CATCHING UP WITH ... SUPER STOP MINI-MART

-- Story by Amy R. Spurgeon; photo by Marianna Day Massey.

WEST SIDE -- Good things are happening here. Store owners, neighbors and

city employees do care about the revitalization of their area. The Super

Stop Mini-Mart at the corner of Pomona Avenue and 19th Street is proof.

In 1995, shortly after a Circle K convenience store departed the

location, residents urged the City Council not to allow the site’s

Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) license to be transferred the new owner.

In the weeks following Circle K’s departure, residents said, a calm had

settled over their neighborhood. And they liked it.

Residents complained that the Circle K had been a source of problems,

such as public drunkenness, loitering, littering, petty thefts and

assaults.

“We had so many problems there when it was a Circle K market,” resident

Hildegarde Gonzales told the City Council four years ago. “Since it

closed, there has been such an improvement.”

A number of residents urged city officials to do whatever they could to

prevent future alcohol sales at the site.

In response, the council agreed to send a letter to the state’s ABC

district administrator to express the residents’ concerns. The council

also considered rezoning the site to a neighborhood commercial

designation, a move that would bar alcohol sales.

Four years later, the site still houses a convenience store, but with

more restrictions placed on it when the state granted the transfer:

window advertisements related to alcohol were barred; the parking lot had

to be monitored for loitering on an hourly basis; and improved outdoor

lighting was to be installed and maintained.

The restrictions levied on the business are not applicable to all

convenience stores, said Costa Mesa Deputy City Manager Don Lamm.

“The goal was to make it look like the neighborhood grocery store, not a

liquor store,” said Lamm.

Costa Mesa Councilwoman Libby Cowan said there have been no issues

regarding the Pomona site brought before the council since the changes

were made.

The Costa Mesa Police Department said there have been 10 recent

misdemeanors at the Pomona site, including public drunkenness, warrant

arrests and some traffic-related problems.

Super Stop Mini-Mart owner Adnan Abushan has worked hard over the last

few years to keep the place looking respectable. Wearing a plaid,

long-sleeved shirt tucked into green corduroy pants, Abushan meticulously

straightens the items lining his store’s shelves.

“We spent money and cleaned up the parking lot,” said Abushan. “We keep

an eye on the parking lot, not to keep people around.”

Abushan has also installed a chain-link fence on the property, which

prohibits people from wandering into the back alley.

“It’s more of a family place,” Abushan said. “People aren’t bugging you

for money or drinking in the front.”

Fernando Alcantar, 18, lives next door to the convenience store with his

parents and brother. He said a lot of the problems surrounding the store

have vanished.

“Sometimes people hang out there on the weekends, but the owner doesn’t

let them,” said Alcantar. “They call the police.”

Alcantar can focus on things other than empty beer bottles in his

frontyard.