There was an uproar yesterday on Facebook about a video of a protest at Alex Ice Cold Beer at 1858 Wakeling Street.
The issue was that the store was selling what appeared to be bullets right in the display with all the other odds and ends they sell besides beer.
That is at the intersection of Wakeling and Valley Streets a few blocks from Whitehall. The neighbors, to their credit, took their protest to the store.
As it turns out, the bullets were lighters in the shape of bullets. So, the good news is no bullets. The bad news is even the idea of bullets in Frankford is insensitive to the community. They have been withdrawn from sale. Sign in the door says: “This business does not sell bullets nor promote violence.”
There were some comments on Facebook about how these stores should not even be allowed to operate. That store would not be in business if it wasn’t supported financially by the community. People go there and buy stuff. If they didn’t, it would close. The bar that previously occupied the premises had a long list of LCB complaints. Since it changed hands, there have been none.
The owner does not seem to be a Frankford resident and that can be a problem in that he may not be aware of the sensitivity of the issue of violence in the community. He is now and maybe some dialogue will come of this. The fact that he may be an immigrant who opened a store in Frankford points out that, apparently, there was nobody in Frankford interested in taking over the property.
Now if we could get some protests going on the corners where the drug dealers do business, we might make some real progress. Get those guys off the street and our children would no longer have to see drug trafficking going on day by day as if it was normal. Drug sales are a quality of life issue. Drug use is the real problem but there is no reason to tolerate drug sales on any corner in any neighborhood. They can take it elsewhere.
Foulkrod and Griscom, Foulkrod and Frankford, Donuts Queen, Oxford below Leiper, etc., etc., etc. Everybody knows where they are.
