Down here at the pawn shop

[Happy Monkey]

Are there really restaurants with 30 or more seats where the employees are separated from the customers like that? It seems like the place would get filthy quickly.

I've only seen that setup with takeout or corner stores before.

On the other hand, it could be perversely read to ban drive-throughs in the winter.

[Undertoad]

It seems like the place would get filthy quickly.

It is the ghetto, it is filthy!

Think Chinese food/Korean deli with 6-8 bench seats, that is what this is targeting.

[Happy Monkey]

(g) Customer access. No establishment required to obtain a Large
Establishment license, as provided in subsection (4)(a)(.1), shall erect or maintain a physical barrier that requires the persons serving the food either to open a window or other aperture or to pass the food through a window or other aperture, in order to hand the food to a customer inside the establishment.

(.1) Large Establishment license. For establishments with thirty
or more seats regularly available for and accessible to customers to consume food on the premises.

[Undertoad]

6-8 bench seats = 36-42 seats

[Happy Monkey]

Ah... missed "bench seats"... still seems like a lot for someone to manage from behind glass. But it definitely doesn't seem to target liquor stores, which is their stated aim.

[Happy Monkey]

More info

The city code requires businesses selling malt liquor or beer to have tables and chairs sufficient to accommodate 30 people and to regularly prepare and sell food. The law also requires that consumption be allowed on premises, though many stop-and-go owners discourage loitering inside or intentionally forgo chairs so large crowds won’t gather.

Apparently, it goes with an already-in-place requirement that stores which sell beer and malt liquor ALSO be a 30-seat restaurant.

So it's:
To get a liquor license, you must be a 30-seat restaurant
To be a 30-seat restaurant, you must not have the barrier

The councilwoman is trying to target the places that are pretending to be restaurants to get the liquor license, but may end up hurting actual restaurants in the process.

[Undertoad]

The councilwoman is trying to target the places that are pretending to be restaurants to get the liquor license

Partly. But this is the ghetto, and the rules are different there. So Steve will tell you, partly because he is a functioning alcoholic and is aware of all places booze can be found:

If you head over to the little deli a block down the street from the pawn shop, the owner there will sell you a shot for $2, if you know about it.

They don't even sell beer. Steve went to the trouble of figuring this out when a lot of pawn shop customers were starting to show up drunk at 10am. Pawn shop customers aren't the sort to plan their booze purchases out way in advance. If they are starting to suddenly show up drunk at 10am, something different is at work.

So some of these aren't actually liquor stores, they aren't controlled at all, and it is considered a problem for the community. But this should be addressed using laws that exist, rather than saying that the deli owners should be killed.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

...the owner there will sell you a shot for $2, if you know about it.

One of the stores here in town will sell you a single cigarette.

If you know about it.

[Pamela]

I suspect it's a new opportunity for the Council to grab more loot in the form of payoffs for variances. It IS Philly after all.

[Undertoad]

The next shoe drops: Steve tells me privately that he is moving back to his home state, and will be leaving the shop by Christmas.

I'm, like, not supposed to tell anybody - but I think you people are good people, and won't share.

His name's not Steve anyway. All the names in this thread have been changed to protect the guilty. Except me. You know me.

Steve was the closest to me, left at the shop; so until something bigger is announced, such as a closure, the thread will slow down even from the trickle it's at now.

It's possible this might bring the end. It's not easy to find a good person who can be trusted to work the shop. But with Steve leaving, the shop only has two people left.

Alan always said that insurance mandated two people be in the shop for it to be open. That makes total sense. But now he can't do his side real estate work without closing the shop for a while.

Either they hire someone else, or everything gets weird. It's already weird. Anyone need a cash job in ghetto north philly for six months? You wouldn't need to do much.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The demise of a business, especially one serving the most needy, is sad. But it's totally understandable what lead to this decision. Hope Steve and his unindicted co-conspirators find a better path.

[Undertoad]

Steve has left the shop and so now this thread is a true crime blog. I happened to notice that this happened two blocks north of the shop:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...ter-van-crash/

Van driving up Broad at 8:30pm, someone shoots into it and kills the driver. It's a mom; and her three kids, all under age four, are also in the van, injured but not shot.

I sent this story to Steve, who is now many hundreds of miles north. He answers "Van looked like the one that was always parked in the lot with sketchy shit happening."

Steve knows the ghetto and the people better than I ever did, since he spent five years there as opposed to my 6 months full-time. "The lot" is where we parked, a block away.

[Undertoad]

My old fellow pawnbroker has started a photography hobby and part of it is taking candids outside the shop. It is a fine display of the people of Olney/Logan. About a third of his Instagram is these street photos

https://www.instagram.com/taoistpunk/

[xoxoxoBruce]

A few of the pictures are NSFW but you can scroll passed them quickly.

[slang]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

A few of the pictures are NSFW but you can scroll passed them quickly.

I found them. Thanks Bruce.