“Drug dealing, prostitution, murders. Besides that, there are no problems.” That’s Andrew Taylor’s assessment of Deano’s Cafe, on the 2100 block of Madison. (Indeed, there was a murder as recently as last April.) As chair of the Miller Park Neighborhood Association, Taylor is leading a pack of residents who hope to convince the Washington State Liquor Control Board against renewing Deano’s liquor license.

The neighborhood association’s website keeps a public safety board, where Deano’s is an all-too-popular topic. Here is a sample:

I have HAD IT with the one-legged, crack smoking homeless guy that hangs about down here. He’s filthy and obviously totally brain damaged and smokes crack in front of God and Country with no fear and I’ve HAD IT. My generally sympathetic and liberal patience with these poor, lost, addicted souls is exhausted when it comes to this scumbag.

Another neighbor guarantees that by merely driving past Deano’s back lot you will be waved down by someone who will offer drugs and/or sex. I personally tested this claim, and I can report that even at the un-bewitching hour of 11 a.m., I had a hooker chasing after my car.

The city attorney’s office has collected input from neighborhood sources about the bar’s impact. In the letter he submitted, Taylor describes being propositioned on the sidewalk by prostitutes and drug dealers. He concludes: “We, as neighbors, cannot prove that the bar is the source of all the problems, but it is abundantly clear that Deano’s Bar serves as a focus for all that is ill and dangerous in our area.”