|||
Well, it is new year, and Baltimore held out. Now, we are going to get paid.
Settlement from opioid lawsuits will bring the City $44 million here, $152.5 million there… the city got hit particularly badly by the epidemic and decided to pursue special settlements. $402.5 million is a recent tally for these funds locally, the lawsuits continuing nationally.
See… you can’t sue street drug dealers and re-coup millions for the damage done. But you can sue pharmacy chains and companies, and activists are making sure we don’t lose track of the villains of these stories and that we hold them accountable for their crimes.
Conversely, those same pharmacy chains and companies are shrinking in terms of their Baltimore City locations. Every time I turn around, another one is closing. They then sit empty, here and elsewhere, products of “zombie leases” that reward nothing happening at the location rather than something.
photo by JJBers
So, before those incoming multi-millions are spent, I would like to make one suggestion, as a private citizen, to the Restitution Advisory Board: that the city force the landlords to sell those former pharmacy locations to the City of Baltimore. Then, have each neighborhood decide what best to use the space for, a brand new community center to use to begin the process of healing and positive change.
Me? I only want one thing back as a favor for my suggestion: I want a crack at “the hellmouth”.
“The hellmouth” is the Rite Aid formerly located at 250 West Chase Street in Mount Vernon. It gained its nickname through many years of trials and tribulations endured and witnessed. I was a customer there for over twenty years, and there was never a dull moment.
Here is my plan, which I have nicknamed #squatthepharmacy.
We make no changes to whatever is inside. We hold one concert, free, all ages, all hardcore.
Can’t you see it? End It in the checkout area? Grudge opening up the pit in the Salty Snacks aisle? Jivebomb blowing up the Office Supplies? Doubt raging beneath the tobacco use warning signs? Tripper bringing their heaviness to the Greeting Cards area? The possibilities are endless. It won’t be the first time a corporate space has been repurposed for a hardcore show, but it I how I will best experience the process of healing and positive change.
The next day? Demolish it.
After that? Sage the rubble.
Then? Turn it into a community garden / park.
Then, and maybe only then, will that particular hellmouth be sealed.
