Posted on 01/16/2004 5:47:01 PM PST by beaureguard
CONYERS — Six months ago, local restaurant owner Bill Jones undertook the ambitious experiment of operating Conyers’ first smoke-free sports bar. In favor of a healthier dining atmosphere and in agreement with the ideals of local organization Smoke-Free Rockdale, Jones marketed his establishment to families and community organizations and sent those patrons who were smoking outside.
However, as of the first of the year, Jones said the experiment had failed.
“It was a decision that was based on economics,” Jones said. “We simply didn’t receive the support in numbers we had hoped for from non-smokers. On the other hand, about 60 percent of our (patrons) are smokers, and they didn’t mind going outside when it was warm, but once it got cold they minded, and our business went in the tank.”
Jones owns 3rd Base Sports Grill on Salem Road, one of a few local restaurants that have received recent attention due to their support for a ban on smoking in restaurants. The movement has been led by the BREATHE Campaign, a non-profit, anti-tobacco group, which supports the prohibition of smoking in public places, workplaces and restaurants.
Over the last six months, the group has circulated information on the hazards of second-hand smoke and asked residents to indicate their support for the movement by providing their names on a mail-in form. The group has also presented a possible no-smoking ordinance to local government officials, both from the city of Conyers and Rockdale County, and asked that the two come on board with the movement.
In response to the request, officials from both the city and county have said they would need to gauge public opinion on the matter, but that they were hesitant to mandate such an ordinance on private businesses. For this reason, officials have said such an ordinance might warrant a vote.
This past December, the city of Conyers conducted an online survey as to whether or not it should adopt a no-smoking ordinance. Although the results of the poll are still unknown, city spokeswoman Jennifer Edwards said it had tallied more than 700 responses, creating the most traffic the site has seen since its inception. As a result, the city has extended the survey, which was set to end Dec. 18 but is still available at www.conyersga.com.
Officials from the county also plan to hear a presentation from Smoke-Free Rockdale in a Feb. 6 work session.
Barbara McCarthy is the president of the local effort and says that she is surprised the city and the county have hesitated in adopting a no-smoking ordinance.
“It’s really a health issue,” McCarthy said. “We don’t want to disrupt people’s lives, and it’s not about being political. But it is the sworn duty of elected officials to protect the health and welfare of the citizenry, so any delay in action would be unwise.” McCarthy also pointed out that less than 30 percent of local residents smoke and that the group had received hundreds of mail-in forms voicing their support for the ordinance, along with the backing of 58 local organizations including the local board of health and Rockdale Medical Center.
McCarthy also said that a no-smoking ordinance would not be a detriment to local businesses, as long as it was applied across the board.
Manager Jim McCarthy from local restaurant American Tavern believes that banning smoking indoors would not hurt his business as long as his patrons were allowed to smoke outside.
“It depends on the type of public ordinance that is adopted,” he said. “Some ordinances say that you can’t smoke indoors because it is offensive, which I can understand, but others say that you can’t smoke outside either, and that would hurt our business. People would probably stay home to have a beer and smoke instead of coming out as much.”
Or as another alternative, 3rd Base’s Jones believes that instead of imposing a smoking ban, local governments could require restaurants with smoking sections to operate more efficient air filter systems. For instance, Jones uses a state-of-the-art Honeywell system which he says has kept his air so clean that some patrons in the non-smoking section were unaware that other patrons were smoking.
Jones said that many restaurants do not invest the proper time and money in installing such a system.
“There’s lots of new technology out there to clean air, and it’s much more efficient than what we used to have,” Jones said. “Perhaps the county could adopt an ordinance that required people to put in the proper equipment for the capacity of the room they are operating.”
Hmmmmm...once again FR morphs into moveon.org.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1059646/posts
THIS is the ticket! The big smoke eaters. And NOT the Government or the Partnership for a Tobacco Free EVERYTHING!
Businesses Harmed by Smoking Bans
This is what most of us on this side of this issue have been saying since these types of bans started.
It's a matter of personal property rights, not smoking.
If a business owner wants to voluntarily make their business nonsmoking, so be it.
We may not patronize that business very much, if at all, because it may be an occasion where we would like to smoke a cigarette. But, that would be our choice, not the governments.
This business owner found out first hand what these types of bans do to a business of his type.
Hopefully when the government trys to institute this type of ban he will be out there fighting it with zeal.
Thay has been proven over and over again.
Exactly. That's the exact point we have been trying to make over and over! The state governments, along with their well paid Anti-Smoking Coalitions have become power hungry. Let's flush them all and start OVER!
The 5 states that our banning smoking are CHOKING the economy is those states. And the people are screaming about the economy. I sure wish the general non-smoking public would come to learn the truth about what is behind these smoking bans. Control And MONEY! And LOTS of MONEY!
In other words, the survey didn't say what the anti's wanted to hear.
That is excactly what occured here, the head of the health department, Dr Cushman, said the survey said 75% of the surveyed wanted a 100% smoke free City, reporters then asked to see the survey, they were denied, the had to go to "the freedom of infomation route," it turned out the survey said that 85% of the surveyed wanted compromise, that in spite of the 120 asked, only 4 were smokers.....
I don't smoke either. My point was that if there were any significant number of people who wanted to go to bars but weren't doing so, then a bar that went smoke-free would be able to grab all such customers, picking up a competitive advantage, to a much greater extent than if all bars went non-smoking. If the market doesn't support even one bar's going non-smoking in a particular area, it won't favor all bars going non-smoking.
The controlling twits go ballistic at the thought of a "smoking only" establishment of any kind. It's not enough to have non-smoking places; they insist on denying others a choice. It's hard wired-into their tiny personalities.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- --- C. S. Lewis
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
