Posted on 08/15/2002 12:23:14 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
.c The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - The smoke hangs thick at Pete's Tavern, swirling through the 138-year-old pub as the lunch-hour conversation turns to the mayor's plan to ban smoking in thousands of bars and restaurants across the city.
``They did it in California, but everybody out there is a health nut,'' said Phil Kraker, an accountant and a Pete's regular. ``They're out jogging at four in the morning. Those people are crazy. This is New York.''
Depending on which smoker you ask, the proposal - which must still clear the City Council - is either a personal affront or an attack on the appeal of New York itself.
Bar patrons say they should have the option of savoring a cigarette with their cocktails, especially in a city that prides itself on its independence, not to mention its nightlife.
``New York is the capital of the world,'' said Audrey Silk, founder of the smoker-rights group NYC CLASH. ``The charm of New York is our differences. Now you want to create this bland, faceless city?''
Mayor Michael Bloomberg stirred up the controversy a week ago in calling for the ban. The former smoker said bars and restaurants have to protect their employees from harmful smoke, just as they do from toxins like asbestos.
New York already outlaws smoking in restaurants with more than 35 seats, but there is no restriction against smoking in bars or the bar area of any restaurant.
A ban would cover about 13,000 establishments and would be the most visible tobacco restriction since California issued a similar rule four years ago. About 400 communities nationwide have adopted smoking bans in restaurants, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation.
Anti-smoking groups have sided with Bloomberg, but proprietors of bars and restaurants worry his plan will chase business away with the smoke.
Gerard Meagher, who manages the Old Town Bar near Union Square, tells customers cell phones are not welcome because they disturb the friendly pub atmosphere. But he said a smoking ban would be a mistake.
``The do-gooders are winning out,'' Meagher said. ``This is people who never had a fun time trying to take all the fun out of life.''
The debate is as much about culture as health, smokers say.
``People just like a smoke with their drink,'' said Buster Smith, the white-haired manager at Pete's. ``Now they're going to have to go outside. What do they do in the rain and snow?''
They might seek refuge in private clubs, or ``smokeasies'' as one puffer described them to The New York Times. Private clubs would be exempt from the proposed ban.
Ingl Kehrens, a visitor from Amsterdam who was puffing a cigarette at Connelly's bar, questioned the logic of a ban. ``How come you sell cigarettes but you don't let people smoke them?'' he asked.
Bloomberg is trying to discourage tobacco sales, too. Earlier this year, the city hiked its cigarette tax by more than $1, sending the price of a pack to $7.50 in some places. The city says the increase cut cigarette sales nearly in half.
Legislation aimed at improving the quality of life in the nation's largest city has been a steady staple since 1994, when Rudolph Giuliani became mayor. He waged war against sex shops, panhandlers, squeegee men and even jaywalkers. But even Giuliani didn't take on smoking.
Under Bloomberg's plan, smokers who break the law may be fined $10 to $100 or be jailed up to 30 days.
City health inspectors would be responsible for enforcing a ban. There are no specific penalties for proprietors or employees.
The New York State Restaurant Association said it was reserving judgment on the plan until surveying its members.
After California's ban took effect, many proprietors complained of lost business. But supporters of the measure pointed out that tax figures have not reflected a significant drop in business, and polls showed a majority of patrons backed the ban. Johnny Stavern, a patron at Dave's Tavern near Times Square, applauded Bloomberg's proposal. ``In restaurants especially, you're there to eat and the smoke gets on everything - your clothes, your bags, everything.''
The mayor contends the ban will save employees and customers at bars and restaurants from secondhand smoke. He said an eight-hour shift for a bartender or waitress can be like smoking half a pack of cigarettes.
Smith, who has paced the floors of Pete's greeting customers for more than three decades, doesn't buy it.
``I just had an examination,'' he said, ``and my lungs are clear as a bell.''
On the Net:
Mayor's office: http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/home.html
NYC CLASH: http://www.nycclash.com
Does Bloomberg really believe that he has discouraged tobacco sales? He's just discouraged legal tobacco sales within city limits...
These NYC Republicans are a different breed.
Bloomberg is a liberal. He switched parties for the sole purpose of running for mayor.
1. All smokers light up anywhere at anytime - how can they jail all of them?
2. Let your wallet do the talking - stop eating out, or going to bars, tourists stop going to NYC. Bet it would only take 2-4 weeks of lost income before the businesses would be screaming for Bloomies head.
The Do-Gooders could care less if they harm someone's business or not. They go in, they conquer and move on to the next town or city. I have seen this happen all across the U.S., and they aren't finished yet.
The trouble starts when our Lawmakers side with them.
That is excactly what we and other smokers have done for a year now, and we let the politicians know.
When I got a call from the Mayors PR man, he quietly said something about revisiting.
Toll free. 1-800-225-5697.
So, how did this idiot get the Republican nomination? This is what I don't understand.
Has it reached the stage where Republicans will now nominate anyone, regardless of whether they are really Republicans, so long as they don't designate themselves as Democrats?
Why is this such a worry? Because the Deomcrats gave up their principles long ago. They've become the lowest common denominator. The Democrat credo is as follows:-
"We don't believe in: work, freedom, liberty, individuality, Constitutionality.
We don't remember why our fathers and grandfathers fought in wars.
We believe in welfare, societal guilt, marginalising and ostracising "unbelievers". We believe in weakness, softness.
We eschew personal responsibility, individual and corporate ingenuity - unless it involves getting "Something For Nothing" (Registered Trademark, All Rights Reserved).
In short, we are the party of communal obligation and personal dislocation. We are for the Land of the Fettered, the People of the State.
We want your sons and your daughters and if you don't give 'em to us voluntarily, we'll be around to pick them up!!
If Republicans follow the Democrats and continue to put forward candidates like that despicable Bloomberg, we will be saying, "Goodbye, America, it was fun...for a while."
I hoped he'd lose. He'll be an albatross around the neck of the GOP eventually--let a Democrat look bad after Rudy, instead of a RINO Repub.
I think the states are going to catch on and clamp down on public smoking. Because they are pouting over blowing up the tax increase and turning their cash cow away.
What do you think?
The same way Ike, for example, elbowed Bob Taft out of the nomination in '52, just before embarking on an 8-year retreat from communism. And Taft wasn't even that conservative by then. FDR's crowning achievement was to destroy Americans' faith in their ability to weather hardship and bootstrap themselves back into prosperity. After the war, few Republicans dared to attack the New Deal and so, 20 years later, LBJ was able to expand the nanny state far beyond Roosevelt's wildest hallucinations. A few years ago, Milt Friedman pointed out that we are now 50% socialist. I'd call that an optimistic assessment.
My aren't we important! Reason number 84 why upstate NY would like to break away from NYC and form a new state. Back to the topic at hand, I don't smoke but it is not my place to tell someone else they cannot. The only exception is in my home.
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