Commerz in the 'hood, part two

Marvin Joseph (The Washington Post). Bernard Gibson, owner of a Cluck-U franchise on H Street, sits under his restaurant's mascot. The Advisory Neighborhood Commission is challenging Gibson's operating permit, sparking a racially charged debate on a street where developers and the District are investing millions.

The Post article, "Whose H Street Is It, Anyway? A Dispute Over Restaurant Zoning Creates a Chasm Between Northeast Washington's Old and New Residents," continues to be heatedly discussed on neighborhood e-lists.

The owner of H Street Martini Lounge, is now backpedaling, and says that the quotes are taken out of context and that the writer had predetermined the story angle. He was quoted in the article thusly:

The ANC, which became majority white in 2002, wants to push "the African-Americans from the corridor," said Clifton Humphries, owner of the H Street Martini Lounge, who is black. "They're trying to steer what comes down here. They want an upscale environment, where they are comfortable around their own."

This from a guy selling $10+ martinis!

Anwar Saleem, chair of H Street Main Street, said this in the article:

Anwar Saleem, chairman of H Street Main Street, a coalition of merchants and residents, said he at first was unenthusiastic about Cluck-U because he hoped for a restaurant with linen tablecloths or a clothing store. But the ANC's opposition has turned Saleem into one of Cluck-U's steadfast supporters. He applauded Gibson for keeping his place clean and trying to appease commissioners by providing sit-down patrons with non-disposable plates and flatware.

"It's unnecessary," Saleem said of the ANC's challenge. He questioned whether the commission is trying to "discriminate against minority-owned businesses. I wouldn't be surprised if they go after the beauty shops, the shoe stores and the clothing stores."

When questioned about this statement after the publication of the article, Saleem replied:

This was my statement verbatim: "This is unnecessary, we all should be willing to sit down and resolve this issue, and they have refused to do so. The ANC's challenge gives an appearance of discrimination against minority owned businesses along the corridor and could discourage others wishing to locate here. I wouldn't be surprised if they go after the beauty shops, the shoe stores and the clothing stores."

and he further offered that "This is what the merchants are saying and feel. I am not one to hide the truth. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable. We all have to deal with the realities of what is going on."

I wrote two responses. Including this:

In a blog entry yesterday about 9th Street NW, I mentioned Modern Liquors. Actually it was written up in the Post in February (A Liquor Store Makes It Back From Skid Row) but I was there last May, I just haven't managed to get around to writing about it (because I didn't have good photos--I didn't have a digital camera then).

ML is a liquor store. Most people that know me or read what I write know how I feel about such establishments. (See "Neighbors Fight Single-Beer Sales: H Street Merchants Decry Effort as an Attack on Northeast Businesses, Poor" by Craig Timberg; The Washington Post; Aug 31, 2003; C.01. This article is no longer online for free, and is the source of the photo of me used for the blog profile.)

But Modern Liquors changed with the times. They upgraded their product selection. (They still sell some low-end products that I think contribute to public space problems.) They added cheeses, in consultation with Cheesetique of Alexandria, and a few other (very few) food items.

Monthly they hold wine and cheese tastings events. (The first Wednesday, although this conflicts somewhat with the ANC6C Planning and Zoning meeting...) I tasted some amazing wines and cheeses, including one with an interesting licorice-anise aftertaste.

And as someone said while at the tasting, "It's nice to have more stores in the neighborhood to be able to walk to..."

Here Jeff Harrison sells lunch to a customer, although Modern Liquors has also started having wine and cheese tastings at the store, reaching new demographics. "This is what we waited all those years for," he said of the change in the area around Ninth and M streets NW. (By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)

The merchants on H Street fear change. But the market is changing even if their businesses aren't.

When I talk to restaurant owners, I say "to stay the same is to fall behind, because even if you aren't changing, your competitors are, and your customers go to other places anyway, and see this themselves."

It's not like I didn't discuss these points when I was on the HSMS and involved quite deeply in H Street commercial district revitalization efforts. In fact, my unsugarcoated discussion of these issues is why I am not part of the effort any more. (Much of my argument about H Street is encapsulated in a very long blog entry entitled "About H Street Main Street -- My Opinion," from the March 2005 archive. The entry is really an assessment of the H Street commercial district not just the HSMS organization, and is a compilation of three emails I sent to the Board of Directors in August 2004.)

At the end of the day, I am not that sympathetic. Retail business is about serving your customers. And clearly, huge potential segments of the market are being ignored by many of the extant businesses.

The customers just go elsewhere, they aren't really put out by it, except for the fact that H Street as a commercial district looks pretty shopworn, and nobody likes to live by "blight" and disinvestment. (cf. the Quest for Quiet blog)

Saying to businesses "you are not meeting my needs as a potential customer" is far far different from saying "your business is not wanted because you are African-American."

If business proprietors are hearing the latter, then they have wax in their ears. I think though this type of hearing has been encouraged for some time. (And I can't discount the reality of racism in the past, and lamentably in the present and likely in the future as well.)

As I mentioned in the previous blog entry on this subject, the article in the Post was presaged by the current issue of the H Street Community Development Corporation, which has two full pages on this same issue, with the same tack as the Post article.

That helps no one.

This is about the product and quality of the offer, about the zoning regulations, and about the more coordinated "management" of the commercial district in extending the product and marketing mix and positioning so that as a whole, the commercial district can be much more successful

Maybe the most important "business" to attract to the corridor are practitioners of otolaryngology.

Index Keywords: contested-spaces; urban-revitalization