Underage
Drinking: Success Stories
Alaska
– November
14, 2001
|
of Problem
Strategies More
|
With
support from the OJJDP Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Initiative,
community organizations, enforcement agencies, youth, and other concerned
citizens are working collaboratively to change local ordinances and
enforcement practices.
|
The
Anchorage Way : Citizens Use Permit Process to Prevent Harm |
Citizens
in Anchorage , Alaska
have seized on alcohol licensing as a way to reduce alcohol-related harm.
Their efforts are a lesson in civic activism and for everyone
concerned about problem drinking.
In
Alaska
,
local governments decide where alcohol outlets are allowed to open.
Alaskan law sets a fixed number of permits for the state; anyone
wishing to sell alcohol must first purchase a permit from a current
permit-holder. The state approves the permit, but local government must
approve the location of the outlet. In
Anchorage
,
the eleven-member City Assembly makes those decisions, and has
traditionally done so with little community input.
This
began to change in the 1980s, with a health worker named Joan Diamond.
Recognizing that alcohol contributes to many of the problems facing
Anchorage– Diamond estimates that a full third of the city?s budget is
spent on alcohol-related problems– she discerned the need to address
consumption in
Anchorage
.
She found inspiration in Wittner?s ?Manual for Community
Planning to Prevent Problems of Alcohol Availability.?
The book led to two insights; first, that alcohol outlets are
associated with increased levels of violence, crime, underage drinking,
traffic crashes, and fatalities, and, second, that permit processes can be
used to control the availability of alcohol.
To
prove that the former was true for
Anchorage
,
Diamond mapped the location of every alcohol outlet in the city.
She overlaid that map with traffic and crime data, making the
correlation between outlet density and alcohol-related problems
immediately clear. Diamond
then took her case to the communities of
Anchorage
.
Using her maps, she demonstrated the adverse consequences
associated with alcohol retailers, and encouraged them to use the
permitting process to block alcohol outlets in their neighborhoods.
Armed
with this knowledge, communities embraced the permit process and since
have achieved notable success. One
community blocked the conversion of an old fast-food outlet to a liquor
store. Another com-munity kept a former pizza restaurant from being
converted to a liquor store in a block that included a work-to-welfare
center, a day care, and an unemploy-ment office.
Concerned residents have twice blocked a proposed convenience store
permit.
While
the increased community involvement has lead to success, the City Assembly
still retains the final say over permit locations, and has overruled
residents? objections in some cases.
But under increasing pressure, city and state agencies are now
working together to look at future ordinances that will address the
health, safety, and economic impact of alcohol sales in the city of
Anchorage
.
The change has come about because concerned citizens engaged their
local government. ?Local
control is easier,? says Diamond, ?local government is more sensitive
to the community.?
For
more information, contact Joan Diamond by phone at 907-343-6583, or by e-mail:
[email protected], or Will Hurr, Coordinator for
Alaska
,
by phone at 907-465-2116 or by e-mail: [email protected].
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