Philly Plain Dealer

‘This interviewee has asked to remain anonymous about his work in the community and his experience regarding nuisance businesses‘

The City of Philadelphia hasn’t reported much on recent updates regarding their efforts to crackdown of ‘nuisance businesses.’

“Nuisance businesses” are categorized as a business that takes away quality of life and creates public safety concerns for the city.

A number of these nuisance business origins date back to COVID, when shop stewards needed to continue gaining income, but weren’t allowed to continue business due to the unknown nature of the COVID pandemic. Many of which were in corners of the city that didn’t have much enforcement.

According to City Data, the neighborhoods with the most nuisance businesses are in City Council District 7 which includes parts of Hunting Park, Fairhill, Juniata Park, and Northwood. Council District 10 representing the Northeast has the least.

From 2023 to 2024, when the city announced efforts to tighten the threshold of what constitutes as a ‘nuisance business’ – curfews that these businesses had to be closed from 11pm-6am.

Though with introduced bills from the likes of councilmembers such as Cindy Bass and Jamie Gauthier, and Anthony Phillips. The city had received support and has been able to create stricter legislation around what constitutes a nuisance business and how to report them. But since, all these announcements and pieces, there still hasn’t been significant growth in the closure of these businesses and according to a WHYY article from 2024, virtually no citations had been given out with all these new “enforcements” in place. Speeding up to 2026, these citations have been low for an initiative that was so high on up on the list.

Nuisance Business Story

In one particular case, the closure of a couple businesses in the Kensington corridor has actually had a (backwards effect).

According to a community member “Gary” who resides and works in the Kensington Alleghany area, claims that these two businesses closed due to “high costs, low police surveillance in the area, and low foot traffic over the years and ongoing drug problems.” But, what came next from these two establishment closures specifically was a surplus of more underground drinking establishments that have established themselves in markets or local delis.

These delis would technically be nuisance businesses.

“These bars mainly closed because of high prices, and lack of traffic,”said Gary.

Kelis Beef and Beer Lounge which was located on Kensington & Alleghany Avenue (closed for however many years), then Jacks Famous Bar also located on Kensington & Alleghany Avenue (adjacent from Kelis), which was originally known for its extremely inexpensive beverage prices. Then ownership changed, causing prices to soar beyond what they usually were, “the new owner was pricing stuff in there like he was down south street or something,”. Beloved neighborhood favorites turned to closures. Now, patrons find themselves in local delis and markets on their Friday nights.

“The deli sells liquor now, so now you ain’t gotta do that,” said Gary.

As this has been going on for a little while now, Gary has cited that for some, this is just the regular now. Individuals are planning, getting together and going to these corner stores and delis as their evening fix. It stretches far beyond, just getting a shot in the corner store. “It’s like 5 dollars a shot, and folks don’t want to overpay at some bar, especially one they don’t frequent.”

Gary said at this point – from working in the corridor, a lot of people prefer this because to some, the nearest bars or drinking establishments are blocks away, whereas now they can just go next door to the neighborhood deli. Additionally from working in this area, he really doesn’t see the “bad” so far, that others have mentioned when it comes to the crackdown on these nuisance businesses. He acknowledged that, this delis and markets are making extra money and saving on taxes, which does not abide by the city laws, but for the most part what he sees is individuals stopping and going with no problems.

With number of these businesses growing, and all the policies put forth, with all financials put into the task force, it will be interesting to see how the city continues around their efforts. These businesses are all over the city, not just in one part.