Baltimore stores rebuild after riots

BALTIMORE -- The charred remains of Grace Lyo's store in Baltimore's Sandtown neighborhood attract plenty of attention these days. Neighbors stop to offer hugs and sympathy. Someone driving by asks whether it happened during the riots -- it did -- and says he's sorry.

And a passer-by on a recent morning tells her not to bother rebuilding: It will just burn again if the police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray are not convicted.

"Where are you from?" she angrily asks the man, who refuses to tell her.

Lyo emigrated from Seoul, South Korea, and lives outside the city, but she takes a proprietary interest in Sandtown, where three of her four stores are located and where she is known as "Mama" and "Miss Grace." Lyo vows to rebuild her burned-out store and wants to expand it by buying the house next door.

"I am Sandtown neighbor," Lyo says proudly. "We are just like family."

These days, that family is going through tough times. Of the 380 businesses looted or damaged in the April rioting after the funeral of Gray, 25 -- who was arrested about a block from Lyo's store and suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody -- about 100 are owned by Korean-Americans.

Many have reopened, and most owners want to rebuild despite having sustained as much as $500,000 of damage, according to the Korean Society of Maryland, which has been trying to help. But some owners are struggling to come up with the money to restock shelves; others are considering whether to simply close.

For 23 liquor stores, rebuilding comes with added hurdles. Although the state has adjusted its policy to provide interest-free loans to those businesses, city officials have taken a harder line. The city is withholding such loans from liquor stores that have been targeted for closure because they do not comply with current zoning rules -- a move that has angered owners.

Meanwhile, merchants such as Lyo find it hard to face the prospect that some of those involved in the destruction might have been customers. She will say only that she does not know who would do this to her and that they must have been "misthinking."

She prefers to focus on reopening.

For the Korean-American Grocers & Licensed Beverage Association of Maryland, the city's hard line against some of the damaged liquor stores is particularly galling. David Kim, chairman of the association, said the city unfairly blames them for crime and other ills.

"It doesn't matter how many liquor stores you get rid of, it's not going to change anything," Kim said.

He faults city leaders for not better controlling crime in neighborhoods. "Everyone knows what the problem in Baltimore city is: It's the drugs. But no city leaders are saying [to the dealers], 'Hey, you need to get off the streets.'"

Jung Kim, owner of Fox Liquors in Sandtown, was insured and was uncertain whether he would apply for the loans. But he said it would be unfair to deny him a loan when he has been operating his store lawfully since buying it 11 years ago.

"I pay taxes; whatever they charge me, I pay," he said, adding that he did not know his store was considered nonconforming. "The city, they have to take care of all of the city."

He had closed the store early as trouble began brewing April 27, but received a call from his alarm company about 9 p.m. He raced to the store and saw looters, who had broken in through the back door, carrying out bottles of liquor.

"Many people," he said, shaking his head. "I'm scared; I stayed across the street and I just looked. I can't do anything."

His store was closed for about 10 days, and he is restocking "little by little" as he can afford it.

Korean-Americans began moving into the grocery business in Baltimore in the 1950s and 1960s, as Jewish families who had dominated the market relocated to the suburbs, said retail consultant Jeremy Diamond. Since then, stores typically have been kept in a family even as the original owners prospered and moved out of the city.

The presence of such businesses in poor and predominantly black neighborhoods has caused tension in the past. A 2004 report by the Maryland Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that many residents saw Korean-American grocers as "profit-seeking, exploitative outsiders."

Several Korean-American merchants said they do not believe the rioters singled them out for racial or ethnic reasons. Rather, it is simply that in the areas of the worst looting, Koreans own many of the stores, especially those carrying attractive items such as liquor, cigarettes, beauty supplies and lottery tickets.

"They were targeted because they sold what people wanted," said Eunhae Gohng, a lawyer and member of the Korean Society of Maryland.

Moon Park said he has become friends with some among the stream of customers who drop into his liquor store, Jerry's Bar. He knows just about everyone by name, face or, at the very least, what they tend to buy.

Park was called by police in the early hours of April 28 and told that his store had been looted. He arrived that morning to find broken glass everywhere, his shelves and storage area largely emptied, two cash registers and a lottery machine bashed in, and an entire ATM gone.

"They need the money, take it. Why break everything?" said Park, 50. Two men were arrested, and Park went to Baltimore District Court for a recent trial date, but it was postponed until the end of the month.

Park still cannot bear to watch the footage from his security cameras of the looting. He doesn't let himself wonder if any of his regulars were among the looters, but he says it wouldn't matter.

"Whatever my feeling is, nothing is going to change."

Information for this article was contributed by Ian Duncan of the Baltimore Sun.

Business on 06/24/2015