The New York Times followed up on the bootleg concoction called "Nutcracker" that bodegas are selling in the area to underage drinkers. Back in January, the Daily News actually first reported on the blend of fruit punch, vodka, rum or tequila that underage customers buy for around $5: LINK. According to the Times article, community group efforts have facilitated more arrest by law officials who have been handing out fines to sellers and purchasers. As a result, the selling of the bottled cocktail has basically gone underground for now. So is this basically Prohibition-Era style commerce or just making a buck off of minors? Read more in the New York Times: LINK. Photo by Jennifer S. Altman.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
☞ READ: Bootleg Beverage and Bodegas
The New York Times followed up on the bootleg concoction called "Nutcracker" that bodegas are selling in the area to underage drinkers. Back in January, the Daily News actually first reported on the blend of fruit punch, vodka, rum or tequila that underage customers buy for around $5: LINK. According to the Times article, community group efforts have facilitated more arrest by law officials who have been handing out fines to sellers and purchasers. As a result, the selling of the bottled cocktail has basically gone underground for now. So is this basically Prohibition-Era style commerce or just making a buck off of minors? Read more in the New York Times: LINK. Photo by Jennifer S. Altman.
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Most of the nutcrackers being consumed are not sold at bodegas anymore... they're sold by random guys hanging out in the street or at BBQs in the parks. People who own bodegas are too afraid of getting in trouble now that cops have started cracking down.
ReplyDeleteI actually saw a sign in a bodega somewhere in East Harlem (115 and Lex maybe) that said to stop asking for nutcrackers 'cause they're illegal.
The people (almost always Latino) who walk around parks and beaches all over the city calling "Corona! cerveza! Corona! cerveza!" have also added nutcrackers to their selections. I heard somebody announcing this at the beach at Coney Island a couple weeks ago.
And as the article (sort of) states, most people drinking these (at least people drinking out in the open) aren't underage. It's mostly middle aged men sit around outside drinking them on my block. I don't have a problem with it.
I want me some.
ReplyDeleteThe attitude of the two comments here is exactly why the children of Harlem are in trouble. You are condoning people selling this stuff and drinking in public. What exactly is wrong with you?
ReplyDeleteI think Harlem still retains a lot of the mystique and wild west character that has long since gone from the rest of NYC. This sort of thing plays into that. On the one hand, I like that there are these mysterious underground movements, but on the other hand, the reality of alcohol abuse is not quite as romantic (if anybody disagrees, take a ride on the M35 at ten o'clock at night to Randall's Island).
ReplyDeleteWasn't suggesting children drink it--well, not unless they have the readies to pay me over the $5 per cup.
ReplyDeleteChris-- why are you taking the 10pm M35 to Rikers?
What we really need to do is drop the minimum age requirement for sales of alcohol, and start teaching our kids -- at a much younger age -- how to drink responsibly (if they're going to drink at all).
ReplyDeleteAs it stands, our society's "alcohol education" efforts are a schizophrenic mix of puritanical scare tactics, subtle but all-pervading commercial marketing, and the irresistible lure of peer groups and mass culture. We have made matters worse by first defining into existence, and then attempting to control, by force of law, the problem of "underage drinking." These efforts serve only to further glamorize an aspect of life that should be actively normalized and moderated by the wider culture.
Moreover, the very idea of setting an arbitrary age as the requisite standard is itself dangerous. It should be obvious from life experience that personal responsibility is not a quality that is conferred by age. Neither is the ability to handle alcohol. Clearly there are individuals who should never touch the stuff at any age -- even as there are some pre-teens who might be fine with a glass of wine at dinner.
So, instead of a slower, more grounded introduction to alcoholic beverages in a familial or otherwise benign context, we instead get card checks, keggers, "illegal" parties, and binge drinking as a teenage right of passage.
And, it seems, we also get nutcrackers on the streets. Ending our modern-day crypto-prohibitionist practices would go a long way toward bringing more people and more activity into the formal economy -- yielding much-needed tax revenue, and allowing for some level of consumer protection.
CBR, France and Italy do not have any age restriction in place and on the occasions that I have been there, the system seems to work extremely well. I'm not convinced, however, that it will translate all that well over here. For it to work successfully requires a certain level of parental supervision from a young age that to be honest I haven't seen (all that much) in Harlem. It appears to be difficult enough to teach some kids the very basics of acceptable social behavior. Also, do most families here really sit down at the dinner table every night to eat? I know some do, but in Italy and France it is a tradition and very much part of their culture that fits in well with having no age restrictions on alcohol.
ReplyDeleteOh, Sanou's Mum, it is a regular trip for me to the driving range on Randall's Island. It always makes me wonder what sort of conditions these guys live under in the American Volunteers homeless shelters out there (assuming they aren't heading to the psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane). Sad to see so many youngsters making the trip.
Nice answer, Chris. I would almost believe you if I hadn't seen you taken out of Paris Blues in cuffs night after night. . .
ReplyDeleteI knew you’d be in trouble when you left Mother England and the cry of “Last Call, Gentlemen”
Chris,
ReplyDeleteYou're probably correct, of course -- our society and culture is probably already too broken to rely on personal and familial responsibility as an effective answer.
It's a shame, though, because I happen to think that the knee-jerk measures that keep percolating through our politics and into law will just keep making matters worse still...