Did this backfire or what?
I was walking the dog past the Downhound Hound the other day and what did my eyes behold? A sign in the window of what used to be part of the Hound, saying ALANO Club.
This is curious.
From the bits and pieces I've heard, the AFL evicted the ALANO types because they need the space on W. Front St. for the Newton strike labor museum exhibit. Apparently, someone in the city said they'd help find the ALANO folks a new home. What wasn't said was that that new home would be somewhere convenient, but tucked away. A cozy but not so obvious place, like under the Macomb St. bridge.
The idea is we don't need a bunch of socializing alcoholics clogging up the sidewalks and making our city look like a bowery.
But wait! Someone must have taken a wrong turn.
Now the club will be a whole lot more prominent and obvious than it once was. It's fine by me, but I don't think that's what the brains in city hall had in mind.
Maybe if someone does some fast footwork, we'll find something in the zoning code or facade ordinance that will disallow this use. Hey, isn't it illegal for alcoholics to congregate within 500 feet of a church?
This is curious.
From the bits and pieces I've heard, the AFL evicted the ALANO types because they need the space on W. Front St. for the Newton strike labor museum exhibit. Apparently, someone in the city said they'd help find the ALANO folks a new home. What wasn't said was that that new home would be somewhere convenient, but tucked away. A cozy but not so obvious place, like under the Macomb St. bridge.
The idea is we don't need a bunch of socializing alcoholics clogging up the sidewalks and making our city look like a bowery.
But wait! Someone must have taken a wrong turn.
Now the club will be a whole lot more prominent and obvious than it once was. It's fine by me, but I don't think that's what the brains in city hall had in mind.
Maybe if someone does some fast footwork, we'll find something in the zoning code or facade ordinance that will disallow this use. Hey, isn't it illegal for alcoholics to congregate within 500 feet of a church?
posted by The Observer at 8/07/2007 12:16:00 PM
5 Comments:
The zoning code allows this club in general commercial districts, unfortunately. They had been turned down in other Downtown vacant buildings due to other business owners not wanting the loitering to continue in the CBD.
I hope if they congregate outside, they at least set up some decent benches or chairs, and also many ashtrays, since all of us ex drinkers smoke alot.
WOW how funny is this? Back when the Mental Health people wanted to build a new club house for there folks on the property of the old meat market SMCC came out and protested. Notice, that there clients do not hang out in front of the building nor do they drag chairs out onto the sidewalk to smoke and congregate.
Gee, where were the folks at SMCC regarding this place within 100 years of there school?
Yeah, I think somebody missed a real chance to find an appropriate site for ALANON and also to find a decent business for the main drag. So, how excited will Big Boy, Tiffany's, Downtown Hound and Rendezvous be? Honestly, I am walk downtown all the time and would not walk my kids down front street after 2 - 3 in the afternoon because of all the folks that would gather outside sitting and smoking. Oops - does this now make the business' I listed above less desirable? Sure does, especially during the spring, summer and fall.
Alano Clubs generally are a non-profit corporation designed for members to meet and share their experience, strength and hope with each other because of our common concern for people trying to achieve and maintain a life free from the use of alcohol or drugs.
I cannot speculate as to why they are moving—I have no information and refrain from speculating. The zoning code section 1265.02 does cover adult uses and makes reference to the skid row.
Skid rows usually have a mature forest at one end and a sawmill at the other. Convenience dictates that the end of the skid row nearest the sawmill has certain adult uses. It code is unclear but if you check with Linda Compora I expect the sawmill would be an I-2 use and hence not permissible because processing wood releases harmful fumes. Thus it is a moot point.
Dear Observer,
Yes, you are responsible for your blog and you admit to having opinions—most of us do. Just who is “someone in the City”?
Someone in the City, a planner stood before the CPC and claimed the I-2 zoning at Monroe Transfer was a mistake and the CPC should vote to reverse it. The CPC refused—perhaps one convenient staff screw-up too many for the CPC to endorse. Next we have two zoning plans before council, the CPC plan which followed the code and map and the staff zoning.
Then all manner of hate and discontent ensued. The battle cries of another IKO by one council person and her followers added to the clamor. Serious racial overtones were voiced by people I had credited with better sense. Now what actually happened here?
The Newton Steel strike is old history. The strike was not supported by the vast majority of workers. A legal militia stopped those that did from blocking a public road. Just why is the AFL-CIO kicking the Alano club out?
Alano Clubs appear to be intended to have a bar like atmosphere where smoking is permitted. How does this use differ from the outside drinking areas in the CBD? The ice cream shop has permission to have outside tables and chairs by reason of a variance granted by the ZBA at the owner’s request with a provision that the use of the sidewalk not be impeded. Thus, if tables and chairs are needed outside it seems that the city would require a variance and an agreement to clean and control the area by the Alano Club.
The protest raised by a few persons with children enrolled in the parochial school operated by Saint Mary’s Parish I doubt reflected the position of the parish leadership or the Catholic Church on a mental health clinic operating nearby. Thus, how can we have a double standard that discriminates against a business operated for profit or one operated to serve a community need?
The Observer has asked many good questions. One I suggest is what it will to correct the conflicts and lack of defined uses that follow definitions in our zoning code. In the writer’s opinion, we should never again hire a consulting firm to revise our code with boilerplate that is silly and unenforceable when all we need to do is follow a schedule of ongoing revisions that follow the revisions to the master plan in a reasonable rational way.
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