The corner convenience store at 1101 H St. NE blends in with similar establishments along the corridor. Its weathered brick exterior displays stock signage – No Loitering, No Drinking, No Drugs – and its windows are splashed with warnings to minors, security monitoring logos, and brightly colored advertisements for cigarettes and lottery tickets. But the similarities end at the swinging glass door with a sign that receives a reflexive double take: WE DO NOT SELL SINGLE BEERS, no mincing words here.

This store’s policy, the upshot of a March 2002 voluntary agreement – i.e. “if you don’t sell ‘singles,’ we won’t protest your liquor license” – with Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6A, has long been the exception, not the rule, along H Street. However, these rules are set to change come early September – or sooner – when stores located from the 700 to the 1400 blocks of H Street will have to be in compliance with the terms of a three-year moratorium on sales of singles (beer, malt liquor, ale and spirits sold in half-pints). The anticipated moratorium received its final blessing July 10, when the DC Council passed the “H Street Moratorium Approval Resolution of 2007” by a vote of 9 to 2, the result of ANC 6A’s two-year campaign for such a measure.

In the months leading up to this vote, ANC 6A held community meetings to solicit public comments before deciding to file its request for a moratorium with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in September 2006. The ABC Board supported the request and issued a proposed rulemaking late February, which to become final, required the council’s approval. Any day now, the final rule will be published in the DC Register and trigger the start of a 30-day period for storeowners to come into compliance with the rule.

Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells (D) praised the 9 to 2 vote in a July 11 statement: “A moratorium will go a long way to address some of the chaos and crime afflicting H Street NE,” and “this is a necessary step to bring back order and stability.”

The promise of good things to come, however, has its skeptics. “I’m not certain that a ban on single sales will solve the perceived problems,” says attorney Paul Pascal, counsel to five merchants opposing the moratorium. “You can’t lay the blame of 100 vacant properties to the sale of single beers; there are other dynamics taking place.”

Neither Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) nor Tommy Thomas (D-Ward 5) supported the measure.

Councilmember Thomas’ objections were procedural in nature. “He is not opposed to the concept,” said Thomas spokeswoman Victoria Leonard-Chambers. “He voted against the moratorium because it was presented as emergency legislation; there was no comment period, no hearings…he thought it could be handled through the regular process.” Councilmember Barry’s office did not return calls for comment by press time.

“The merchants expect their sales to go down 70 percent,” says Pascal, a dismal projection based on current sales figures and “the experiences of merchants in Mount Pleasant (where a similar moratorium has been in place since December 2000) whose sales fell 40 to 50 percent.”

Behind the counter at 1101, a tall Korean man in his early 20s, who would only identify himself as the owner’s nephew, dismisses these concerns with anecdotal evidence. “Business is better than ever…Instead of buying one [beer], people come in and buy six.”

Pascal acknowledges this could be the end result for his clients, but he predicts a new breed of entrepreneurs will emerge: “People will pool their resources, buy cases of beer, and sell them as singles on the street.”

Still, the Mount Pleasant moratorium, the first of its kind in the city, often has been cited for its positive outcomes.

Laurie Collins, president of Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Association, testified before the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration that since the moratorium took effect in Mount Pleasant, there have been fewer instances of public intoxication, disorderly conduct and drinking in public. The Metropolitan Police Departments supports Collins’ claims in its testimony before ABRA: "Over the course of four years, from 2000 to 2004, a similar moratorium along Mount Pleasant Street, yielded a 41 percent reduction in total calls for MPD service (from 1423 to 834 calls), and a 51 percent reduction in ‘disorderly’ calls (from 486 to 240 calls)."

The moratorium does not apply to stores west of the 700 block, where ANC 6C has jurisdiction. And during a July 18 meeting of ANC 6C, Commissioner Alan Kimber emphasized that 6C has not made a decision to support a moratorium. “We feel it’s very important that we get the input of all the community,” he said. To that end, ANC 6C will be holding public meetings east of H Street in September.

HSMS Launches Youth Summer Employment Program
“So let me get this straight, why again does good credit matter?” asks Mohammed Abdul Malik during a financial literacy workshop at the H Street Main Street offices. Mohammed, 17, is one of 19 students between the ages of 15 and 21, participating in the first HSMS summer employment program. Today, the students are taking a break from their jobs to hear Tim Flanagan, a loan manager with the Washington Area Community Investment Fund, explain the highs and lows of credit scores. This one-hour workshop is the first of three that Anwar Saleem, executive director for HSMS, has organized for youth participants to complement their daily work experiences.

The young people have been placed with nearly a dozen H Street business – including State Farm, Sprint, Stella Bleu and the Philadelphia Water Ice Factory – where they will work until school starts back up; some may continue on a part-time basis in the fall.

A few of the students are helping Saleem complete a comprehensive survey of every building on H Street. Groups are going door-to-door, assessing the building (is it vacant? Does it need façade improvements?), acquiring contact information and gauging storeowners’ interest in contributing to the HSMS clean-streets initiative. “So far the response has been good, we’re getting a lot of information that will be included in an H Street business directory (online and in a hard copy) and will be shared with the DC government,” says Saleem. As for the youth program, Saleem says the first summer is going well, and he hopes to attract more students and businesses in 2008.

For more information about H Street Main Street and its efforts, visit www.hstreet.org.

Union Place now Under Construction
If you are reading this July 28, around noon, then you may have time to catch the groundbreaking ceremony of Union Place, a property being developed by Cohen Companies at Third and K streets NE. Attendees expected include Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, Mayor Adrian Fenty, Council Chairman Vincent Gray and other officials from the government and business community. A block party will follow from noon to 2 p.m. (Rain date is Aug. 4.) The project represents a major milestone in the redevelopment of Northeast, DC. Once completed, Union Place will include 78 residential units set aside as affordable housing, a first-class daycare center and 9,000 square feet of ground-level retail.