Change takes forever: plastic bag bans, liquor stores and crime

I noticed an article that Baltimore County, Maryland is on the verge of passing a plastic bag ban.  DC did that in 2009.

There is an article from Fox45 in Baltimore that states: "Law enforcement expert says liquor stores are hotspots for crime in Baltimore City."  From the article:

According to a 2018 Johns Hopkins University study, every 10% increase where alcohol outlets were located, there was also a 4.2% increase in violent crimes.

A FOX45 investigation determined three deadly shootings in the first month of the year, were just a few hundred feet from a liquor store. ...

Retired FBI Agent Tyrone Powers says liquor stores lead many of the things city leaders have been sounding the alarm about.

“We don’t talk about those open-air liquor stores which attract drug dealing, which attracts the violence that we’re talking about," said Powers.

The cited paper:

-- "Outlet Type, Access to Alcohol, and Violent Crime," Alcoholism: Clinical Experimentation and Research (2018)

Overconcentration of liquor stores and the connection to crime was one of the first issues I worked on once I got involved in revitalization efforts, then centered on the H Street NE neighborhood and commercial district in Washington, DC.

In the early 2000s!  In fact I was featured on the front page of the Metro section, albeit below the fold, in the Washington Post on Labor Day 2003, on the issue, in an article written by Craig Timberg. That article is almost 20 years old.

-- "Neighbors Fight Single-Beer Sales; H Street Merchants Decry Effort as an Attack on Northeast Businesses, Poor" (accessible using Proquest Newsstand, available at many public libraries)

We certainly haven't made much progress in many communities, have we?

One of the justifications to restrict sales in places like Seattle was the high cost of providing emergency services to regular users, and their service calls were usually associated with alcohol use.

Some blog entries

-- "Alcoholic beverage sales restrictions moving forward in Seattle," 2006
-- "Disproportionate link between Circle K convenience stores and crime in Phoenix suburbs," 2011
-- "The sales of alcoholic beverages in cities (DC vs. Chicago)," 2012

Journal article

-- "Regulating Availability: How Access to Alcohol Affects Drinking and Problems in Youth and Adults," Alcohol Research and Health (2011).  "This article briefly outlines the history of this work over four areas, focusing on the minimum legal drinking age, the privatization of alcohol control systems, outlet densities, and hours and days of sale."