OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – The Shikarporias are back, and the answer is still “no.”
Shoaib and Zarian Shikarporia showed up again this week in their ongoing endeavors to open a Spot On Liquors in Ocala, and the city council again turned them down. This time the reasons were different.
Last November, the same pair, then operating as Virwa Inc., sought a package store at 1500 W. Silver Springs Blvd. in West Ocala. More than 20 residents passionately spoke against it. They described the area as a “financial desert,” pointed to existing crime concerns, and said another liquor store near schools, churches, and the E.D. Croskey Recreation Center would undercut years of revitalization efforts. Residents who opposed the liquor store called the surrounding West Ocala neighborhood a “food desert,” noting that the only nearby place selling groceries is King’s Food Mart, the same convenience store where a fatal shooting occurred two months earlier…