Posted on 06/02/2009 11:35:55 AM PDT by swarthyguy
Hub bar and restaurant owners are burning up over the citys sudden crackdown on puffing patrons on rooftop decks or in sidewalk cafes as part of the citys tough new workplace smoking rules.
We used to have a patio full of people, smokers and others who dont smoke but are socializing with them, said George Lewis, owner of The Foundation Lounge at the Hotel Commonwealth in Kenmore Square. Now its empty.
Lewis is among a group of tavern owners considering challenging the new smoking restriction in court. They fear the ban, coupled with an increased meals tax, will scare away customers at a time when profits are already suffering due to the economy.
Im afraid were going to lose business, said Tony Castagnozzi of the Rattlesnake Bar and Grill on Bolyston Street. People will say, Screw it. Well go out of town to a place where we can have dinner and a cigar outside. It just makes it tougher and tougher to do business in the city.
Last month, city inspectors began visiting the 250 or so bars and cafes with decks and patios, handing out warning letters and putting proprietors on notice that they face costly fines - $200 for a first offense, $700 for a second and $1,000 for a third - if customers are caught smoking in any adjacent outdoor area served by staff.
Boston Public Health Commission spokeswoman Ann Scales said after the educational outreach ends in the coming weeks, the city will begin enforcing the smoking ban in earnest by handing out violations. We dont pass regulations that we dont enforce, she said, adding that chronic violations could affect a bars liquor license.
Angry publicans say they were caught off guard by the measure, which got little attention in December when the city, which banned smoking inside restaurants and bars in 2003, enacted some of the toughest smoking restrictions in the country.
The outdoor-workplace smoking ban was tucked into the new regulations, which included a proposal to extinguish cigar bars that made national headlines. The issue sparked a fight from smoking bars that led to a 10-year reprieve.
But bar owners did little to protest the outdoor ban and are now scrambling to deal with what Castagnozzi calls a manager and doormans nightmare. On some nights, as many as 50 people stand in line waiting to get upstairs to the Rattlesnakes popular roof deck. Now anyone wanting to smoke will have to go back down the line and outside to smoke. When they come back, people will be like, Who are you? he said.
Hi, dear Madame! :-)
>>banned smoking in state parks and playgrounds
Hmm, Kurdistan sure is pretty this time of year!
FREEDOM, PING!
I watched the link and laughed at the sad little man worrying about second hand smoke.......outside. Barbecue grills next on the hit list.
TIME magazine highlighted the danger of third hand smoke.
That’s when I came up with this -
Each discarded butt is a miniature superfund toxic site.
BBQ Grills - Your right to pollute where my breathing begins.....
EMERGENCY legislation? LOL.
ACT NOW!!!
I rent a house on 80 acres. I am home most of the time too. Don’t have to put up with other peoples, um, garbage. ;-)
You wouldn't want to be around the day that a "no tobacco" law went into effect. Can you imagine millions of people in nicotine withdrawal all at exactly the same time?
Fascism is not all it’s cracked up to be. These same “business owners” vote for the Left. They can vote for the left in the next election as the beggars they wannabe.
How much is safe???? You Tell Me. WHAT LEVEL OF EXPOSURE TO BURNING TOBACCO PRODUCTS IS SAFE????????????????? /s
Every discarded butt is my little way of saying FU. (not you personally)
Did you watch the video? The guy worried about second hand smoke outside with a straight face. I read on FR some years ago an article where the doctor that linked smoking with cancer had NO qualms about second hand smoke. He was totally unconcerned.
I’m positive a good percentage of these owners went for Obie. That’s why the quality of my “sympathy” is markedly strained.
But, once smokers have been taxed, banned even from outdoor patios, sent to the back door of the establishment.....who is next.
After the unpopular citizens are nailed, who are they gonna go after next.....
actually I can understand the anger at butts at beaches etc. There was a lack of consideration on the part of many smokers, I remember carrying discard butts in a can to dispose of them in the trash...
But, now they’re complaining in Boston about butts outside where they chased the smokers.....
Hence my call for a smoke free zone around the entrance to every commercial establishment.....bars included.
In fact, it ought to be up to the owners of private businesses what their smoking policy is. And it ought to be that those who don't like the policy don't patronize the place.
In a free country.
Hello, m’lady! Good to see you.
Same here, oh great Madame! :-)
I hope everything is going well up in the liberal bastion of Maine.
Fortunately this was too much even for the Health Commissars in Augusta.
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