TERRICK GUTIERREZ
Why Is There A Liquor Store On Almost Every Corner?
In this series, I take images of liquor stores from Google Maps and isolate them from their background while leaving some elements of the built environment such as street signs, light poles, and palm trees. I address issues of food desserts, discriminatory land use and zoning practices, nuisance businesses all while documenting and mapping liquor stores. I also document the many times I moved throughout South Central by the time I graduated high school. Each time, I vividly remembered living so close to liquor stores. Often, my family and I had to travel outside of our neighborhood to find healthy food options.
I began this series by diving into the history of liquor stores and the many efforts to improve food quality in South Central including Community Coalition's 1990’s “Rebuild South Central Without Liquor Stores” campaign and the efforts from local orgs and resident to convert liquor stores into healthy food markets.