The liquor store on West Main that sparked petitions both for and against its moving, as well as discussions on race and gentrification in the midtown corridor, will stay in its current location for another five years. ABC Chair Jeff Painter said in a January 28 statement that he signed the lease renewal at 502 West Main after careful consideration of community comments, meetings with city leaders and law enforcement, and a review of all options, including relocation, before deciding the best course of action was to remain in the store’s current location.
The relocation option was problematic in Charlottesville, and at a January 20 City Council meeting, Vice Mayor Dede Smith pointed out that finding another spot in the city that wasn’t near a school or park was unlikely, and to close the West Main store would leave the city without an ABC store.
Last year, Fifeville Neighborhood Association president Mike Signer collected more than 350 signatures calling for the store to be moved, as well as offering testimony from beleaguered citizens about dealing with litter and public safety. He took the petition to City Council, which unanimously passed a resolution in support of booting the liquor store, a move they backed away from in January when Rose Hill resident Raymond Mason collected more than 500 signatures in support of keeping the store in its present location. The problem, said Mason, wasn’t the store but “the influx of white people moving into the neighborhood.”
City Councilor Bob Fenwick, an early supporter of moving the store, later said he realized it was a more complicated issue and addressed gentrification. “We don’t need an issue that sits there and festers,” he said. “[The controversy] is an opportunity to address several things,” including addiction and the cleanliness and safety of the store. Fenwick will host a town hall meeting Thursday, January 29, at 5:30pm in City Council chambers to discuss, “Are we losing the character of Charlottesville?”
In an email to the signers of the original petition, Signer said, “I, for one, listened and learned a lot about our neighbors’ feelings about a changing neighborhood through this issue.” He said the decision is an opportunity to achieve compromises between residents’ concerns about the store and concerns about inclusiveness in the West Main corridor.
“There’s going to have to be open communication,” said Mason after the ABC decision, and he reiterated that blacks and whites can see the same issue differently.
“Virginia ABC is grateful for the robust public participation in this decision and values each citizen’s input,” said the ABC’s Painter in his statement. “Our intention is to continue to work with our Charlottesville neighbors to ensure that the West Main Street store represents Virginia ABC as a responsible member of the community we serve.”