Pilot program to limit access to cheap beer, wine for chronic public inebriates begins

A sign at left informs that single servings of alcohol are not allowed before 1 p.m. at the 99 Cent Etc. Store

Some stores in Lake City have joined a pilot program where the businesses do not sell fortified beer and wine between the hours of 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. The program is an attempt to limit access to cheap beer and wine with a high alcohol content, drinks favored by chronic public inebriates.

It is well-documented by neighborhood groups that collect and count cans and bottles strewn on our streets during community walks that Lake City has a serious public drinking problem. Douglas Park Cooperative has collected staggering numbers of cans during its twice-weekly walks.

The new program comes after strong prompting from the mayor's office and cooperation form the distributors.

Neighborhood group Douglas Park Cooperative was first pursuing an Alcohol Impact Area for the neighborhood, a much more strict program. But the voluntary pilot program was proposed by the City of Seattle because of the difficulty of keeping updated lists of regulated drinks as makers of the drinks regularly change the drinks' names.

The program will be in place seven days a week and does not include bars and restaurants.

Under the program distributors encouraged retailers to participate in the program.

A tower of Steel Reserve tall boys in the 99 Cent Etc. store

Because the program is in its early stages there is not an accurate count of how many business in the neighborhood are participating in the pilot program. But signs stating that single servings of alcohol are not available before 1 p.m. have been seen at at least three convenience stores in the last few days.

The Office of Economic Development plans to work with the businesses to highlight other options for small businesses that relied on selling large amounts of fortified beer and wine.

City leaders have said that if the program does not prove successful an Alcohol Impact Area may still be enforced in Lake City.

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.

Nuisance behaviors in our neighborhood, visual proof

As Douglas Park Cooperative members do our twice-weekly walks we encounter many dangerous, disgusting and downright destructive things done by people in our community that either do not seem to have a stake in our community or do not have respect for our community —and often respect for themselves.

We have taken to documenting some of the things we encounter. These photos are a small sampling of some of the things we have seen in recent weeks. There are many, many more but we do not photo document everything. We also realize that taking pictures of chronic inebriates or drug users could lead to confrontation that we have deemed is wise to avoid.

Below is a sampling of what we regularly see. Keep in mind that we conduct two weekly litter patrols and folks at the UGM shelter also conduct one per week. Other neighborhood groups also conduct patrols and find similar things.

Likely one of the most disturbing was when we found at least four unsecured hypodermic needles in the parking lot of the Seattle Gymnastics Academy, a place that students are likely to run barefoot to their cars after class.

The focus of DPC from day one has been nuisance behaviors, not the often troubled people that are known to do them. That responsibility is more in line with what the Seattle Police Department contributes to our mission. That is why we are pursuing the Alcohol Impact Area as a small part of the complicated puzzle that will better our community.

We potentially have a great neighborhood and DPC wants to help everyone succeed in reaching their potential and overcome their struggles. However, these nuisance behaviors and their results bring down everyone.

 

Needles outside Cedar Park senior apartments

One of the dozens of hypodermic needles found in the neighborhood

A collection of empties on the street

Scene after a stabbing at the 99¢ Etc. store

Shoplifting suspects captured by camera at ACE Hardware

Elliott Bay Brewing Co. is welcomed to the neighborhood

Graffiti in front of Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Another needle in a neighbor's hedge

Shopping cart full of trash and beer cans

More vandalism at the dead end of 28th Ave NE near Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Four Loko cans in Elliot Bay Brewing doorway

Bag used for drugs

Truck vandalized with pink paint stolen from shed at Seattle Gymnastics Academy

Loitering, drinking with about 6 empties at the Chevron gas station

Warning: After this point the images become quite offensive and disgusting. Continue at your own discretion.

DPC Meeting Reminder

Douglas Park Cooperative Meeting 

Thursday March 15th, 2012

Time: 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Location: KaffeeKlatcsh  (12513 Lake City Way )

Guest Speaker: Darryl Smith - Deputy Mayor 

The topic of Thursday's meeting is the off premises sale of certain alcoholic beverages. Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith has been invited to speak on this topic, and has said that he will be announcing a proposed policy change from the Mayor’s office regarding this subject. 

There are many strong emotions in regards to this issue and other issues surrounding it in our neighborhood. Due to this, we will be taking written questions prior to the meeting to present to Darryl. No direct questions from the audience as we want to try our best to keep the meeting focused on the Alcohol Impact Area. Feel free to email questions to us in advance to present to Deputy Mayor Smith: douglasparkcooperative@gmail.com

The meeting will be jointly led by Janet Arkill from Families for Lake City and Dave Morris from Douglas Park Cooperative. We will ask as many questions as possible. The remaining questions will be given to Darryl to take with him.

Our goal is to create a community where we can all develop our full potential and help others realize theirs. We want to increase our “social capital” and “self determination." The request to the city for an Alcohol Impact Area is in this context. It provides a restriction on a product that is an impediment to the successful recovery of people suffering from Chronic Public Intoxication. 

We will also be making an additional request to Darryl and other City representatives in the coming months to help us with bringing more civic space and programmed, positive communal activities to this area. These positive communal activities are needed to replace the empty, passive activities that lead to the destructive behaviors that break down the potential of the individual and the community. 

In addition to your questions, we will be accepting food donations to North Helpline in honor of Jeff Inman, the homeless vet that passed away on our streets last week. Please bring your food donations to the meeting. We will have a box there for collection. A list of the items need by the food bank can be found here: http://www.northhelpline.org/howcanyouhelp_foodmoney.html

Meeting Agenda:

7:00 - Call to order. Introductory remarks

7:05 - Darryl Smith

7:20 - Q&A

7:45 - Closing remarks / Meeting adjourned. Help clean up. 

8:00 - Closing time.

Vandals break into Seattle Gymnastics Academy storage, paint car pink

A Toyota pickup was splashed with pink paint Sunday night after vandals broke into the SGA storage shed.

Vandals broke into a storage shed at the Seattle Gymnastics Academy and Seattle Preschool Sunday night. Nothing was noted to be missing from the storage, aside from a few gallons of bright pink and blue paint.

The vandals threw the paint on a pickup truck parked at the dead end of 28th Avenue NE, near NE 130th Street. The paint was also thrown on the street in front of the facility.

By day the dead end on 28th Avenue NE is home to the preschool and the gymnastics school and light indusrial and auto shops.

However at night, it becomes a hangout for drug users and chronic inebriates. People live in cars there at night and are asked to be gone by the time the school starts in the morning.

During recent walks there Douglas Park Cooperative has found hypodermic needles in the parking lot of the school —an area where students are likely to run barefoot to their cars after class.

Graffiti on a fence in front of SGA

Human feces and toilet paper are regularly found there are as high volume alcohol containers, used condoms, trash and graffiti. A fence in front of the SGA property has long had graffiti on it.

The City of Seattle recently replaced the 'Road End' and 'No Parking' sign at the end of the street after is was reported by DPC to be graffiti-covered and falling over.

Douglas Park Meeting - Thursday, March 15th

Douglas Park Cooperative will be meeting at KaffeeKlatsch next Thursday, March 15th at 7:00 pm. Our guest speaker will be Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith. He will be speaking on the topic of liquor control and specifically about a new policy that the Mayor's office has been working on to either replace or augment the current Alcohol Impact Area concept.

If there is time after this discussion, Darryl may be able to answer more in depth questions about the future of the Old 39.

At the previous Douglas Park Cooperative meeting, the full meeting was a discussion about how to deal with Chronic Public Inebriety and the negative effects it is having on our neighborhood. We resolved to pursue an Alcohol Impact Area for Lake City to try to curb the sales of specific brands of alcoholic beverages that are preferred by people suffering from Chronic Public Inebriety.

A request was sent to Richard Conlin, who spoke out in support of the AIA concept at the February North District Council meeting, along with a map showing the location of off premises licensees and the requested boundary. He submitted the request to Bob Scales, the lawyer who reviews the requests at the city, to review the idea and report back to Council with an assessment of how to proceed. The boundaries are to be established by City Council Resolution before we can make a request to the Liquor Control Board.

Another component of establishing an AIA is to provide stats. Part of this requires collecting and documenting empties. We have collected nearly 300 empty high alcohol by volume beverages in the last month. This data is used for making a before / after comparison to verify the AIA is working.

Below is the map that was part of the request sent to Richard Conlin on February 8th.