Posted on 06/02/2009 11:35:55 AM PDT by swarthyguy
Hub bar and restaurant owners are burning up over the city’s sudden crackdown on puffing patrons on rooftop decks or in sidewalk cafes as part of the city’s tough new workplace smoking rules.
“We used to have a patio full of people, smokers and others who don’t smoke but are socializing with them,” said George Lewis, owner of The Foundation Lounge at the Hotel Commonwealth in Kenmore Square. “Now it’s empty.”
Lewis is among a group of tavern owners considering challenging the new smoking restriction in court. They fear the ban, coupled with an increased meals tax, will scare away customers at a time when profits are already suffering due to the economy.
“I’m afraid we’re going to lose business,” said Tony Castagnozzi of the Rattlesnake Bar and Grill on Bolyston Street. “People will say, ‘Screw it. We’ll go out of town to a place where we can have dinner and a cigar outside.’ It just makes it tougher and tougher to do business in the city.”
Last month, city inspectors began visiting the 250 or so bars and cafes with decks and patios, handing out warning letters and putting proprietors on notice that they face costly fines - $200 for a first offense, $700 for a second and $1,000 for a third - if customers are caught smoking in any “adjacent outdoor area” served by staff.
Boston Public Health Commission spokeswoman Ann Scales said after the educational outreach ends in the coming weeks, the city will begin enforcing the smoking ban in earnest by handing out violations. ‘We don’t pass regulations that we don’t enforce,” she said, adding that chronic violations could affect a bar’s liquor license.
Angry publicans say they were caught off guard by the measure, which got little attention in December when the city, which banned smoking inside restaurants and bars in 2003, enacted some of the toughest smoking restrictions in the country.
The outdoor-workplace smoking ban was tucked into the new regulations, which included a proposal to extinguish cigar bars that made national headlines. The issue sparked a fight from smoking bars that led to a 10-year reprieve.
But bar owners did little to protest the outdoor ban and are now scrambling to deal with what Castagnozzi calls “a manager and doorman’s nightmare.” On some nights, as many as 50 people stand in line waiting to get upstairs to the Rattlesnake’s popular roof deck. “Now anyone wanting to smoke will have to go back down the line and outside to smoke. When they come back, people will be like, ‘Who are you?’ ’ he said.
Nancy Reagan and Michelle?
Now, that ought to be an interesting contrast.
Dear poster, I believe that you have misunderstood swarthyguy.
If this legislation saves the life of just one child, it will have been worth it!
What are they gonna ban next in hotel rooms? Hookers?
You’re on, my dear! :-)
We should get some pics tomorrow.
Oh, everything saves the live of “just one child.”
Can’t they be more original? Gees.
It was a good thing that I was somewhat polite. LOL.
Y’all are in good company.
SheLion, bless her, ripped me apart on one thread.
But, I do like being a Nanny in Drag sometimes.
Kinda funky. You feel all tingly, self righteous and full of yourself.
I have been taught on here (FR) to read more before exploding. Sometimes I actually remember that. LOL
Oh, I learned the HARD WAY myself. LOL.
I sure miss her.
She is a very kind and gracious lady, that's for sure.
Yeah I still get the “oops” thing going. LOL
Such a harmless, little, lovable fuzzball.
They won’t go outside the city. They just won’t go out. We aren’t going to be needing as many restaurants and bars in the new obamanation.
The only trouble there is that that idiot is likely to allow a Vietnam-style bloodbath to take place there just so he can say Bush didn’t really win the war.
After what Congress did to South Vietnam in 1975, I was a teen then, who knows what will happen.
Funny, how all of last year, the success in Iraq was virtually ignored by the Obama 24/7 worship channels.
I was a teen then too. And it was virtually ignored. I knew it must be pretty bad over there, but I had no idea. All I knew was how the “boat people” started showing up, whom I thought were like wetbacks and cubans, trying to get away. Which they were but I didn’t know that millions were being slaughtered. They kept that under wraps. Well, in truth not much news comes out of a commie police state.
If Iraq falls, it will drop off the news map, just like when Saddam was in control.
They just banned smoking in state parks and playgrounds. You should hear the unbelievably obnoxious ads they're running on the radio, high-fiving themselves for their victory.
I despise them.
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