Some residents and business owners near Tennessee and Sutter streets say they are tired of alleged open drug deals and drug use, loitering, panhandling and noise issues in their neighborhood. Taking their cue from a successful 2004 small claims court lawsuit, several area representatives met last week to plan a strategy aimed at what some believe is the nexus of their problems: a local tobacco shop.
Vallejoan Leo Cavanagh, who helped lead the lawsuit against Zozo’s Smoke Shop at 601 Tennessee — which earned him and 14 others $5,000 each — shared his experience with the small group.
Zozo’s, a tenant in a small strip mall at Tennessee and Sutter streets, closed shortly after the 2004 lawsuit against its owner. A new tobacco shop opened in its place, the existing and newly targeted Tennessee Discount Cigarettes.
After years of comparative harmony, business owners and nearby residents alike said they have seen a recent upswing in public nuisances.
“It’s the same old story in a different year,” resident Julie Gaul said. “We know this is Vallejo and it’s cyclical.”
Gaul said the group has not yet approached Tennessee Discount Camel Cigarettes management or the property owner, and that a second community meeting is planned for next week.
Area business owners said this week that they have seen a spike in openly conducted drug business and aggressive loiterers. Nancy Nails owner Cilene Kim Nguyen, said she has cut back operating hours and faces the loss
Vallejo Police Department statistics show 31 calls, mainly for loitering, drug issues and suspicious circumstances, at or around the mall since Jan. 1, Lt. Jim O’Connell said. O’Connell said that number may represent an under-reporting of incidents.
Tennessee Discount Cigarettes manager Leo Yafai, who said he worked for both the previous store’s and current store’s owner, said he has worked to clear a back alley of illegally dumped trash. He said he also stands in front of his store regularly to shoo away loiterers. He blames the mall’s problems on its proximity to the busy Sonoma Boulevard.
“I can’t control the whole neighborhood. Not everybody that smokes cigarettes is a crackhead,” said Yafai, adding that he has called police on troublemakers in the neighborhood. “It’s frustrating, because you can’t control them. A lot of them are teens, and they don’t listen. (Some of them) live in the neighborhood.”
Cavanagh, who led the previous civil lawsuit, said this week that he does not believe the neighborhood’s problems have an established link to the smoke shop. Future meetings with neighbors could help build that connection, he said.
Vallejo Code Enforcement Manager Nimat Shakoor-Grantham said her office has not received any recent code violation complaints for the area around Tennessee Discount Cigarettes, or about other city tobacco retail shops.
On the other hand, a flood of complaints about prostitution, graffiti, squatters and homeless encampments citywide has flooded her office to the point where Shakoor-Grantham plans to host a community meeting this month.
Coincidentally, she said her prime example of ways city property owners can take public nuisance issues into their own hands, in the wake of reduced city police and code enforcement forces, will be the lawsuit against Zozo’s.
“We’re getting a series of complaints that we’ve sent notices and fines to, and the fines and notices haven’t worked and the next best step is legal action,” Shakoor Grantham said. “We are planning … a workshop on how neighbors can use the civil lawsuit approach to assist their irresponsible neighbors to better take care of their property.”
Tags: discount camel cigarettes, tobacco shop