beat that?
OMG. Life without a liquor store sucks! It took our neighborhood years to even get one.
Maybe a liquor store will move into the mixed-use complex? Sounds like they’d get loads of business!
There’s a liquor store on N. Denver in Kenton.
wow, i didnt know what was up with those boarded-up houses. (we live on prescott, just on the other side of the freeway.) bummer to see the liquor store go — even though i only end up there about once every few months. still… thanks for giving us the hyper-local scoop.
I feel the same way about Peterson’s on Morrison. Though I know Portland plans to redevelop the area around the Galleria stop, I’m going to miss the convenience.
I’m sorry to see the nasty comments about those of us who have lived here a long time. I’ve lived NE 20 years and watched our African American clubs shut down while I now have young white slacker drunks pissing in my yard and yelling at 1 a.m. when I’ve got to work the next day, something that never happened before.
I thought there was a liquor store over on MLK by NE Fremont … maybe a block or two north of that.
The one club I never got to visit when I had the chance was Cleo-Lillian Social Club. I don’t know if anyone ever heard of it, but it was a real-life “Social Club” … you had to pay something like 25 cents to get a membership card to enter.
I uderstand the Cleo Burger was legendary.
Bonus points to Dieselboi for the correct use of the word “detritus”.
Samuel,
The liquor store you are thinking of on MLK was forced closed a few years ago. The OLCC didn’t like it.
The Cleo-Lillian Social Club is indeed closed. It was located just south of Pizza a Go Go on NE Williams. It is my understanding that a couple of individuals have purchased the building and want to designate it a national registry building and then restore it to its former self. I remember seeing a request go through the City’s Bureau of Development.
You can still go to Twelve22 on NE Fremont/Vancouver if you want an original social club.
I think the whole idea of how Oregon has a State monopoly on Liquor sales here is just disgusting. Total “Nanny State” mentality if you ask me. I mean, we are all adults and should be able to purchase legal beverages where and pretty much when we want to. This is also a State where one can basically walk into a strip club any old time, pot is considered something quaint or fine for medicinal use for the most part, and we have some of the most liberal freedom of speech laws on the books. And I can buy beer and wine just about anywhere, but somehow Vodka or even weak alcohol liquors are something I need to be protected from by the State? Ugh.
I guess however the State makes so much effin’ money off of liquor sales that they ain’t gonna let go of that control anytime soon.
John,
Not sure what you mean by the “nasty comments about those of us who have lived here a long time” statement.
Trust me, the detritus I speak of are not long time residents who are being “displaced.”
Lelo, I didn’t realize there was a store up there. Not too far I guess. Honestly, I’ll probably end up stopping by Pearl Wine and Spirits just off the Broadway Bridge on my walks home in the future.
I agree with you there, but not “Nanny State”. “Greedy” is more like it. If they were all nanny on us, they’d be doing it for our own good. It’s good money, and I’m not convinced that the OLCC really cares even what orifice we put the alcohol in after we get it home, just as long as we get it home first.
They like the income stream. As a matter of fact, I don’t think the State of Oregon would be all that unhappy if we drank more, although the cost of liquor being what it is and the economy being what it is, one really can’t afford alcholism either. Seriously … I don’t see how alcoholics afford it.
You have the right of it there.
Actually, the reason we have the OLCC is because Prohibition ended. Some genius at the State of Oregon realized that they had the means in place to control liquor sales and that made a great point at which taxing it is more efficient.
I recently visited California for the first time in my life. I’ll tell you, I still can’t get over seeing that rack of Smirnoff and Black Velvet by the quick shop checkout stand.
On sale, mind you.
Strange.
Shame. That liquor store, I understand, was open some nights until 10:30 pm (the one at Capitol Hwy and Barbur Blvd is sometimes open that late).
I’m not surprised it’s gone. That’s always been a rough and tough corner. I don’t know how far back you go there, but if you go back far enough there was, on the NE corner of MLK and Fremont there was this scuzzy little quick-shop called the King Food Mart. They had a drive-through for those godawful quick-shop snacks you could get. There was also, it was said, more drug-dealing going on there than you could shake a SWAT team at. Bullets flew more than once over there. And you could probably get your illegal substances at the pull-up window too.
Oh, yes. The Tweleve22, once known as the Texas Club. I always heard that was a tough place though. Someone I know who once worked as a taxi driver hated to have anything to do with the place. Things must be looking up indeed over in that corner of town.
Okay, can I just put in a prop for Barbur Liquor? 7 days a week til 10! You gotta love that. Nice folks too.
And just a little FYI: Those folks that run those liquor stores do very well. So it’s not just the State that is making money. At least they opened it up to optional Sundays awhile ago.
If the existing store licensee is smart, they’ll beg, borrow, and steal to get a spot in the new retail digs.
We have the State-run liquor stores over here in Washington as well. Is it a regional thing?
I believe the Twelve22 is actually “LV’s Twelve22.”
The LV standing for LaVon Van, local business impresario and star of the state champ Grant High Basketball team in ‘86.
Here’s your 3 degrees of separation, DB… your dad may know him from back then.
Such a small world Morty. Next time I see him, I’ll ask. Once a month, I run into someone who was in one of my father’s classes.
I haven’t made it to the store off Interstate, but I have been to the liquor store that LeLo mentioned in Kenton. The only thing that I have against the Kenton store is all their product is behind the counter, so it can make shopping for a new/different liquor a little difficult, but they do have very friendly staff who are eager to help.
OLCC has a list of liquor stores on their site and it’s kept up-to-date. Store hours are listed as well.
http://www.olcc.state.or.us/pdfs/liquor_store_list.pdf