BATTLE BREWS OVER BOTTLE ACTIVIST URGES COUNCIL TO REFUSE MARKET'S BOOZE LICENSE.

Byline: Erik N. Nelson Staff Writer

PACOIMA - Community activist Xavier Flores' longtime fight against new liquor outlets and the crime they encourage now finds him pitted against City Council President Alex Padilla.

Standing in front of the Superior Super Warehouse on Laurel Canyon Boulevard near Osborne Street, which is seeking a permanent license from state alcohol regulators, Flores points out other nearby shops where liquor is sold.

``It is saturated with alcohol outlets,'' he said, pointing to a restaurant, a pizzeria, a mom-and-pop store, a gas station and a supermarket that all sell alcohol.

Through his nonprofit agency, Pueblo Y Salud, Flores has spent 15 years fighting new liquor licenses in Pacoima and San Fernando, arguing that the more alcohol that flows into the community, the more crime increases.

``There's vagrancy, there's loitering, there's drinking in public, there's driving under the influence, not to mention all the spousal abuse, child abuse going on in the area,'' he said. ``Kids are having to walk to school and are having to walk past all of this on a daily basis.''

Padilla - who has supported the license, unlike state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, and Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Mission Hills - persuaded the City Council to approve a certificate of public convenience or necessity, which overrides opponents' arguments that the area has too many licenses and high levels of crime.

``The Northeast Valley is poorly served in terms of supermarkets, sit- down restaurants and banks. To provide a supermarket of this caliber certainly provides a benefit to area residents,'' said Padilla's spokesman, David Gershwin.

The liquor license is needed, he added, because ``we want to provide the same goods and services to their customers as other surrounding grocery stores.''

Officials with Lynwood-based Super Center Concepts Inc., which owns the 13 Superior supermarkets in Southern California, said in a statement that the license ``has been protested by two groups who have a history of opposing alcoholic beverage licenses generally. Superior has attempted to meet with both groups to discuss whatever concerns they may have, however, the groups have declined.''

The Los Angeles Police Department reported that the area surrounding the store reported 613 crimes between November 2000 and October 2001, which Flores said is more than twice the citywide average of 286 crimes for a single reporting area.

Eighty-four of those crimes were alcohol-related, and 62 were violent crimes, according to a position paper against the license submitted by Pueblo Y Salud and the Pacoima Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Policy Coalition.

In a tour of the neighborhood, Flores and his staff point to alleys where a collection of homeless people, gang members and drunken revelers congregate after dark, providing the source of much of the area's crime problem.

A January statement by LAPD Senior Lead Officer Norm Dumais, who conducts investigations for the convenience or necessity certificates, said the license ``would not contribute to the level of crime in the area.''

His report also said, ``Security measures at the location will provide a high degree of security for the prevention of any criminal activity.'' And he noted that police had not received any calls to the area since the market opened in November 2000 with an interim alcohol permit.

Still, Alarcon and Cardenas remain opposed to Superior's license.

``We have had a lot of problems in the past with irresponsible vendors abusing their liquor license privileges,'' said Cardenas, who is running for the City Council seat that borders the area around the store, and if elected could end up representing the same area once district boundaries are redrawn next year. ``Just in general, I don't support an increase in the number of liquor licenses in the community.''

That number has been an issue for some time in Pacoima, which Flores said had about 95 liquor licenses, and through attrition and neighborhood opposition to new licenses, that number has dropped to about 75.

``That supermarket's fine, but the license to sell alcohol is not needed in that community,'' Flores said. ``There's a whole body of evidence that clearly demonstrates a direct correlation between alcohol availability and alcohol-related problems and crime.''

A hearing before an administrative law judge, triggered by the groups' protests, was to have taken place Dec. 14, but it was continued to a yet unscheduled date.

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Xavier Flores stands outside the Superior Super Warehouse market in Pacoima, where he opposes the sales of alcohol.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer