Hooray for Ditka!!!! Please also vote on the poll whether smoking in Chicago restaurants should be allowed!!!
We need smokers to participate....here are the results at 7:45 p.m. Central Daylite Time. Go to the bottom left side of the story, under the Ditka quotes. We need to hear from more smokers!!!! I don't know how much longer this poll will be open for votes.....help us fight them!!!
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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!
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Ditka tackles ban on smoking - Proposal's foes bring in Da Coach
By Delroy Alexander Tribune staff reporter Published July 13, 2005
Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka on Tuesday became the public face of the opposition to a sweeping new measure that would ban smoking inside almost all public places in Chicago, from bars and restaurants to train platforms.
Ditka, the founder of Mike Ditka's restaurant downtown, appeared at a City Council hearing to speak against the proposal on behalf of the hospitality, restaurant and liquor industries.
"Don't impose the will of the few on the lives of the many," said Ditka, who drew a strong reaction from the audience when he used an expletive to describe the proposed smoking ban.
Ditka's testimony stretched more than 30 minutes during a nearly 3-hour session, the first in a series of public hearings to discuss the latest anti-smoking moves that could result in some of the toughest prohibitions in the nation.
The former coach suggested the City Council should push to ban smoking entirely if it seriously wanted to address the health concerns related to lighting up a cigar or cigarette.
Later in the hearing, a Chicago woman who said second-hand smoke gave her throat cancer at the age of 37 spoke in favor of banning smoking in public places.
Ditka, who is often pictured smoking a big cigar, said any new measures restricting smoking in public places would hurt his business and other city establishments because high-paying customers who like to drink and smoke at the same time would avoid eating out altogether. A ban also would impinge on customers' right to choose what they do when they go out to eat, he said.
"If you take this revenue away from restaurants, you are going to lose a lot of jobs," Ditka said.
The anti-smoking lobby, which supports the strict new guidelines, was represented by Mary Rondoni, 39, a former Chicago bartender and waitress of 20 years. She said she believes second-hand smoke led her to being diagnosed two years ago with late-stage throat cancer, often seen in aging long-term smokers.
"I am a young non-smoker and had no risk factors in my family history," said Rondoni, who has had three surgeries so far during cancer treatment. "It is very likely my exposure to years of second-hand smoke brought this disease to me, and it will be years before I know if I am to survive."
Rondoni, now a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society, called it shameful that, in her view, businesses continue to put profit before the growing amount of evidence of the harmful effect of second-hand smoke.
Rondoni's and Ditka's comments came after Ald. Ed Smith (28th), chairman of the City Council's Health Committee, introduced legislation that would ban smoking inside public spaces. The legislation also would force smokers who gather outside office doorways to be at least 25 feet away from any area where smoking is banned.
The only exceptions spelled out in the measure are for private homes, hotels and motels and retail tobacco stores.
Mayor Richard Daley has not taken a stand on the legislation. He has so far preferred to wait and see what, if any, proposals finally emerge from the City Council.
Critics have charged that the proposed legislation, as currently constituted, has little chance of winning the 26 votes needed to pass. Even some aldermen on the committee who support the legislation appear willing to look at fresh options.
"I think it's a little early for talk of compromise," said Ald. Joe Moore (49th). "But I am a realist, and three-quarters of a loaf is better than none at all."
The anti-smoking debate has been heated in several Chicago suburbs in recent years, with Evanston, Skokie, Wilmette and Highland Park among more than 1,900 municipalities nationwide that have some type of restrictions on smoking. Seven states, including California, Massachusetts and New York, ban smoking in bars and restaurants.
Proposals to tighten the prohibitions in Chicago as a whole over the years have failed to win council approval, including a broad ban, similar to the measure discussed Tuesday, which was proposed by Ald. Edward Burke (14th) in 2002.
In 1988, the City Council prohibited smoking in many indoor public places. But it permitted creation of designated smoking areas in buildings, including restaurants, and left bars untouched.
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), owner of Ann Sather Restaurants and former chairman of the Illinois Restaurant Association, has been touting a restaurant-only smoking ban until 9 p.m., after which customers could smoke freely. Another idea being floated is a ban that would cover all restaurants, except establishments that obtain a special smoking permit.
Illinois Restaurant Association President Colleen McShane said her group opposes any new measures but is open to a compromise. McShane would not endorse any potential alternative until she had a chance to check with her members.
McShane said the restaurant business is too important to risk jeopardizing with new smoking restrictions.
With about 210,000 workers employed in 6,000 eateries in the city, restaurant owners are Chicago's largest private employers, McShane said. "A $1 million loss in a hospitality establishment directly results in the loss of 34 jobs," McShane said.
Andrew Hyland, an associate professor at the University of Buffalo's Roswell Park Cancer Institute, said studies of New York's ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, first imposed in 1995, showed that 22,000 more employees now work in restaurants in that city, an 18 percent increase. He said his research was geared primarily toward the true economic impact of a smoking ban.
"Data from multiple, objective sources all indicate that the law worked--the air got cleaner, people supported it, and it was not bad for the hospitality economy," he said
dalexander@tribune.com
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His greatest hits
Mike Ditka sounded off on the smoking ban Tuesday. Here's what he had to say:
On the effects of a ban: "You're going to erode the whole basis of your business. People are going to say, 'You know what, I can save $500. Let me cook a couple steaks on the grill, get my own bottle of wine for $49, and I'll smoke a cigar wherever I want to.' "
On the hypocrisy of the idea: "If it's a non-smoking ban, ban all smoking everywhere. In the house, on the street, everywhere. Get rid of it all ... let's go get 'em! If you want to do it, do it right."
On government intrusion: "I wouldn't impose my will on anybody, believe me. I can give up smoking cigars tomorrow ... today if I wanted to. But when I want to smoke one, I want to smoke one. That really bugs me when someone says, 'God darn you're in America, but you can't do this stuff.' ... These laws are laws that have been implemented after the fact by man, they're not naturally laws of God."
--Jimmy Greenfield, RedEye
Hot issue
Should smoking be banned in restaurants and bars?
58.9% Yes (10451 responses)
41.1% No (7307 responses)
17758 total responses (Poll results not scientific)
Poll of restaurant and bar owners:
Hell no, it's our businesses! Government stay out - 95%
Yes, we would love the government to tell us how we can run our establishments - 3%
I don't know - 1%
I don't care - 1%
Go get 'em Mike. Hate the Bears, love the man!
Ya think maybe give the establishments the choice? What a novel idea! I'm tired of the non-smoking gestapos taking our freedoms. If you don't like being somewhere where people smoke, then don't go there. Stay outside and breath car emissions and exhaust!
This is absurd. They won't stop until smoking is equated with leprosy.
I grieved for a month when he turned down the run for the Senate.
Time for a Punch double corona.......
Oh yeah, can't smoke in the office anymore.
Good for Ditka. It is most admirable that he took a public stand on this issue!!!!
Da Coach vs. Da Dick.