With a vote of 3-1, the Liquor Commission proudly gave Big Al's site approval to re-locate to the parking lot behind City Link - 160 feet from an already established child care facility.In today's online edition of the pjstar, people got jokes all around about how convenient it will be for stripper's and patrons to drop their kids off on the way to Big Al's. In my opinion, nothing about this situation is funny. The fact the child care facility has been in business while Swingers World is right down the street is of no consequence. Swinger's World is a non-descript, building that has no more of a hint of a personality than a brown paper bag (pun intended).
There are so few successful black business owners in Peoria and Ms. Costic has done a wonderful job of building her day care center and her brand. She does not deserve this.
Take a look at Ms. Costic on the news clip below. See anything funny? Hear the sadness and disappointment in her voice? See the look on her face? It's the look of a person who has worked hard to build a business; a business that now exists at the whim of the owner of a strip club. It is the look of a citizen who has found out the hard way, that even though the Code says no, her Councilman, who is supposed to care about her, will still suck his teeth, pull up his pants and without hesitation say "yes".
What can Ms. Costic do now? In today's pjstar, she revealed the answer to that question:
"The only thing that I can do is just hope and pray that nothing - nothing - happens over there. And everything goes according to what Al wants it to be and that there are no problems."
