Posted on 05/05/2006 11:44:11 AM PDT by Caleb1411
EVERETT, Wash.Less than a dozen cars speckled the parking lot outside the White Elephant Bar and Grill on a recent Saturday night in this growing Seattle suburb. Inside, most booths and tables sat empty while two electronic dart boards hung unused on the side wall. A handful of customers encircled the restaurant's lone pool table, sipping beers and conversing easily at normal volume levels. Owners John and Donna Kerns leaned on the end of a deserted bar and watched helplessly as their once buzzing establishment choked to a slow death on its clean, smoke-free air.
So it is for thousands of after-hours entertainment spots nationwide struggling to survive a recent spike in state smoking bans. All but two of the 13 states to outlaw cigarettes in bars and restaurants have done so within the past five years. It's a trend that leading anti-smoking fundraiser the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation celebrates as progress in its war on "big corporate tobacco."
But there is nothing big or corporate about the White Elephant. For 54 years, the humble business has carved out a niche among blue-collar workers and amateur singers, providing a festive hub for recreation and karaoke. Six months ago, that hub teemed with activity, drawing several thousand people on any given weekend. Now, business is down more than 50 percent. The Kernses, both in their 60s, have laid off employees and significantly trimmed their hours of operation.
"It's depressing to watch your business dwindle down to nothing," Mrs. Kerns said. "It's a legal product still on the market, and they're telling me to kick my customers out in the cold and rain to have a cigarette. We live in Washington. It's wet here."
The Washington smoking ban, voted into law last November, is the most radical in the country, outlawing cigarette use within 25 feet of public place doors, windows, and entrywaysoften pushing smokers out from under the shelter of overhangs. The ban does not apply to tribal lands, however, providing Native American casinos a smoker-friendly monopoly.
Implementation has received mixed reviews, with some restaurant owners reporting a slight increase in business as they attract more non-smokers and families. Rob Paulson, owner of the Wedgwood Ale House in Seattle, is thankful for the ban as it spared him the brunt of criticism in converting to a smoke-free dining rooman environment he prefers. "A lot of my staff and a whole bunch of my best clientele are smokers," he said. "I would have been the bad guy. It would have been pretty traumatic."
But even Mr. Paulson admits harboring reservations about such state interference with the rights of private businesses. No one was ever forced to patronize a smoker-friendly bar or restaurant, and the number of smoke-free establishments had steadily climbed to match customer demand. That citizens elected to circumvent the free marketvoting out tobacco with their ballots instead of their walletsbetrays a growing belief that government should protect majority preferences over individual liberty.
New Jersey became the latest state to affirm that maxim last month with the implementation of its Smoke-Free Air Act, legislation banning smoking in all indoor public places and private workplaces. Several other states are considering similar bans. Forty-six states now feature at least some restrictions on smoking in public places, suggesting a modern-day prohibition could loom on the horizon.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation president Risa Lavizzo-Mourey has made clear her desire to see every city, county, and state in the country legislate a smoke-free environment. She points to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying that cigarette smoke is responsible for 38,000 deaths each year.
Supporters of anti-smoking laws further contend that secondhand smoke victimizes restaurant workers who cannot afford to quit their jobs and seek out smoke-free employment. But White Elephant bartender Jim Harcrow, 32, says he doesn't need the state to make health decisions for him. He needs a job: "I'd rather deal with a bar full of smoke and get paid than work 18 hours a week and have to stand in line to get food stamps."
Since the no smoking bill was enacted in NJ last month, there has been no slowdown of business at the local watering holes in the South Jersey area .(SOUTH) meaning the Atlantic City and South area !!!
Let me get this straight ...
You're saying that the policies favored by the Liberal Do-Gooders actually hurt the Little Guy????
Knock me over with a feather.
Is there a "little tobacco?"
The sad truth is, I've read the same story in so many states after these laws are applied... change the name of the town, the name of the bar, and the names of the characters.... it's the same story.
The smoking Nazis will not stop until they are in our homes. Then the backlash happens.
There. I fixed it.
Big tobacco cannot pay anything it doesn't first collect from the users...
Introducing 'big tobacco' into the discussion is a fraudulent distraction.
Big tobacco doesn't care acting as a tax collector so long as their profits are maintained...
"The smoking Nazis will not stop until they are in our homes. Then the backlash happens."
Nope. I don't believe there will be a backlash. Just another revenue stream for government. The smoking Nazis are making huge progress. Once they make it so that the only place you can smoke is INSIDE your home, they'll want in there too. They're starting already, laws regarding smoking in a car with children.
Incidentally, this isn't where it stops. Alcohol is next. Eventually, alcohol will be totally controlled.
Next, fat people. Fat people impact healthcare costs, they will attempt to regulate people's eating habits. And after that... my guess is fitness. Mandating a level of fitness. Anything less than an acceptable muscle mass ratio will be illegal or at the very least fined/taxed.
Americans have become docile, and are ready to give up their liberties. And every time I here one of these things discussed, someone will pipe up telling me what a good idea it is, or how it's for your own good.
Believe me, the law of unintended consequences is hard at work in any neighborhood which enacts smoking bans. At the same time, throwing little privately owned bars and taverns out of business is just a bonus part of the Prohibitionist agenda.
Actually, there are a number of them.
Any tobacco company that did not sign on to the Master Settlement Agreement between the (however many) States' Attorney Generals is deemed "little tobacco".
I have been a power plant junkie for almost 40 years and a cigarette offended her, what is she going to do in a pressurized furnace boiler plant, where the sky is blue and the SO2 is an instant hangover cure. I am glad I am retiring
Attention all business owners suffering from a smoking ban.
Please fill out this form and submit it for a new web page
Ban Loss
The chains just sit back and wait. Any business that would have gone to an individually owned place, even after the smoking ban is in place, now must choose between the chains. Their business goes back to where it was, but choice is pretty much gone.
The Washington smoking ban, voted into law last November, is the most radical in the country, outlawing cigarette use within 25 feet of public place doors, windows, and entrywaysoften pushing smokers out from under the shelter of overhangs. The ban does not apply to tribal lands, however, providing Native American casinos a smoker-friendly monopoly.
First time I've seen these facts laid out so plainly. How folks can think this is OK is beyond me.
What a spineless, whiny little man simp!
We don't think it's ok! We just don't have the money or the backing to take all this garbage to court. Some bar/restaurant owners have gone to court, but they will be tied up for years over this. And all the while, the smoking ban is still imposed on them. Just by going to court and suing, doesn't bring back the right to smoke in their private business.
And every time "some" people see us fighting for the rights of business owners and the smokers, then we are accused of working for Big T. And that couldn't be further from the truth.
We hate Big T. They sold us out when they fell to their knees in front of the Attorney Generals.
What a spineless, whiny little man simp!
And that's the truth! I hope the nerd loses everything. The forker!
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