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.
Uh, that statement should be "PRIVATELY OWNED ESTABLISHMENT WHICH CATERS TO THE PUBLIC AND CHOOSES TO ALLOW SMOKING ON THE PREMISES BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THE MAJORITY OF HIS CLIENTELLE WISHES TO DO".
Somehow, me, John Q. American should not have any problem with that considering I have the option of going somewhere else. Am I right?
THANK you! :)
Don't worry, Keeeeeeevin. Stay away from us because we SURE don't want to be around YOU. Your too anti social for us!
*** anti-tobacco newbie alert ***
Sure is! We found that out earlier. All their posts on the smoking threads are ANTI!
Tell us more about your deceased loved ones, what was their life style like? What kind of exercise programs did they participate in if any. What were their eating habits? What kind of foods did they prefer? Did they in any way do ANYTHING to improve their health?
Bottom line: You wanna whine, go to the party store! You wanna shoot pool, go down the street and leave our beer drinking, cigarette smoking pool hall alone because me and the other folks who hang out there don't mind it a damn bit!
For what it's worth, my grandmother died 4 years ago at the age of 99 and smoked since she was 14 years old. My grandfather died 3 years before her and also smoked.
You want sympathy, buy yourself a dictionary and support a socialist........
This is nothing more than a cheap emotional/illogical attempt to take away rights. Because James Brady was shot, his wife wants to ban all guns, ignoring the Constitution. Because someone got hit by a drunk driver, they want to ban all alcohol. The list goes on. The only conclusion a rational person can arrive at is that everyone dies of something eventually.
Why not let the free market handle it? If so many people despise cigarette smoke then surely there will be plenty of nonsmoking bars in order to cater to them. Likewise plenty of people enjoy smoking and want to enjoy a night out while smoking. The decision is the property owners as to what to allow on his property, and the customers as to whether or not they choose to frequent the establishment.
BTW, I am not a smoker. But I respect their rights to make their own decisions.
Of the two sides, one is founded in Freedom and Private Property Rights. The other is founded in feelings and propaganda.
Freedom and Private Property rights are the foundation of our society, a society that is slowly having its rights and freedoms eroded bit by bit through liberal laws and ordinances passed by 1960's/70s educated hippie era councilmen, aldermen, mayors, etc. These ordinances/laws are based on the emotions of the time and unfounded propaganda (Talking points and liberal media Jennings/Rather/Brokow, etc)instead of clearly defined rights and freedoms.
The injustice of our society exists when those foundational rights are ignored, denied or legislated out of existance. I'm being extreme here, but that is the reality we are facing as a nation. "All men are created equal"...except under affirmative action. "The right to pursue happiness"...unless that pursuit is owning your own bar/grill where smoking is allowed and public do-gooder officals want to make you smoke free or shut you down"
Yes, smoking stinks. I hate having my clothes smell like cigarettes when I come home from being out at a club or bar. That is the price I pay to be there. I know up front that its going to be smokey inside. If I don't want a smokey place, I don't go. There is a great little mom and pop diner nearby, a real Norman Rockwell type of setting, I love eating breakfast there. The only problem is that over 1/2 to 3/4 of the diners smoke, so I stay away more than I go. If smoking were banned there, I would not patronize the place because the entire clientle would change and its the the people that make the place desirable. My choice.
I'm an anti-smoker and I'm a conservative. I respect people's right to smoke in a restaurant, bar or grill. If I'm sitting next to you in a non-smoking section and you light up, I'm going to ask you to move, or put it out. If I'm hungry and don't want to wait for a nonsmoke table to open up, I have the right to sit in smoking. Its my choice and that choice is based on freedom.....Defend that freedom, my friend. It and many others will be gone sooner than you think, if not in our lifetimes, certainly during our children and grandchildren's lives.
Please stick around. Conservatism needs people with brass and guts who are'nt afraid to call a shovel a spade (joke there!), no really its about standing on a firm foundation not one that is subject to mindless change.
In the US, Philip Morris seems to be top dog. But they are also selling out the smokers with their whining about wanting tobacco controlled by the FDA.
Bless you and thank you! Your refreshing!
Thank you! You are also refreshing. It takes an adult to realize how precious freedom is in this Country. Take one freedom away, the rest will soon follow.
I always thought you were more of an Honest, No-holds-barred, straight forward Texan.:^)
Wonderful post My sediments exactly!!
I've learned that the two are equal!
Horsehockey. Yes, smoking has been "linked" to heart disease, cancer, emphazyma, and some other nasty stuff. Its bad for you. I agree and that's why I quit. But people choose to do smoke anyways, possibly to their own detriment. The problem here is that you want those people to significantly alter their own lifestyle to suit your narrow worldview. And to try to force those views on the owners of private businesses is tantamount to tyranny.
You have the choice as to whether to enter any privately owned establishment. You can avoid a given restaurant if you don't like the food; you can't force them to serve only to your liking. You can avoid the amusement park if you don't like the rides; you cannot force them to provide only the rides that meet your approval. But for some reason, you cannot find it within yourself to avoid establishments that allow smoking. So you try to force the smokers, private business owners, basically everyone to conform to your view.
Look, I feel bad about what happened to your family members; I really do. But it was their choice to carry out the behaviour that increased their risks. To take your regrets, as deep as they are, out on the rest of society is just plain wrong.
You mean as far as the Tobacco Company's go? RJ Reynolds is right up there, but PM is the biggest. Much to my dismay.
July 29th, 20002 ,,,,,,and the hearing starts on the 5th of August. Next week.
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