Citizens urge malt liquor ban

Residents of Lincoln District and the East Side spoke about the litter and crime street alcoholics bring to their neighborhoods. A pastor said drunks enter the daycare his church operates seeking spare change. All who testified on a proposed ban on sales of high alcohol content beer and wine urged Tacoma City Council to support the effort during the council’s Jan. 8 meeting.

An effort has been underway for some time to ban the sale of the cheap booze that is popular with street alcoholics. Residents want Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) to designate their neighborhoods as an alcohol impact area (AIA). A similar designation was placed on Hilltop, downtown and Stadium District in 2002 in response to concerns about the negative impact of street drunks on those neighborhoods.

The AIA process is a long one. WSLCB requires considerable evidence that the products in question, malt liquor and fortified wine, cause a pattern of problems that can be proved with statistics and other documentation.

The council previously approved the boundaries for the proposed second AIA. The next step was for city officials to contact owners of grocery and convenience stores that sell the products and ask them to voluntarily halt the sales.

Lincoln District resident Pat McGregor has been a leader on the effort. He got involved several years ago when street drunks who could no longer purchase their beverages of choice began congregating in his neighborhood. He told the council the alcoholics have attracted other undesirable people, such as drug dealers and prostitutes. Many of the stores in his neighborhood that sell malt liquor and cheap wine are located near schools, and as they walk to school children often encounter street alcoholics, he said. McGregor said he often has to chase street drunks away from Whitman Elementary School.

McGregor said about 35 percent of business owners who sell the products have agreed to halt sales of the products. “We need 100 percent compliance for this to work.”

Melvin Brim is with Transforming Lives Coalition, a program affiliated with Safe Streets that addresses substance abuse. He said his program targets addiction in the same area that the AIA would encompass. He urged the council to pass the resolution when it comes up for a vote at its Jan. 15 meeting.

Jennifer Chavez is a block leader for Lincoln South Neighbors. She displayed pictures of street drunks and the litter they leave behind in her neighborhood along Tacoma Avenue. One drunk banged on the front door of her house demanding spare change, she told the council.

Chavez discussed how uncomfortable it is to explain passed out drunks to her young children when they go for walks.

These individuals tend to hang out along Pierce Transit bus routes, she said. Some of them throw rocks at a bell of a church in the neighborhood, and many hang around in a homeless camp near Lincoln High School, according to Chavez.

Banning sales of the products would move these individuals out of the neighborhood and would send a message of support for new and future businesses in Lincoln District, Chavez said. She also feels it would free up police to focus on more pressing crime issues. “It offers a simple, straightforward message to all involved.”

Marty Campbell is an East Side resident and owns businesses in downtown and Stadium District. While Campbell said he often opposes government regulations on small businesses, he acknowledged that the operations of some merchants can have a negative impact on a neighborhood and asked the council to support the AIA effort.

Catherine Ushka-Hall, president of East Side Neighborhood Advisory Council of Tacoma, brought her young daughter to the podium. She said her daughter was amazed by how clean the area looked after an organized neighborhood cleanup removed broken bottles and other trash left by street alcoholics.

Ushka-Hall said she wants a tidy neighborhood to be considered normal, rather than something that youth find unusual.

Hilltop resident Steve Appling said the first AIA improved his neighborhood. He said most merchants won’t go along with a voluntary ban, and thus the council must take action. “The AIA works. It is needed.”  

Councilmember Rick Talbert said he voted for the first AIA, although he suspected at the time it would just push the problem to the south. For the proposed second AIA, boundaries were originally around Lincoln District, but he and others pushed to expand it to the east to keep from pushing the problem over to the East Side. Even if the second is established, Talbert said he is not naïve enough to feel the street alcoholic issue won’t shift to another part of Tacoma.

“It is not going to solve all the problems,” he remarked.

The council is scheduled to vote on the matter Jan. 15. If it passes the resolution, WSLCB will hold public hearings in the near future before making a decision on giving the AIA final approval.

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