Single-Sale Alcohol Ban Coming to Ward 4

AFTER A FEW YEARS IN LIMBO, a proposal to ban the sale of alcohol in individual containers in Ward 4 is finally set to take effect this August.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, at left, originally pushed the single-sale ban when he represented the ward as a D.C. Council member. As the City Paper wrote last year after he clinched the Democratic nomination for mayor, Fenty was known for being vigilant on the intersection of alcohol and the quality of life for his constituents. His aides would regularly contest the renewal of liquor licenses of problematic stores.

In 2004, Fenty sponsored an amendment to D.C. liquor laws designed to prohibit stores in Ward 4 from selling single-container alcoholic beverages. Specifically, the amendment would have barred stores from stocking single containers of beer, malt liquor or ale holding less than 70 ounces. Translation: Selling kegs would still be legal, but selling 40-ounce malt liquor bottles would not.

While some locals supported the amendment, which Fenty said was aimed at stopping public drunkenness and its unpleasant consequences — public urination, littering, etc. — others called it unfair for targeting only Ward 4. Some criticized Fenty, saying he rushed the ban through the D.C. Council without public input.

It took nearly three years and two lawsuits to sort it all out.

The amendment was passed by the D.C. Council and was scheduled to take effect that November when two Petworth-area liquor store owners — John Wilson Jr. of Decatur Liquors on 14th Street NW and Chekole Teshome of Town and Country Market on Upshur Street NW — challenged the law in federal court.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ordered that the law's implementation be delayed so she could hear the case.

In June 2005, Collyer overturned the ban, ruling that the city hadn't given the public and the D.C. Council enough time to debate it. The District's appeal wasn't settled until February, when the U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the District and directed Collyer to lift her injunction on the ban.

According to a statement last week by the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, Collyer dismissed the original lawsuit last month, clearing the way for the ban to go into effect. The statement, sent to Ward 4 liquor licensees, says the single-sale ban is now slated to start on Aug. 1 and will expire in September 2008 unless renewed by the D.C. Council.

Written by Express contributor Gabe Nelson
Photo by Michel du Cille/The Washington Post

» "An Inventory of Losers in Fenty World" [City Paper]
» "Judge Strikes Down D.C.'s Single-Sales Alcohol Ban" [WaPo]
» "Targeted Ward 4 Moratorium in Effect" [ABRA]