Leader: City resists ‘gay-friendly’ store
By Lucas Sullivan
A nationwide HIV-testing and advocacy group for people with AIDS says Columbus is delaying its clinic and thrift store in the University District because it is a gay-friendly business.
Michael Weinstein, president of the nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said yesterday that he thinks some people on the city’s development staff don’t agree with the mission of the thrift store and clinic, to be called Out of the Closet.
Plans were submitted to the University Area Review Board in January, the initial step in the approval process. The foundation purchased the property at the northeast corner of High Street and 5th Avenue for $1.6 million.
“I was told by someone on the review council that this business was not ‘befitting’ of that location,” said Weinstein, who perceived the comment as anti-gay. “I thought, given the amount of gay people in the city, the red carpet would have been rolled out last year, and I am disappointed we are getting such resistance here.”
City officials said the foundation likely will get approval for its proposed single-story, 2,500-square-foot building.
Vince Papsidero, the city’s planning administrator, said he is gay and he found Weinstein’s argument to be ironic. City planners on the review board suggested design changes, he said, but there was nothing discriminatory about it.
“It’s a key intersection at a key corner, so we asked them to consider a taller building because that location calls for a taller building,” Papsidero said. “The (review board) can’t demand a multistory building, so it will likely go forward as is.”
Weinstein said he took offense at city Development Director Boyce Safford’s comments during Monday’s City Council meeting, that the building’s proposed size, color and “potentially the use” have created concern.
“That was a very thinly veiled message that, ‘You are not welcome here,’ ” Weinstein said.
Some community members expressed concern about the building’s use, Safford said. “I don’t have any concern about the use.”
Weinstein said the clinic and store will create 12 full-time jobs, including a full-time doctor who will be paid a six-figure salary. At the other end of the pay scale, he said, thrift-store workers will make just above minimum wage. The site would also have a pharmacy that specializes in HIV/AIDS medications.
“I think it will be a good thing for the Short North area and will help people who are sick,” said Rory McDaniel, 31, who lives in an apartment nearby on Indianola Avenue. “I just hope there aren’t a bunch of meth heads and drug addicts or whatever hanging around there all the time.”
Weinstein’s group must go through the commercial-permit application process and storm-water management plan before getting final approval from the City Council.
The foundation, based in Los Angeles, lists its net assets at about $55 million on its latest tax filings. The group operates more than 20 similar clinics mostly in California and Florida. The Columbus location would be the group’s first in the Midwest.
Terry - Here in Ft Lauderdale there are two Out of the Closet Thrift Stores. They are both very popular. One was in an existing strip building, the other new build, nice design, on a prominant intersection, yes there's pink on the building. Prices are good, selection good, they do lots of reasonably priced and gently used clothing that turns often and the money goes to good cause. Walk in clinic for HIV testing, free if you can't afford. Should be no brainer.
ReplyDeleteK. Pope