In Congress Heights, some locals are concerned about the adverse impacts of liquor stores that are concentrated in the area.

Because of that, 8C Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners and the Congress Heights Homeowners Association are fighting to prevent one store, Mart Liquor, from getting its license renewed, alleging delinquent activity on the store’s property.

“We want to protest the license of this particular store and several others that are clustered in the [area],” says Salim Adofo, chairperson of Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner 8C. “There are about four liquor stores in that area. There are no grocery stores, no banks, there’s a homeless shelter, and a lot of poverty.”

On May 5, Mart Liquor store owners Eun Cho and Dong Chung attended the ANC 8C meeting to listen to community concerns and ask for support in renewing their liquor license, which expired in March. (The store owners had a translator, Chrissie Chang, to assist with communication during the ANC meeting.) ANCs can file protests against the renewal of liquor store licenses, which can lead to protest hearings and, eventually, a revocation of a store’s license by the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration.

On Wednesday, May 19 at 4 p.m., locals including the 8C commissioners, the Congress Heights Homeowners Association, and NAACP DC Branch members plan to protest the renewal of Mart Liquor’s license and canvass the neighborhood to ask residents to sign a petition in protest of the license’s renewal. The protesters are concerned about the lack of grocers in the area, intoxicated people crowding the parking lot of the store, and drugs allegedly being solicited to patrons by those outside the store.

Cho, for her part, says she started collecting signatures in April and has 300 signatures from residents in support of the store. She says that the signatures are for her personal records. “We wanted to have a record [for us],” she says.

“There’s always a crowd of intoxicated people in front of the store,” says Adofo. “Per the mayor’s healthy equity report, areas that have a high concentration of alcohol density have greater violence and increased poverty.” The Health Equity Report for the District of Columbia 2018 report does suggest a correlation between alcohol outlets and violence.

There are four Congress Heights liquor stores — Holiday Liquor, King Avenue Liquor, Fort Carroll Delicatessen, and Mart Liquor — that are within blocks from each other.

During the ANC meeting, Joy Doyle, co-founder of the Congress Heights Homeowners Association, says she spoke with the owners about safety concerns. Doyle says the homeowners association doesn’t want the Mart Liquor store to close, but instead wants them to make specific changes to prevent loitering and drug sales in front of the store.

“There has never been a time that when I try to support this local business that I have not been approached by someone and asked to buy some level of drugs,” says Doyle. “We are asking for enforcement and concern for an open air drug market.” Doyle, a homeowner for 17 years, says intoxicated crowds can deter potential home buyers from investing in the community.

“We call the police lots of times [during] the day, like five times a day,” says Cho. “They clear them for a minute and then they show up again. This happens everyday.” Cho adds that the Metropolitan Police Department has access to all live video footage at the store. Also, in 2018, when Cho became co-owner of the store, she says that for six months they hired a police officer as a security guard but there was no change in the loitering. (MPD did not immediately respond to DCist’s request for comment about calls and concerns related to loitering and drug sales.)

She says that her ability to resolve the issues is limited.

“We are doing our best to comply with all the rules — no sales to minors and intoxicated persons,” says Cho. “But the liquor store’s existence should not be the source of all the problems.”

This isn’t the first time that residents have been opposed to the renewal of the store’s liquor license. In 2009, residents tried to get Mart Liquor’s license revoked by protesting and sharing testimonies about substance abuse and violence at their ANC 8C meeting. But ANC 8C did not file a protest with ABRA by the deadline, and the license was renewed.

Cho says that she did not know about past opposition against the store, but is willing to work with the ANC and other organizations to resolve concerns. (Adofo and Doyle did not know residents tried to organize against the store in the past either.) Doyle says that she plans to arrange a June meeting with the homeowners association and Korean-American Grocers Association of Greater Washington DC to discuss “a laundry list of issues.”

In February, ANC 8C and the Congress Heights Homeowners Association testified against another nearby liquor store, Wonder Mart, and were successful in having their liquor license revoked, says Doyle. (Wonder Mart is a few blocks away from Mart Liquor.)

Adofo anticipates that 50 residents will show up to protest the store’s license renewal next week.

“Best case scenario is they do not have their license renewed. We have farmer’s markets in the community that we can possibly bring into this store, where there are fruits and vegetables to replace it,” says Adofo. But if that doesn’t work, Adofo says, “best second scenario is that we can come to some kind of settlement agreement [so that] they increase security, increase lighting … they are doing more to address the loitering in the community.”