Posted on 07/31/2002 12:01:40 PM PDT by SheLion
Perhaps you know Charlie Mendelman.
He's an affable, congenial man, who for 18 years ran a top-notch Volkswagen/Audi/Porsche dealership on Macleod Tr.
Then, at the age of 56, Charlie got up one day and decided he wanted to do something different in life. So he sold his dealership and opened up The Garage Billiards Bar and Restaurant at Eau Claire Market.
"I'm a people-type person," he says. "I like to meet people and chat with them. That's why I went into the automobile business, and it's why I went into the hospitality business."
If you've been to The Garage, you'll know it's a big, spacious place -- 8,000 sq. ft. with high ceilings -- and with 18 pool tables neatly placed throughout. The younger jean-clad crowd go to Charlie's place to play pool, and business executives and lawyers come in their three-piece suits to talk about the market, the latest ramifications of some case, or politics.
There are lots of well-known faces there.
It's a family business. Charlie's there just about every hour of the day and his always-cheerful daughter Melissa happily works behind the bar.
But these days, when you catch a glimpse of Charlie unawares, you see the occasional expression of strain on his face. It's as if there's a touch of worry behind his affable manner.
There is -- because as vivacious as his business is today -- he fears it won't last.
City hall's stern-faced, anti-smoking zealots are moving in.
This past Jan. 1, our puritanical aldermen forced Charlie to put a dividing line down the centre of his enterprise. One side is for smokers, the other for customers under the age of 18.
Next July 1, Mendelman will be forced to erect a solid wall reaching up to the ceiling, dividing his bar and restaurant into two. On one side, smokers, on the other non-smokers and those under 18.
Come 2005 -- and this is really crazy considering Mendelman will have had to spend about $50,000 to build that wall -- the city's anti-smoking committee has recommended smoking be banned entirely from city bars and restaurants.
A pool hall where you can't smoke?
Give me a break.
Charlie wonders what will happen to his business when these draconian moves are forced on him, and at the age when he is about to start collecting his OAP and CPP, he's too old to start another venture in another field.
In Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver where similar authoritarian laws have been enacted, customers have left in droves. True, the bars and restaurants now do have "clean air" -- they just don't have many customers to breathe it.
In Calgary, the city aldermen and mandarins -- who are planning to wreck everyone's fun -- claim smoking is going out of style in any case, and they are just giving it a little push.
What supercilious, sanctimonious individuals they are.
They may be right in declaring in Calgary only about 25% of residents smoke, but other statistics show 80% of people who go to bars and pool halls smoke.
Add to that, even non-smokers who go to bars and pool halls don't object to other customers who do smoke. It's part of the ambience, so to speak.
In reality, once anti-smoking zealots force Charlie to slam a wall down the middle of his room, there won't be much ambience left. Everything Charlie has tried to accomplish in his huge, spacious bar will be slashed in half.
One of the many aspects of all of this that frustrates Mendelman is that even as all parties were actually agreeing on the 50/50% split on smoking and non-smoking space -- with owners believing that was it -- the city was already surreptitiously forming another committee to draw up and impose the other measures.
That was dishonest. The owners thought they had a mutual long term deal, but the city knifed them in the back.
Now, Mendelman is just one of hundreds of bar and restaurant owners in our city facing these drastic measures and facing huge losses on their investments.
Thousands of young waiters and waitresses risk losing their jobs.
Says Charlie: "If you don't want to go to a place where people smoke, you surely have a right to go elsewhere. But surely it should be freedom of choice for everyone. Isn't that fair? Doesn't that make sense?"
Sure it should be.
And sure it would be.
But this is Calgary --- governed by mean-spirited, petty busybodies who want to regiment society to their Orwellian dreams.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jackson, associate editor of the Sun, can be reached at paul.jackson@calgarysun.com.
Letters to the editor should be sent to
callet@sunpub.com.
This is the most enduring urban legend of our time; the fact is the facts do not support the statement.
Malnutrition is the leading cause of preventable illness and it is fatuous to assign a term such as "premature death" across a universe of differing sets.
gitmo, the "monopoly" is the Big 4 tobacco companies in the US, those who signed on to the $209 BILLION M$A, which forces upstart small companies to place into escrow an amount of money equivalent to that the big boys are paying so they can't sell cheap. Even though those new companies have never "lied" to anyone, have never caused a single "smoking-related" death, have not "cost" society a dime. That was done to ensure that PM, RJR, B&W and Lorillard don't lose market share to these new companies.
In other words, the states are in business with the big tobacco companies; if that's not a "monopoly," it's an oligopoly. Next time you hear any of the anti-smokers talking about "eeeeevviiiil" Big Tobacco, remember that they're being rewarded by the states for whatever it is they've done. It's the smokers who are being punished, if we allow it.
Yeah, thats it. :-}
And that case is already on the way.......... it's a very slipery slope, huh.
What makes you think any place that invites the public is a "public place"? Does the "public" pay the bills? Does the "public" pay the taxes? Does the "public" work long hours to make sure the business is a success? Does the "public" lose its life savings if that business goes bankrupt? If you're right and every restaurant/bar/casino/etc. that allows the "public" access is in fact a "public place," I'd suggest the next place that loses business due to a smoking ban sue the "public" for a return of his investment.
Rebelbase, you are not an anti-smoker. Anti-smoking, maybe, but not anti-smoker. There's a distinct line between the two and your next sentence proves on which side of that line you stand. Thank you.
It's not about smoking, it's about freedom. Do you need an education as well? Stick around and learn.
Not that hoary ol' chestnut again! If you want to play in this forum, you should avoid making statements which you can't back up with facts, or you'll get creamed.
OK, here we go again:-
On average, it takes a male smoker over 50 pack years to develop lung cancer. Only 5% of ever-smokers will contract lung cancer, at all.
At the most, people exposed to second-hand smoke inhale the equivalent of 1% of the smoke inhaled by a smoker.
Therefore, on average, it would take over 5,000 pack years for a non-smoker exposed to SHS to contract lung cancer. For a female non-smoker, it would take a significantly lower 3,700 pack years.
You said in one of your posts that no matter what we said, we wouldn't change your position on smoke and smokers. In that case, your preaching, not conversing. Very righteous, oh "Hammer of God".
Don't worry. Most of us in here buy off the Net, the Reservations or roll our own to avoid paying this rediculous tax to the state coffers.
A problem with these tyrannts is they want to control even that that doesn't affect them. In this case, even if the place is full of smokers, none will be permitted to light up just in case he were to walk in. Even if he were to patronize the place 1 day per year, no one can smoke the other 364.
Another problem with these tyrannts is that they, intentionally or unintentionally, assist other tyrannts who seek to stamp out liberty elsewhere. Tyrannts who want to tell you what to eat and what temperature to operate your air conditioner at; what car you can drive and what movies you can watch.
If you want to know when your liberty has been violated, it's not when you enter a room and find something you don't like. Liberty is violated when you turn to leave and find your way blocked by armed officials of the state.
Cool!
There's all kinds of things I do that the government could lay a sin tax on. However I disagree with the smokers' rights movement and wouldn't expect nor ask the smokers' rights movement to rush to my defence if new sin taxes were applied on things I do.
What do you consider the "smokers' rights movement"?
I'm not sure that we are talking about the same thing.
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