When business owners come before the Birmingham City Council with liquor license applications, it’s routine for the councilors to indulge in self-righteous pontification. This time it’s the Best Convenience Store on Pearson Avenue near West End High School that’s prompting the Council’s grandstanding. Store owner Ashal Saeed bought the business a month ago after moving to Birmingham from California. Community residents and school officials have been distressed that the store’s reportedly long-standing practice of selling single cigarettes and beer to teens is allegedly being continued by Saeed, though no one submits proof during the council meeting that the store owner is guilty. Although Councilor Carole Smitherman said she had seen groups of school children in uniforms leaving the store during the middle of the day while smoking, she said she assumed that they purchased the cigarettes at the Best Convenience Store.

Neighborhood activist Nell Allen has complained about the store for some time. “When you walk into the store you see barrels of cold beer and wine; cold and ready for them [presumably students] to purchase!” complained Allen, who was concerned about the beer signs on the premises as well. Students have also reportedly been pouring beer into soda containers so they can drink in class, though again, no one could prove that the alcohol was purchased at the Best Convenience Store. Arguing that teachers are at a disadvantage when instructing because students are “drugged and drunk” in class, Allen also complained that “you can smell dope in the air” when in the store’s vicinity, a claim which Councilor Bert Miller confirmed in a shocking manner: “I got high [in the store's vicinity] standing on the corner, almost, last week!” He added that the store was “filled with litter and loud music.”

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“We don’t need this in our neighborhoods, especially in our black neighborhoods,” Miller said, invoking a racial conspiracy theory. “I think some of these owners are preying on these black people in our neighborhoods!” The councilor often condemns the sale of alcohol in black neighborhoods— when he’s not complaining about the lack of minority contractors employed on city projects. Apparently, he fails to see the discrimination aspect of denying alcohol to black residents more frequently than white ones.

Mayor Bernard Kincaid has grown weary of the Birmingham City Council’s foot-in-mouth reactions when denying applications to sell alcohol. “The council actually uses the issue to pontificate and to express their distress for licenses going into certain communities. That is not what the law says. If it proves to be a nuisance, if it proves to be a detriment to the community, and it’s turned down on that basis, then [applicants] find solace by going across the [Linn] park to circuit court to get the council’s decision overturned,” Kincaid said during a press conference after the September 28 council meeting. In addition to the two reasons for denial mentioned by the Mayor, the third reason for denial as spelled out by state law is violation of zoning ordinances. The law does not allow refusal of an application simply based on proximity to churches or schools.

“It seems to me that what was described with respect to West End High School, and the property that they described over the last two to four weeks, clearly is a nuisance. It clearly is a detriment to the community,” added the Mayor. “And I think if the Council were to just stick with what the law says there would be no problems whatsoever. . . . The council adds too much extraneous conversation to [alcohol license application discussions] because what they say on the dais becomes part of the record,” continued Kincaid, adding that when a City Council denial recommendation is overturned by the circuit court, the city has to pay the attorney fees of the alcohol license applicant who has sued the city. The Mayor added that he sent police to the store in question when he heard about the cigarette and alcohol sales to minors.

Councilor Carol Reynolds emphasized that all neighborhoods need protection from alcohol sales. Using rhetoric fit for a tent revival preacher, she offered a condemnation of beer and cigarettes: “I’ve been standing up fighting for these people in these neighborhoods who do not want this filth, this venom, in their neighborhoods since day one!” said Reynolds. “Liquor stores around the city, I’m watching you! I will get your license revoked if I have to stand in front of your store and take tag numbers myself!” she warned. Later, Reynolds told other councilors on the dais, “If we have to, we’ll go out there together, a united front, and we’ll talk to these children, we’ll council these children. I’m a smoker, but it’s different when you are a developing child, and it’s against the law to buy ‘em!” What cigarettes have to do with alcohol sales is not explained by Reynolds, who added, “I’ll be glad to be a mother to this city. These children are my business.” &