Eateries resist telling smokers to snuff it
Posted on 03/02/2003 5:11:15 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Eateries resist telling smokers to snuff it
Owners say they aren't obliged to enforce ban; Poss endorsed
03/02/2003
If Dallas Mayor Laura Miller expects restaurateurs to become her anti-smoking patrol, she's mistaken, industry leaders said Saturday on the first day of Dallas' restaurant and bar smoking ban.
The Greater Dallas Restaurant Association is instructing owners to abide by the new city ordinance, such as by posting "no smoking" signs. But it is telling them not to feel compelled to enforce it.
"We are not going to get into a confrontational situation if someone is smoking," said Mark Maguire, president-elect of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association and owner of Maguire's Regional Cuisine and the M Grill & Tap in Dallas. "We're going to choose not to confront it."
At a smoke-free happy hour at Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant, Mayor Laura Miller praised the ban as a victory against illness.
"It's a public health issue, first and foremost," she said. "You have to stay strong and believe in that."
RICHARD MICHAEL PRUITT / DMN Jeramy Tuggle, a waiter at Dick's Last Resort in the West End, had to go outside for his smoke break Saturday. |
But count restaurant association leaders among the nonbelievers.
Ms. Miller angered them enough that the association on Saturday made its first mayoral endorsement ever - recommending City Council member Mary Poss, who is challenging Ms. Miller in the May 3 election.
Ms. Poss vowed Saturday that, if elected, she would attempt to overturn the ban.
"Some of these businesses will not be in business," she said. "Others will move to the suburbs."
Ms. Miller played down the endorsement.
"It doesn't surprise me. The restaurants are nervous because this is a big change," she said. "They'll come around quickly."
The mayor cited studies indicating that smoking bans increase restaurant patronage rather than drive it to other cities, as some restaurateurs fear.
At the Cadillac Bar in Dallas' West End, general manager Mark O'Brien said he opposed the ban, although he reported normal business Sunday and no problems among nicotine-starved patrons.
In keeping with the restaurant association's guidance, he said he would not harass customers who decide to light up at the risk of being fined as much as $200.
Among the smokers who were grumbling but not puffing at the Cadillac was Jared Davidson.
He said he would consider taking his cigarettes - and money - to restaurants in Addison, Arlington or Fort Worth.
But he remained at the Cadillac on Saturday.
Mr. Davidson sat quietly, his food before him and a half-empty glass of suds inches from his left hand. But at his right, the ashtray was gone.
"It's really weird - really weird - going into a bar, having a beer and not being able to have a cigarette," said Mr. Davidson, gesturing as if holding an invisible cigarette between his index and middle fingers. "It's going to take some getting used to."
MONA REEDER / DMN Mayor Laura Miller says restaurant owners eventually will see the wisdom of the city's smoking ban, which went into effect Saturday.
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At Dick's Last Resort, a West End bar and restaurant, Douglas and Karen Lambert sat at the bar drinking beer. Mr. Lambert smokes; his wife doesn't.
He said he would abide by the ban; he doesn't even smoke in his own house. But that doesn't mean he likes the new city restrictions.
"It should be up to the establishments, the owners, to decide where customers can and can't smoke," he said.
Likewise, it's up to customers to take their business to restaurants that appeal to them, Mr. Lambert said. "If you don't want to smell smoke, don't come in."
Jason Buckner of Dallas said he agreed with the ban.
Dining in a Dallas restaurant without the smell of burning tobacco wafting his way, and coming home without smelling of smoke, will be a welcome change, he said.
"I can't really stand smoke," he said. "The ban is a real benefit to people who want to be healthy."
So you are in favor of anarchy then?
Let's see: I and people like me are in favor of "forcing" air on others.
You and people like you are in favor of "forcing" noxious smoke on others.
Which of us is the "smokenazi" then?
How naive you are. I guess that's why they DON'T have Health Inspectors, and why restaurants DON'T get citations for violation of health regulations, etc.
I believe YOURS is the psychological projection. Or maybe "psychotic."
Absolutely!
However, when they actually LIGHT UP A CIGARETTE, their anti-social preference is thus made manifest, and they ought to be censured.
I am a fast friend of EVERY smoker who has the common decency not to smoke where I have to endure it. It isn't the smoker, it's the smoke, you know.
We should've allowed it to decide the slavery question, too.
And abortion. The free market ought to decide the abortion issue.
Who's mixing apples and oranges? All of us need air to breathe. Only a few of us CHOOSE to pollute it with smoke.
If I decide to pollute my own air, that's fine. But I have NO RIGHT to pollute the air of others. If the restaurant owners own the air that I breathe--nice of them not to charge me for it--that's one thing. I submit that all of us are entitled to air relatively free from contaminants, no matter who owns the building I'm sitting in, just as we're all entitled to BUY food free from harmful bacteria.
This feckless argument on behalf of those who are SO incredibly self-absorbed that they think they have a right to pollute MY air in support of THEIR habit is proof-positive that many "conservatives" are just whiners with a different agenda. No better than the Lefties they pretend to excoriate.
You could say "for years" that the earth is flat. And you'd be just as "informed."
I think the ban on group-sex in public is a dastardly abrogation of our God-given freedoms.
Maybe next the mob can get together and force them to stop serving meat?
If you want to eat meat, it's your privilege. You're not forcing ME to eat the meat along with you. If you want to smoke, it's your privilege--AS LONG AS YOU'RE NOT FORCING ME TO SMOKE ALONG WITH YOU.
An obvious canard, and most of you know it.
Therefore the Gov. must outlaw ____________.
No. It is "I don't like to be forced to smoke just because YOU like to smoke. Therefore, WE THE PEOPLE are going to take measures to make sure that you don't force ME to smoke."
And so now smoking in public--where you will harm others to a FAR greater degree than you would if you were simply having sex within their view--is ALSO illegal.
So what's your problem?
So you ARE in favor of group sex in restaurants, then.
Another useful idiot .
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