Ban on alcohol sales pays off

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Red Dog, Mickey’s and their buddy Big Bear aren’t hanging around downtown anymore – at least not as much as they used to.

Sales of high-alcohol malt liquors and wines have been voluntarily banned for the last three years in a swath of central Vancouver called an Alcohol Impact Area, and a street cleanup last month showed that the drinks are cropping up less and less on downtown streets.

The Vancouver Downtown Association conducted its fourth annual cleanup event on May 8. Of the 87 drink containers volunteers gathered, 40 were alcoholic, the city reports. Of those, just 12 were of the “get smashed fast and cheap” variety that are banned for sales in downtown.

Compared with 2007 – when 342 cans and bottles were picked up, and 195 of those were malt liquor and high-octane wine – it’s been a big improvement, city Program and Policy Development Manager Jan Bader said.

Bader credited the Alcohol Improvement Area, the establishment of a neighborhood policing program that has an officer stationed downtown regularly, and the Vancouver Downtown Association’s increased efforts to keep the area clean as all having a big impact.