Pilot program to assist neighborhood with Chronic Public Inebriates may be coming to Lake City

Deputy Seattle Mayor Darryl Smith speaks to neighborhood residents at a meeting.

Recently Deputy Seattle Mayor Darryl Smith met with members of Douglas Park Cooperative and other Lake City community members where he revealed that the City of Seattle is working on a pilot program to limit the supply of high-octane beer to chronic public inebriates. Chronic street drunks are known to be a fixture of our commercial and civic core and have long been an issue of concern for many neighbors.

Mayor Mike McGinn's Office is working with three distributors to create a voluntary plan that would prohibit sales of some alcohol products between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Lake City. The products included would be fortified beers and wines, drinks known for their consumption by chronic alcoholics.

Douglas Park Cooperative has been pursuing an Alcohol Impact Area, or AIA, designation for Lake City, but the Mayor's office sees the pilot program as potentially being more successful that an AIA.

The pilot program would be enforced seven days a week but would not include bars and restaurants.

The program is still in the planning stages but could begin as early as May.

"We want these businesses to be successful in a number of ways, just not basing your whole business model on these products," Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith said of the establishments that sell these fortified products.

You can read more about the proposed program in this Seattle P-I story.