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Rite Aid Corp. has dropped plans to sell beer and wine at a downtown Seattle store, marking a victory for neighborhood groups and city officials whove grown increasingly assertive in their drive to cut sales of alcoholic beverages favored by chronic street drinkers.
Neighborhood groups and the Seattle Police Department last month objected to Rite Aid's application for a license to sell packaged beer and wine at its store on the corner of Third Avenue and Columbia Street.
In a letter dated July 14, the company told the state liquor Control Board that it had withdrawn its application. A Rite Aid administrator wrote: "This is in response to the city of Seattle's objection to our application."
Neighborhood groups and the city are using peer pressure and the state's licensing procedures against retailers who sell highoctane beverages in big bottles - the drink of choice for many street alcoholics. Downtown neighborhoods and the city are also more vigilant about preventing concentrations of establishments that sell alcoholic beverages.
"I think we're being more proactive," said Cary Atlas, president of the Pioneer Square Community Council and chairman of the Third Avenue Task Force, which is trying to reverse the seedy image of the south-downtown end of the street. "I think we're starting to have some success."
Last month,...