Let Them Sell Bread and Flowers

In an effort to rid a gentrifying neighborhood of smelly, unattractive drunks, Seattle officials have proposed a ban on cheap beer and wine. Convenience store owners—striving immigrants from South Korea and East Africa who may not fit the city's vision of the neighborhood anyway—object that the ban will cause them financial hardship, maybe even put them out of business. The city's response: We asked them to stop selling this stuff voluntarily, and they wouldn't; now we have to force them.

[Thanks to Jeff for the link.]