Market owners see bias in proposed booze-ban areas

Immigrant owners of small Seattle markets urged the Washington State Liquor Control Board on Thursday to reject a proposed ban on cheap beers and wines in much of the city.

The proposed alcohol-impact-area (AIA) restrictions sought by city officials are aimed at problems associated with chronic street alcoholics: litter, panhandling and public urination.

But the grocers, sometimes angry and speaking through interpreters or in broken English, said they would be the casualties of the ban. They said if such rules have to be imposed, they should be made citywide, not just targeted at certain neighborhoods.

"This is discriminatory," said Amare Taye, who owns a small market in the Central Area, just inside the border of the proposed AIA. Taye, an Ethiopian immigrant, said he has worked hard at his business for eight years and believes the city is trying to shut him down.

Taye said he keeps his store clean and has never had problems with street alcoholics or litter. In fact, he argued that the neighborhood has a worse litter problem from miniature bottles of vodka and whiskey sold by state-run liquor stores.

City officials want the board to ban the sale of 34 fortified wines, beers and malt liquors in two large impact areas: one covering downtown, Capitol Hill, the Chinatown International District and Central Area, and the other covering the University District.

The ban would include high-alcohol brands of malt liquor such as Steel Reserve (8.1 percent alcohol) and fortified wines Cisco and Thunderbird (both 18 percent alcohol) and some less-potent, but cheap, brews such as Lucky Ice (4.7 percent alcohol). More expensive beers, from Budweiser to microbrews, would not be affected. Nor would hard alcohol sold in state liquor stores.

Suk Kang, a Korean American who has owned Benson's Grocery on Capitol Hill for 24 years, said the liquor board was ignoring the people who are most affected: customers who favor beers on the banned list. "I believe there is no one who drinks cheaper beer in this room," he said angrily through an interpreter.

But supporters of the AIA said they're tired of dealing with crime and trash associated with homeless alcoholics.

Kevin Boze, who has lived in the Central Area for five years, told the board of finding drunks passed out in his yard, bottles and cans on the street, and prostitutes in his driveway.

"I've endured enough. It's time for me to stop being inconvenienced, and it's time to inconvenience the people who are causing the problem," he said.

One small downtown market's owners were pleasantly surprised when they stopped selling cheap beer and wines a year ago. Business is better than ever because tourists and others aren't bothered by panhandlers hanging around outside, said their daughter, Stellar Kim, who testified on their behalf. "We have increased our sales dramatically," she said.

The city has tried similar rules before. In 2003, Pioneer Square was designated as the city's first AIA.

Fortified wines are banned in the neighborhood, alcohol sales are prohibited from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and beer cannot be sold in single containers.

Other neighborhoods, particularly Capitol Hill, have complained that the Pioneer Square restrictions pushed street alcoholics into their backyards. City reports show the rules have done little to curb alcohol-related emergency calls.

"We have not been effective yet," said Scott Minnix, a manager with Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods.

But Minnix told the liquor board that failure is because the Pioneer Square AIA is too small and doesn't have strict enough rules.

The liquor board is expected to make a decision on the AIA this year.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com