Proposed east Albany liquor store draws opposition

ALBANY — East Albany residents are saying “yes” to a shopping center development, but a proposed liquor store that’s part of the plan is still a big “no.”

A protest of a liquor license requested for 1515 Clark Ave. drew a crowd of 100 or more, with opponents questioning the need for another establishment selling alcohol in the area they say is saturated with booze.

“The bottom line is the community does not want another liquor store,” Lorenzo Heard, pastor of Greater 2nd Mt. Olive Baptist Church, which is located in the area, said. “We’ve got four (from) about five-tenths of a mile to less than a mile around, and another 2.2 to 2.6 miles from the proposed site.”

Alcohol and substance abuse have devastated poverty-stricken areas in the city, the minister said during a telephone interview.

“(It’s) hundreds or thousands of fathers who will never be the fathers they should be,” he said of the impact of alcohol in the community. “It’s mothers, aunts and uncles” who are affected.

“It’s difficult for a community that has been saturated with inebriation. We’ve been inebriated too long. It’s time to say enough. We’ve lost too many generations.”

The proposed liquor store is located at a site which is currently a convenience store that has a license for package sales of beer and wine. It is part of the One Leaf shopping development that is opening across the street later this year with some 10 businesses.

There is no opposition to the shopping center, but the liquor store has drawn opposition from some Albany City Commission members.

“Anybody willing to bring anything positive to our community, we are all for that,” Heard said. “Whatever the number of jobs it creates — a liquor store may have three or four or five people — but a liquor store lays off more people than it hires, ‘No,’ we are saying, ‘no,’ and we’ll fight it to the end.”

Ward I City Commissioner Jon Howard, who helped organize a Thursday news conference at a site adjacent to the proposed liquor store, said he will vote against granting an alcohol license. Howard spoke to One Leaf developer Jaymin Patel, who attended the Thursday event, but was not swayed.

“No, because it is in the heart of an area that has a lot of problems,” Howard said. “It just brings in crime, lottery (tickets thrown) in the street and intoxication.”

The proposed liquor store is in Ward II in east Albany, but is close to the line of Ward I, Howard said.