If an assessment in three months shows voluntary compliance lacking, city officials will ask the state Liquor Control Board to make the midnight rule mandatory in the increasingly gentrified area that was the original Skid Road.

While favored by community groups, some Pioneer Square grocery owners didn't sign the voluntary agreement, and some who did don't expect it to do much besides lower their revenues. Despite any ban, some storeowners speculate that those who want alcohol will simply take advantage of the free downtown bus ride to a selling store and then return with their alcohol.

Moreover, say some store owners, as long as there are missions in the area serving homeless and alcoholics, the situation will subsist.