Providence convenience store belatedly closes
6:06 PM Mon, Nov 23, 2009 | Permalink
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. --- Five and a half months after being ordered to stop doing business for lack of a license, Broadway Mart has finally closed. The action came despite proprietor Mahmoud Hassan and his wife Rasha having begged the city Board of Licenses to let them stay open. "Please, I've got four kids," Mahmoud Hassan said to license board members. "This is the only income I've got." The Federal Hill convenience store was denied renewal of its holiday and food sales licenses because the building in which it is located has no working fire alarm and sprinkler system, which is required by law. The licenses expired in January. But the fact that it stayed open in defiance of a closure order in June from the license board escaped notice until the police and annoyed neighbors came to City Hall Friday to revisit longstanding complaints about the operation. City Councilman John J. Lombardi, who represents the ward, and police Lt. Luis San Lucas, commander of police District 4, recited a litany of complaints to the license board varying from Broadway Mart being a hangout for drug addicts, prostitutes and troublemakers to the store illegally selling "loosies." Stores in poor neighborhoods have been known to break apart packs of cigarettes and in violation of state tax law sell the cigarettes individually to people who cannot afford to buy an entire pack. Assuming a pack costs $8 to $9, the store stands to make a lot more money selling the contents one by one, as loosies, rather than as a whole.
Lombardi complained about noise and public urination and defecation in the vicinity of the store and neighbors having been threatened by loiterers. The store is at 447 Broadway, at the corner of Almy Street. Hassan on Friday told the license board that loosies no longer are being sold --- he blamed clerks for doing it --- and that no other laws are being broken inside. The Providence police on Nov. 5, 2009 twice sent a 16-year-old undercover assistant into Broadway Mart, first to buy a grape tobacco wrapper and later, to buy a cigar. Each time the clerk failed to ask his age or produce any form of identification before he was sold the items, according to a police report. The police charged the store with having sold tobacco products to a minor. The court summons gives Hassan the option of paying a $250 fine or contesting the charge in District Court. Detective Joseph Amoroso of the police license enforcement unit said that as far as he knows the case is unresolved. Monday, the license board had Hassan and one of his landlords come to a meeting to see if there was a way for Hassan to temporarily reopen until a fire alarm/suppression system is installed in the four-story multifamily house. Broadway Mart occupies a ground-floor space. With no solution in sight, license board chairman Andrew J. Annaldo said the store, which closed Friday or Saturday, must remain closed until fire safety can be assured. 
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Unbelievable! Fire supression/sprinkler system?!? The Mart doesn't cook anything. What the heck does it need a sprinkler system for... spontaneous combustion? An eletrical inspection with hardwired smoke detectors through all the units is more than adequate. How will small businesses ever survive in this city?
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Politicians in RI have been known to be crooks but they still get re-elected. You see, RI doesn't want to get caught up in another law suit because a fire marshal screwed up/didn't do his job, so now it's slash and burn, never mind about anything else.
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Why can't they cigarettes individually? It's a free country and a free market econonomy ..or at least, it was supposed to be.
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Don't open a business or provide a social service , that doesn't cater to a well-heeled clientele, if you live near the Mayor's father.
When charged with a criminal offense though,their money is still green.
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What is this man to do when anyone can "hang" around anywhere they like? Does he need to call the police every time someone lingers for a few minutes. Boy! Wouldn't they like that!! There is a liquor store down the street from where I work and you should see the "customers" that hang out around there but they stay open. They also sell "loosies". This man is trying to make a living..LET him. After all he IS paying taxes just like the license board members!!
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