ON MONDAY, AUGUST 21, the city council unanimously passed Jan Drago's Alcohol Impact Area Ordinance--an attempt to cure public drinking by partial prohibition in Pioneer Square. This move is overtly classist, and ignores what's really going on in the neighborhood. The real scoop is that drunken frat boys cause more trouble than poor people who drink Thunderbird or Colt 45.

According to the West Precinct's Sergeant Jim Dyment, it's the drunken hordes pouring onto the streets after bars close who break "minor traffic laws and civility laws... en masse" and bring the cops to Pioneer Square every weekend. [See the Police Beat column below for more details.] Unfortunately, the Seattle Police Department has not yet responded to The Stranger's requests for statistics that break down the disturbances in Pioneer Square.

However, some neighborhood merchants back up Dyment's observation. "It's not the homeless people who are intoxicated so much," says Roger Fredericksen, owner of Millstream, a shop near the bars on First Avenue South. "It's the kids from the suburbs."

But the city chooses to entirely ignore this fact. Instead, officials are pressuring stores to ban the alcohol that poor people can afford; to stop selling all booze at midnight, two hours earlier than liquor laws allow; and to not start again until 9:00 a.m., three hours later than liquor laws allow. (So, monied people can still drink fancy brews late into the night, and instead of passing out in a doorway, they can drive home drunk to Bellevue.)

If stores don't "voluntarily" comply with Drago's ban in about nine months, the city could call in the state liquor board to make them obey.

Jan Drago didn't respond to several attempts to reach her. But apparently her logic is that taking liquor from the homeless will be just the kick in the ass they need to either become yuppies themselves or clear out of the upwardly mobile area.

This logic is terribly flawed. "That's like saying when you go out for a glass of wine, we should put you in treatment," says Tina Bueche, owner of Dutch Ned's Cafe on First Avenue South. "It's so elitist it drives me crazy."

allie@thestranger.com