Woburn, Mass: Put behind the eight ball?

GlobeNorthWest ^ | 4-27-03 | Erica Noonan

[SheLion]

Steve Sousa may be the only smoker in Eastern Massachusetts looking forward to May 5, the day the city of Boston bans smoking in all public places.

The Woburn pool-hall owner is hoping that the new smoking ban in Boston, and the likelihood that Somerville and Cambridge will follow suit shortly thereafter, will save his business, Silver Cue Billiards and Game Room.

[SheLion]

[SheLion]

Pretty interesting: The smoking ban is saving lives (?) but killing small businesses.

[SheLion]

No matter what the health nuts are saying, these bans ARE killing small businesses. This ban isn't good for anyone.

Smoking Bans Bad For Business

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Since March 28, 2001, when Woburn banned smoking in all indoor public places, the Silver Cue has lost nearly 90 percent of its business

The answer is simple:

Turn the pool hall into a non-public place. Create little plastic membership cards and charge people $1.00 for them. Drop your hourly rates by say, 50 cents and don't allow anyone in without a "membership card"

Change the sign over the door to read; "Members Only. Private Hall". Then you aren't bound by the stupid ordinance anymore.

[CSM]

''The most important issue is the health of the public. Placing economics above a worker's right to a healthy workplace is not appropriate from a public health perspective,'' Connolly said.

We don't care if they don't have a place of employment anymore, just that this non-existent job is a healthy one!

I see so many things wrong with this article and the ANTI/Nannies points that I don't even know where to begin.

[buccaneer81]

I worked in Woburn and dated a local girl there from 1987-1988. Not a fun place in any respect. Working class with pretentions to upper middle class. They'll never be a Winchester or a Lexington (hell, not even a Wilmington).

[Mears]

Baloney! When Brookline went smokefree there was a large migration of smokers to Newton,Boston,and Watertown.( I don't go to Cambridge )

Now that those towns are going smokefree they will migrate to Waltham and a few other sensible places.

I have dinner once a week at a restaurant in Boston and will stop goin there next week.

[SheLion]

Change the sign over the door to read; "Members Only. Private Hall". Then you aren't bound by the stupid ordinance anymore.

Somewhere, someone tried this. But the City Health Department said that wouldn't fly. This was last year. I am trying to remember where that was.

[SheLion]

We don't care if they don't have a place of employment anymore, just that this non-existent job is a healthy one!

Especially in this day and age when finding work or keeping a job is really hard. Yet, the anti's could care less.

I think we can all see the anti-smoker's agenda by now. And they don't care WHO they hurt!

[SheLion]

Now that those towns are going smokefree they will migrate to Waltham and a few other sensible places.

New York City smokers are going to New Jersey. Delaware smokers are going to Virginia. I don't care if non-smokers DO out number the smokers.......the loss in revenue has GOT to hurt!

And no matter what the health nuts say: the non-smokers will never pick up the slack from the lost revenue from the smokers. It just doesn't work that way.

[Madame Dufarge]

''I like going into the Ninety Nine [Restaurant] and not coming out smelling like a cigarette,'' said Curran.

How nice for the mayor. I guess he doesn't care that this guy probably can't afford to go even the Ninety Nine, thanks to him and his control freak friends:

He works two other jobs - setting up for a local band and stocking an ice cream truck - to support the Silver Cue, and he said he's unsure whether to sink any more money into a business that would already have failed if his mother did not own the building.

Too bad that Sousa and Masotta let themselves by blindsided by the anti-smoking Jihad. It's more than a little disturbing that Sousa, anyway, seems to have been co-opted by the "level playing field" garbage.

[Mears]

My non-smoking daughter waitressed for a time and she said all the waitresses wanted to work in the smoking section because the tips were better and the people complained less.

Oooops,maybe I should have said waitpersons---not very PC of me,is it?

[Madame Dufarge]

Somewhere, someone tried this. But the City Health Department said that wouldn't fly. This was last year. I am trying to remember where that was.

Waltham, MA, for one, but they're using pretty much the same "argument" all over the state:

‘‘We were exempt in the beginning because we are private and you need a key to get in the door,'' said Paula Lankowski, manager of Weymouth Elks Lodge 2232. ‘‘They rescinded that. They decided that it was a risk to employees. Well, every employee is an Elk.''

"The lawsuit was filed against the town of Weymouth, the local board of health, and Health Director Richard Marino. Assistant town solicitor George E. Lane III said he's confident the town will prevail. He said there is ‘‘virtually no case law in existence that steps in the way of a town regulating smoking in either public establishments or entities that purport to be private.''

Waltham

[Madame Dufarge]

Whoops, I meant Weymouth...

[pepsionice]

Changing the establishment over to a private clube is really the way to go. It really throws the local law structure out the frontdoor. Alot of organizations in Utah have done the same thing. There is nothing illegal about the idea and it can be done in literally any state.

[SheLion]

Too bad that Sousa and Masotta let themselves by blindsided by the anti-smoking Jihad. It's more than a little disturbing that Sousa, anyway, seems to have been co-opted by the "level playing field" garbage.

Exactly. Looks like the business owners need to get a good attorney, like they are doing in NYC.

[SheLion]

My non-smoking daughter waitressed for a time and she said all the waitresses wanted to work in the smoking section because the tips were better and the people complained less.

Well, when people are allowed to sit and enjoy their meal and beverage, and enjoy smoking as well, of course they will linger longer, and tip better. I know "I" do. :)

[SheLion]

I meant Weymouth...

Weymouth, that's it. And I sure can't understand why a business has to make itself private anyway. The owner is the one who bought it! Isn't it private unto himself? I just can't get a grasp on how the City Health Departments and City Councils can just go in and tell these people how they must run their own "privately" owned business........

These businesss owners should post these signs:
NO SHIRTS NO SERVICE
NO SHOES NO SERVICE
NO CITY COUNCILS MEMBERS
NO CITY BOARDS OF HEALTH WANTED HERE

[SamAdams76]

You are right. Woburn can dress themselves up and pretend to be an upper middle class town all they want. But in the end, they are just another Somerville - with trees.

There are other towns in the area trying to go "upscale" as well, such as Lynn, Brockton, Revere and Chelsea. It ain't working. All they really do is rename their pool halls "billiards clubs" and their gyms become become "fitness centers." Yet for all that, they will never get "Todd" and "Mandy" from the tony suburbs to set foot in the place. So why bother? What's so bad about being a working class town? Personally, I feel more comfortable in a "pool hall" with sawdust on the floor and Waylon Jennings on the jukebox than I do in a "billiards club" with Perrier water and Steve Winwood or Bonnie Raitt being piped through the Bose speakers that are mounted on the hardwood walls. (Yeah, I've been to both types of places.)

[Jim Noble]

While smoking bans save lives

The data, please?