Smoking bans? Then the state needs to stop using the billions going into the state from the smokers tax dollars.
They can't have both!
Posted on 06/03/2005 2:41:36 PM PDT by SheLion
Highland Park enacted Lake County’s first smoking ban Wednesday, a move local health officials say is something they hope all municipalities will soon consider.
It means all indoor public areas, including restaurants, taxis and places of work, in the city are off limits to smokers. The ordinance was approved by the city council in April.
“The second-hand smoke issue is becoming really big,” said Bill Mays, the county health department’s director of community health services. “Highland Park’s leadership in this regard is an important precedent.”
Health department officials say the action is the most sweeping they’ve seen. That’s due, in part, because Highland Park is one of 20 communities in Illinois that can legally enact smoking bans tougher than state standards.
All that is poised to change if Gov. Rod Blagojevich signs off on a plan that would allow individual municipalities to snuff smoking on their own turf. The plan, in the works for more than a decade, was recently approved by the state legislature and awaits approval from the governor.
However, Highland Park’s smoking ban is not without opposition.
Richard Holleb, owner of Norton’s Restaurant on Sheridan Road, said he had 350 customers sign a petition against the ordinance before it was passed. His restaurants turn into bars at night, where he used to permit smoking once the kitchen closed.
“My guess is that I will lose business,” Holleb said.
For local residents like Simon Pestell, who walked through downtown Highland Park Wednesday with a cigarette in hand, the ban foreshadows what’s to come over time in most cities.
“Personally, I think it’s stupid because restaurants have good ventilation systems now,” he said.
At Rosebud restaurant, general manager John Folinazzo said he knows non-smokers will be happy cigarette and cigar fumes won’t be coming from the bar area anymore.
“In the summer, people can come and sit on the patio to smoke, but the winter is a whole other story,” he said
Highland Park officials were not available for comment.
Mays said he hopes other communities follow Highland Park’s example if the governor enables them to do so.
“It’s an important public health principle,” he said.
Smoking bans? Then the state needs to stop using the billions going into the state from the smokers tax dollars.
They can't have both!
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That's right. Anything to frighten people.
On a personal note, I'm at over 4 weeks without a cigarette. Right now, secondhand smoke makes me want to light up! lol
This is a taking of PRIVATE PROPERTY, only the owner of the property can decide on a smoking policy. Another example of Socialism at work.
"Incoherent?" Good thing you have a spell checker and can type (some) or WE wouldn't undertand a thing you say! heh!
Me too! When someone lights up around me, I think "Oh Gawd, where's my purse!" LOL
I've been posting smoking related articles since 2001 in here. GET USED TO IT ANTI!
The state mandates sprinklers, handicapped access, restroom design, inspects the kitchen, verifies the content of the menu, licenses the liquor and beer sales, regulates how many customers can be in the restaurant at one time, regulates the hours it can be open and what it can serve at what hour, assesses the wait-staff a presumed tips-income and helps design the parking lot.
Now, what was your concern?
Try telling that to the lawmakers and the Partnership for a Tobacco Free Everything. Ugh!
Oh, nothing much, just a long lost yearning for freedom.
Sorry pal, the state outlawed freedom decades ago.
Now, what was your concern?
Is this that isn't enough? Maybe The State should start regulating the number of times a toilet may be flushed per hour and how long patrons may occupy a seat too. All these controls are something to be ashamed of, not brag about.
Hi SheLion,
Here is a little letter I just sent to the people who were some of the decision makers for the Highland Park ban. We might as well let the people responsible know how we feel too. I take a special interest, as I live about 20 minutes away from Highland Park. (It used to be only 10 minutes, but that was before traffic got so bad out here...)
----- Original Message -----
From: Garnet Dawn
To: sfaiwell@dailyherald.com ; cityhall@cityhpil.com ; maribarnes@thecustomframer.com ; mrboating@aol.com ; chamber@ehighlandpark.com ; cityclerk@cityofchicago.org
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 7:33 PM
Subject: SMOKE BAN BEGINS - Highland Park
Highland Park City Hall
1707 St Johns Ave
Highland Park, IL 60035
Highland Park Chamber of Commerce
508 Central Avenue, Suite 206
Highland Park, IL 60035
Phone 847-432-0284
RE: SMOKE BAN BEGINS - Highland Park http://www.dailyherald.com/search/searchstory.asp?id=56372
Dear Mayor Belsky, Councilman Brenner, Councilwoman Barnes and the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce:
cc: Mayor Richard M. Daley, Chicago cityclerk@cityofchicago.org
Sahah Fairwell, Staff Reporter, Daily Herald, sfaiwell@dailyherald.com
I am a neighbor who resides in Lake Bluff, and I have frequently spent afternoons shopping and meeting friends for lunch in Highland Park. However, now that Highland Park has enacted this smoking ban, I will never again spend a single penny in your city. I will go elsewhere. The majority of restaurants were already non-smoking and this legislation was unwarranted and not necessary.
You have allowed yourselves to be influenced by anti-smoking special interest groups, and I doubt if the smoking ban in your city would have been approved so easily if both the Illinois Senate and House had not just passed the Clean Air Act - Home Rule. You are intentionally hurting Highland Park small business owners who are also voters.
Even though passive smoke it is now called a health hazard in many circles, not one study has ever been able to supports these claims. Inescapable vehicle emissions or the smog alerts we have to endure every year are the real health hazards. Non-smokers were never forced to ferret out the few places that still allowed smoking in your city.
Are any of you aware that the commonly used statistic that second hand smoke kills 53,000 (or more) people in this country every year came from Stanton Glantz, not the CDC or EPA? http://forces.org/research/files/acs.htm
"Glantz was the real source behind the widely quoted statistic 53,000 second-hand-smoke-related-deaths per year. The EPA denied it, after the CDC released it to a couple of Florida newspapers. The number was never retracted..." See http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com/stanton_glantz_doctor_of_what.html
One last piece of interesting information about Dr. Glantz , the trusted source who initiated all the second hand smoke claims, is that he does not have his Ph.D. in a field even related to health. His title originates from a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering!
I hope the Highland Park officials who passed this ban will live to regret it and then will repeal it, as so many other municipalities across the country have done.
Sincerely,
Garnet Dawn
XXXXXXXXXX
Lake Bluff, IL
XXXXXXXXXXX
______________________________
Garnet Dawn - The Smoker's Club, Inc. - Midwest Regional Director
The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter - http://www.smokersclubinc.com
Illinois Smokers Rights - http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com/
mailto:garnetdawn@comcast.net - Respect Freedom of Choice!
If you don't like the subject of the thread, don't bother reading it. But to attack the poster of the thread in such a manner is not only against rational discourse, it is against the rules of this website.
Any more posts from T.Smith on smoking related threads will result in an abuse call from me - and I rarely if ever file complaints.
And permitting smoking has anything to do with any of that how?????????
Go away worm, you weren't invited.....
Great work, FRiend, great work!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mine is all of the above! Don't worry sport, they're coming for you too........ (fat tax, gas tax, ..... tax......) LOL!
Yea, you're on the list and I'm just gonna sit back and laugh at the stupid look on your face! LOL!
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