Posted on 03/06/2006 7:40:15 AM PST by SheLion
You probably won't get eighty-sixed for smoking cigarettes at Stella's Sand Trap. But you might be asked to leave if you ask too many nosy questions about smoking at the east Bakersfield tavern.
It was a typical weeknight at Stella's. The beer and conversation were flowing and the hard, wooden "crack" of cue balls punctuated the air as pool players shot eight ball at the tavern's lighted tables.
Cigarette smoke swirled thick and luxuriously toxic above the bar -- and for a moment, it seemed like the era of Merle Haggard's "swinging doors, a jukebox and a barstool" was back.
The message was clear -- even if the air wasn't.
Eight years after Assembly Bill 13 made it a misdemeanor to light up in most of California's night clubs and cocktail lounges, smoke-filled bars are still plenty common in conservative Bakersfield, where the right to bear Marlboros has taken on a distinctively libertarian flavor.
In many smaller, locally owned places smoking appears to be the rule, not the exception.
"It's screwed. If you drink, you're going to smoke," said 71-year-old Ned Webb as he puffed on a generic cigarette at Stella's.
"It's a stupid law for bars," he added. "Restaurants is a different story."
Smoke 'em if you got 'em
It seems many nightclubs never threw away their ashtrays after the barroom smoking ban went into effect in 1998. A random tour of more than a dozen and a half local watering holes in Bakersfield found no shortage of smoke-friendly locations.
Many bartenders in smoking establishments declined to speak on the record out of concern, they said, that any publicity is bad publicity when it comes to tobacco. Patrons were similarly reluctant.
But Don Simon, a barkeep at The Bellvedere on Brundage Lane, agreed to give his name.
"Eighty percent of our customers smoke," he said. "We've been cited, but they don't come out anymore unless they get complaints."
According to the Bakersfield Fire Department, The Bellvedere was cited once in 2003 and once again in 2004. The bar beat the rap the second time, Simon said.
The maximum fine for the first violation is $100, and $200 for the second. But county and city officials said they are no longer going into taverns looking for violators -- unless they first receive complaints.
Reporting from Tobacco Road
Not so many years ago, smoking was virtually universal in bars and taverns. It's easy to forget what it was like -- until you spend some time in Bakersfield's smoker-friendly pubs.
When you leave these smokey bars, the smell comes with you, saturating your hair and clothes and leaving a tightness in the chest.
At Regent Cocktails on Niles Street and Dugan's on North Chester Avenue, they even have cigarettes for sale behind the bar. There's no law against that, as long as smokers don't light up inside the tavern.
One customer who wouldn't give her name said she's a non-smoker, but she chooses to hang out with friends and relatives who smoke.
"That's my choice," she said.
At Stella's, the management is so touchy about the anti-smoking laws, this reporter was asked to leave -- although it had to be one of the most polite rejections in the history of cocktails.
The law requires bars to post "no smoking" signs where patrons can see them, and indeed, many have red-and-white signs posted prominently near their entrances.
"No smoking. Please extinguish all smoking materials before entering this building," the signs warn. Maybe some should read, "Please extinguish all smoking materials -- except cigarettes."
"We fought the law ..."
Sue Seaman knows the bar business. As the former owner of Muggs Pub & Eatery on Airport Drive, she was active -- and successful early on -- in fighting attempts to ban smoking in bars.
But walk into Jeanne's Westfair, a lounge near Wilson and Wible roads that Seaman now co-owns with her husband, and you'll get no smoke with your bloody Mary or Bud Light.
"I went to Sacramento on several occasions back in the day when we fought anti-smoking laws," Seaman said. "As an industry, we fought the law -- and lost."
The veteran bar owner said she believes she is losing money by telling smokers they must go outside before they light up. Sure, she has lots of true-blue customers who will endure the chilly weather to take a smoke break, but others will simply go where they can puff in peace.
For those customers, "loyalty only goes as far as their addiction," she said.
The cigarette police
Kern County Environmental Health Services has issued a dozen or so citations since the law went into effect. The Bakersfield Fire Department's Fire Prevention and Environmental Services has cited at least 10 bars, some more than once.
Some say the city has been tougher than the county in enforcing the smoking ban. But neither has issued large numbers of citations to bar owners or smokers since the law went into effect.
No citations have been issued in the city of Bakersfield in 2004. The county hasn't cited a violator since 2003.
The law was written, ostensibly, to protect workers in nightclubs, not patrons, said county Environmental Health Director Steve McCalley. Since the ban in bars, smoking also has been prohibited within 20 feet of main entrances and doors to public buildings.
"What we have done in the county is essentially a two-fold approach," McCalley said.
If the county receives a complaint about a bar or tavern, they will first respond with a letter containing educational materials and information. If a second complaint doesn't arrive within six months, it's considered a closed matter.
But if a second complaint is forthcoming -- anonymous complaints don't count -- McCalley's office gets involved. "What we do is send them a final letter," he said. "We want to make sure they know it has been referred to us for enforcement."
After that, a visit by an inspector is likely. Bar owners and smoking patrons may be cited.
"Some places have grown up around the lifestyle of being smoking bars or restaurants," McCalley said. "We believe there are places where it's kind of a don't ask/don't tell policy. If nobody's complaining, we're not active in those places."
A bad law?
Some bars have fought their tobacco citations and won. Kenny Reed, the longtime owner of Guthrie's Alley Cat in downtown Bakersfield, has beaten three cig-tickets over the years.
These days, his bar is smoke free, but that decision was made by his employees, he said, not by the government.
Reed is not a smoker and is no lover of cigarettes or the smoke they produce. But what he hates even worse, he says, is do-gooders and politicians trying to tell him how to run his business.
"The soccer moms and the Bill Bennetts of the world get together to save us from ourselves," Reed said.
He noted that there were several attempts to outlaw smoking in bars over the years. All were unpopular and unsuccessful until the current law was written to protect employees, a strategy Reed considers an end-run around the real issues.
"But it's an awkward and largely unenforceable law," Reed said. "Now there are smoking bars and non-smoking bars. The city only responds by complaint -- and that's the way it should be."
Bakersfield attorney Larry Fields has represented bar owners in about a half-dozen smoking violation cases -- and won.
A big problem with the law early on was the idea, he said, that the state forced bar owners to police their customers.
"The violation should be on the people smoking inside," Fields said. The enforcing agencies "initially thought they could only cite the owners."
Inconsistent enforcement has also been a problem, Fields said. "The city has been aggressive. The county doesn't seem to be."
Ultimately, there should be a certain number of places designed for smokers, Fields said. But by focusing on the safety of employees, the law makes setting aside smoker-friendly clubs a near impossibility.
"What's the point of a law to protect employees who are dying to have a cigarette?" he asked.
Settled law, settled behavior
In February 1999, one year after the smoking ban went into effect, Bakersfield fire officials raided several taverns in search of smokers. At the time officials predicted compliance would eventually climb to about 90 percent.
Judging by the number of smokey bars in Bakersfield, that prediction may have been overly optimistic.
Andrew Stuffler, chief building officer for the city of Ventura, said his office has never issued a smoking citation. He thinks that may reflect a high rate of compliance with non-smoking laws, but said he can't be sure because the city is not making random inspections in search of smokers.
"We just don't get a lot of complaints," he said. "In four years, I've seen two e-mails."
Reed and other Bakersfield bar owners argue that some small, neighborhood taverns are able to survive specifically because they are smoker-friendly.
They simply can't afford to risk losing customers.
"There are scores of businesses out there whose margin of profit is so thin, to lose any customer for any reason is just another nail in their coffin," Reed said.
On a recent evening at the Silver Fox downtown, a younger 20-something clientele mingled in harmony with older patrons. On this particular evening, approximately two-thirds of the customers -- young and old -- were smokers.
Mike Caterlin, a 25-year veteran bartender at Guthrie's, is a smoker, but he's generally happy with the downtown bar's non-smoking policy.
"Originally it was bad for the bar because people had these ingrained habits, drinking and smoking," he said. "But I think nowadays, it's just business as usual. The people who smoke know they have to go outside.
"I don't mind stepping outside to smoke," he said. "I smoke a lot less -- and that's good, right?"
At many taverns, the ashtrays on the bar send a different message.
Cindy Moran, the former manager of Charly's, said before her boss Charles Gibson died in September, he had decided it wasn't worth it to enforce a smoking ban in the east Bakersfield bar.
"He told me, 'I'll pay the fine. It's just the cost of doing business,'" Moran said.
Small-business people simply cannot stand by and watch as their customers go elsewhere, she said.
"When the smoke cops come in, the customers know to just toss their ashtray over the bar."
You would be surprised! The Governor of New York is a RINO. Patakli? And his side kick Bloomberg, both RINO's and they both pushed for the smoking ban in the whole state.
Pretty bad when our own side turns against us.
I agree with you, but far too many people have fallen for the hype, and even those that know society is not endangered by smoking now not only accept, but embrace the government control over it because of "the smell."
Tell them to invest in the big smoke eaters. Pulls the smell out. They are great. Well worth the investment.
"The maximum fine for the first violation is $100, and $200 for the second. But county and city officials said they are no longer going into taverns looking for violators -- unless they first receive complaints."
Worried that someone might smack them in the beak?
I wouldn't doubt it. I don't think the anti's are as vocal in a real bar like they are in Free Republic. heh!
ROFL!!!!!
It got to the point we could spot the "smoke police" in a heartbeat in the bars in Delaware. They would come into a place that served a minimum amount of food, sit at the bar (not a table) order a cup of soup and a glass of water.
It was actually very funny, because most of them never got the hint the rest of us were making fun of them. Those that did figure it out learned to not come back.
It's time for some of the unidentified, indigenous personnel to take these ole' boys out behind the woodshed.
Wouldn't surprise me if it happened.........more than once :)
Hi, Ladies! Guess what just happened? I got a phonecall from "Smoke Free Fitchburg" a few minutes ago. They're canvasing to see if people in the area want the entire city to go smoke-free.
They're coming over the hill! Fitchburg is one of the towns booming due to the Madison Smoking Ban.
Of course, I educated the little Smoke Gnatzi at the other end of the line about personal property rights; I'm sure she hung on my every word. Not. *Rolleyes*
Right on, Bro. I do like your thinking. This is the kind of law enforcement we need to prevent people from doing something
that may possibly harm themselves.
Bless your heart.........I guess you're going to be getting another phone call tomorrow
to get all the dirt :)
You forgot the tear gas.
Thanks for the ping!
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