Buttorff Treats Single Serve Issue Evenhandedly

Instead of just mindlessly reciting the litter vs. enforcement meme toward Erica Gilmore's proposed ban on single serve 40s like the Tennessean and the Nashville Scene, WPLN's Christine Buttorff actually goes out and finds a neighborhood leader who adds some depth to the community support for regulating beer sales at blighted markets. The neighborhood she looks at is Salemtown and the leader is Salemtown Neighbors president Freddie O'Connell.

As a result, Buttorff goes beyond grocery lobby boundaries where other journalists fear to tread and cites the rap sheet of Salemtown's single serve offender Volcano Discount Tobacco Market. She would have received my gold star if she had mentioned the property owner and prominent Nashvillian Kenny Norman. Ever since the Nile Market near Marathon Village was torn down, the foot traffic around the Volcano market, which also adjoins a MNPS bus stop, looks rougher and tougher.

As Freddie points out, enforcement of open container violations is practically impossible and something new needs to be tried.  I would add that even if it creates other loopholes like turning to small bottles of liquor, those loopholes can be dealt with as they arise.  No law is perfect, but something needs to done to stop urban blight and the slum lords like those who own Salemtown's market from being such bad neighbors and inviting trouble into communities.

HT:  Post Politics