The 40 Ounce Ban and Power Dynamics (JMcQ) [InterStitial #4] –

Whenever I go outside of Kent, I make it a point to look around the city (often by foot) and see what type of 40 ounce beers that they have. I went with my parents to the Latino Festival in Columbus, Ohio this weekend. We walked around for a little and then stopped to get food. I was able to finish off early and decided to walk around the part of Columbus that the festival was around (downtown, by City Center). I first found a Sunuco stuck amongst all the large skyscrapers and apartments, and thought that I had found gold. Most the times, even the chain gas stations have something to give up; I know later that day I would find a Eagle 40 in a chain store in St. Clairesville. Imagine my surprise when I walked to the beer aisle and saw a sign on one of the coolers that said “No Single Beers Sold Here”.

My confidence that I would find something was hit, but not completely shaken. I turned around and started going up High Street, by City Center Mall. I saw a State Liquor Store; these places are usually pretty weak in regards to the selections that they offer, but sometimes they have a forty or two. I did not even have to go in to that liquor store, as there was a printed sign listing the beers that they did not carry, which included tall boys (24 oz) and 40s themselves. Each subsequent place I walked did not have any 40s for sale, and I covered about a 5x5 block in Columbus. It looks like Columbus has instituted a ban on the sale of 40s in their downtown area. I know for a fact all one needs to do is go up about 10 blocks on high and one can again purchase those sizes of beer, but I’m not sure exactly how much of a “zone” one is talking about for Columbus’ ban.

For those individuals that are not familiar with Columbus’ downtown area, it is a place that was cleaned up drastically in the last few years. While I was walking around, an event called the Cityhop was in effect. The Cityhop is where rich, yuppie investors tour downtown and see the loft apartments that are going for thousands upon thousands of dollars a month. Where there have been a number of pieces that have talked about gentrification in the last fifteen-twenty years, what the Cityhop was filled with was not the foot soldiers of generalization in the art and college students of an area but an entire invasion army, replete with Audis and Volvos.

While these two things may seem different on the surface, they are really two different sides of the same coin. The reason why the ban was in places is to make the streets a little less dirty, and the neighborhoods in which these ultra-elite buildings reside a minute bit better. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the city of Columbus is taking these steps with a bad goal in mind. Think about the one sign that I found at the first Sunoco I stopped; no single beers were being offered. The point here is that the individual that wants to pick up a 40 (usually around $1.29) has to now pick up a six pack (the lowest prices would be around $4.99). If the individual only has a set amount of change, they have to walk up a decent distance to find a place that is out of the 40-free zone. The common line of thought is that the presence of 40s in a city is a bad thing; this misguided line of thought is a remnant of the anti-temperance movement that flickered on and off throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The presence of alcohol is and never was a bad thing for a city; one need just recall Benjamin Franklin’s aphorism that “beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy.” By linking a negative perception of 40s to the lower-class element of society (bums), those in power (elected officials, owners of multi-million dollar apartment buildings) can keep the lines of power free from challenge.

These lines of power are interrupted because those individuals that are living at the poverty line now have to spend more time or more money to get anything in the way of alcohol. I can hear the arguments now – that those without money should just not spend any, and not spend anything for alcohol. Having to work 30-40 hour grinds before my current job, sometimes all that will do to keep your spirits from flagging is a can or two of beer. The negative connotation of beer, the stigma of drinking is present enough in so many communities that what I just said seems almost like an admission of alcoholism. To disrupt the normal methods of blowing off steam, the ability of an entire group of people to organize and change the existing power dynamic is diminished.

The elite class has its talons in a myriad of ways to maintain the status quo. Besides the rapidly-moving forces of gentrification that were shown by the hordes of yuppies walking around during the CityHop, there are also these structural implements put into play that increase the amount of resources used just to “relax” after a hard day’s work. The increased amount of alcohol one has to purchase also makes it easier for these laborers to abuse alcohol. I went looking for some 40s in my collection Saturday, and I ended up finding a repressive alcohol policy that supports the dominant power structure.

[JMcQ]