Posted on 12/30/2003 5:30:22 AM PST by SheLion
Monday, December 29, 2003
It's nearly the last gasp for smoking bar patrons
University of Southern Maine student Ben Theriault, of Buxton, takes time out from class to enjoy a cigarette in 2002. Starting next month, smoking will be banned in bars in Maine. Smoking is already banned in restaurants and in most public buildings.
To some bar patrons, the haze padding the ceiling and hanging over pool tables is as much a part of a bar as a bank of beer taps.
Those who have become accustomed to the sight, as well as those who are used to puffing on cigarettes between drinks, now have just a few days to savor it - the state's ban on smoking in bars is due to go into effect Thursday.
While officials at the state Bureau of Health and anti-smoking groups have touted the ban's health benefits since it was passed early last summer, bar patrons who frequent Portland's hazy, smoke-filled watering holes view the ban as another example of well-intentioned, yet misdirected legislation.
"(Smoking) is an easy scapegoat for our society's health problems," which are also caused by pollution, fast food and a number of other factors, said Clifford Brown of Portland, who lit a cigarette as he sat at one end of Amigo's Mexican Restaurant on Dana Street. Well over half of those who frequent the bar and restaurant - which has separate smoking and non-smoking sections - smoke cigarettes.
Brown, along with other patrons gathered at Amigo's on Friday, said he opposes the ban on principle. The state should not try to legislate health consciousness, he said.
"If you don't smoke, you don't have to come into a place like this," said Arty Tavano, 40, a cook at Gritty McDuff's on Fore Street. "Bars are here to be smoked in."
Tavano said the ban will not only change the character of many bars in the Old Port, but fill the area's sidewalks with smokers who must go outside to feed the habit. This will cause a slew of new problems that Portland's Police Department does not have the resources to deal with, such as fights and patrons walking out on their bills, he said.
"They're gonna ask cops to tell people not to smoke," Tavano said, laughing.
The ban has also rendered obsolete Gritty McDuff's $60,000 ventilation system, purchased after the state banned smoking at restaurants in 1999 so the bar and grill could continue to allow smoking in one section, he said.
Some smokers said they think the ban will go largely unenforced. Most, however, said they think bars in Portland will adhere to the ban.
"I'm trying to live it up until Thursday," said Brown, 21, as he smoked a Lucky Strike cigarette.
The smoking ban means that virtually all public workplaces in Maine, barring a few exceptions, do not allow smoking indoors. Private clubs such as the Elks may only allow smoking if they close their halls to the public and have no paid employees, or if they close their halls to non-members and all of their employees agree to allow smoking indoors.
Questions remain about who will enforce the ban after it goes into effect.
Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood says he has received "no direction from the state" as to how his officers should enforce the ban.
The state eliminated the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement in June. The department used to make sure bars and convenience stores didn't sell alcohol to minors, so local police departments have already picked up those duties. The smoking ban adds another regulatory duty to the agendas of local police, he says.
"It's not a priority," Chitwood said. "I don't have the manpower to deal with it all."
Although it seems it will take time to figure out the best way to enforce the ban, the law has teeth.
The state will assess a fine of $100 per offense to smokers and bar owners caught breaking the law, according to Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the state Bureau of Health. Mills says bar owners may also be fined for failing to post signs informing patrons of the ban and that liquor licenses may be suspended or revoked after repeated violations.
Local police, the Bureau of Health and the Attorney General's Office have enforcement powers, Mills says, adding that the bureau has set up a Web site and toll-free number (www.tobaccofreemaine.com; 800-560-5269) where bar patrons and employees may report violations of the ban anonymously.
California became the first state to ban smoking in bars when it put a stop to lighting up in taverns and restaurants in 1998. A restaurant-only version of the smoking ban took effect in Maine in September 1999.
Supporters of the law tout the ban's health benefits, as fewer bar patrons and employees will be exposed to second-hand smoke. Mills says the ban may also convince smokers to fire up fewer times while out on the town, and minors to stop associating smoking with recreational drinking.
Opponents of the ban, however, say the financial impact on bars that cater to those who want a cigarette with a drink will be fierce.
Tracy Knight, owner of the Loose Moose Saloon in Gray, owned a bar in Whittier, Calif., when smoking was banned there in 1998. Knight says although she hopes to see no decline in revenue, she expects a 30 percent drop in sales after Thursday.
"I dealt with it in California," she said. "My customers say, 'We'll just stay home and drink a six-pack there.' "
Knight and an association of mostly bar owners have fought the ban since it was passed last summer.
The group tried to gather enough signatures to force a "people's veto" referendum on the legislation, which would have taken place in June 2004, but was unable to meet a tight deadline. It is now trying to gather enough signatures to force a referendum to repeal the ban in November 2004.
That may be too late for a small number of struggling bars and their employees, Knight says.
"The majority of bar owners are struggling anyway - people don't have a lot of expendable income in today's economy. . . . A fourth of the businesses I talked to (during the referendum campaign) were just hanging on."
Staff Writer Elbert Aull can be contacted at 791-6335 or at: eaull@pressherald.com
Exactly! Why oh why did they wait for Maine's government to step in? If they wanted a ban in their establishments, why didn't they do it? One guy just wants a "level playing field." Well, he can have his "level playing field" minus the loss of revenue! I hope he is the first one to go under!
Well, pity. Now I wonder how much he would LOVE to smell tobacco smoke?! Tobacco smoke and the sound of the cash register. They will never learn..............
In 1999, when the Board of Health Coalition passed the restaurant smoking ban, I believe that the business owners thought it couldn't happen to them. Well, it did. And we lost some mighty fine restaurants when they had to lay off and close down.
Now, here we are again.....facing another ban. I know we had a large group fighting this ban and are still fighting this ban. Trying to get it on the ballot come November.
But we still have to face a whole year of the smoking ban before next November's Election.
By then, we will, once again, lose more fine businesses.
The Governor of Maine is choking Maine's economy!
By JUDY LIN
a.c The Associated Press
SUGARGROVE, Pa. (AP) - At a bar two miles south of the New York line, Roxann Lang took a drag from her cigarette, exhaled and smiled - she knew no one was going to tell her to put it out.
Like other New York residents who enjoy a smoke with their drink or meal but can't because of that state's new law, Lang, 46, and her husband have decided to trade their Jamestown, N.Y., bar for one in northern Pennsylvania.
Since the ban went into effect, bars and restaurants along the New York state line say they have seen more New Yorkers looking to light up, creating a boon for establishments in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
New York's statewide smoking ban became law July 24, following a New York City ban. In addition to bars, restaurants and nightclubs, the state ended smoking in off-track betting parlors, bowling alleys and company cars. The ban is among the toughest in the nation.
Some New York smokers, like the Langs, have simply left the state for more hospitable locations.
``We're going to make a habit of it because we won't go to any bar where you can't smoke,'' said Rick Lang, 52.
Immediately after New York City's ban went into effect, New Jersey restaurants near the Big Apple experienced a spike in business, said Deborah Dowdell, executive vice president of the New Jersey Restaurant Association.
That trend is expected to expand with the statewide ban, Dowdell said.
``Our members have reported a surge in business,'' Dowdell said. ``We're in close dialogue with leading restaurateurs in New York City and they continue to report their sales have suffered as much as 20 to 50 percent.''
Liz Stirling, owner of Oddfellows in Hoboken, N.J., said more commuters who used to stay in New York City's financial district for happy hour are now heading straight across the Hudson River.
New Jersey law allows smoking in restaurants if they post signs saying they have a smoking section. However, Stirling said she fears her lawmakers will follow their New York counterparts by toughening New Jersey anti-smoking laws.
``I'm not opposed to having a smoking and nonsmoking section to accompany everybody, but I'm definitely not for a total ban,'' Stirling said.
In Pennsylvania, business owners are welcoming the exodus. For example, smokers who frequented bars in Windsor, N.Y., are now sampling establishments in Susquehanna, Pa., about seven miles away.
Christine Foote, owner of Rebel's Bar in Susquehanna, said a New York couple stopped in Thursday for the first time and were pleased to find out they could smoke.
``The minute they came in they said, 'Oh, look we can smoke,''' Foote said. ``They were telling me about the laws. It was the first time I saw them.''
With smokers making up 90 percent of her customers, Foote said many local residents are choosing not to dine or drink in Binghamton, N.Y. Instead, they're staying in Pennsylvania.
Autumn in New York.
Cheers , Oct, 2000, by Jack Robertiello
"It's amazing," says one professional restaurant follower. "I can't possibily keep up with them all." The "All" she refers to is the undiminished restaurant boom, as New York City continues to see new bars and restaurants open at a record pace. Even neighborhoods previously unknown as hot dining scenes (like Smith St. in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill) have suddenyl gone from food backwater to must-visit eating and drinking destination.
Meanwhile, well-established chefs like Matthew Kenney, Doug Rodriguez and others have opened or are set to open new places. Kenney's Commune is bringing in the trendies at night with a SRO crowd that tumbles into the street. But it's not only cocktails: Commune touts 30-something wines by the glass, including 7 sparklers, and Kenney's prix fixe menu includes beverage parings; a recent set of prix fixe lunch matches included a Cotes de Provence rose with duck confit salad, ginjo sake with arctic char and braised greens in ginger-soy vinaigrette and Trappist Triple beer with buttermilk shortcake blueberry compote. Commune also takes contemporary liberties with the wine list, offering whites in groups that are said to be "crisp & clean," "aromatic & floral," "savory & exotic," and "rich & opulent," while reds are either "soft & sumptuous," "rustic & spicy," "bold & luscious," or "deep & lavish."
Rodriguez at Chicama is succeeding both in casual Nuevo latino food and fun bar scene, with South American wines, caipirinahs, mojitos and other latin cocktails, and he's busy readying Pipa, a tapas-and-wine bar, for an opening this month.
Meanwhile, Jeffery Chodorow (China Grill, Asia de Cuba) is set to open another branch, urged on by success in Miami and Vegas, of the frozen vodka bar Red Square in midtown. And Alan Stillman, founder of the singles bar (he started Friday's) and head honcho at Smith & Wollensky Group (S&W, Cite, Maloney & Porcelli, Post House) has teamed up with designer of the moment Adam Tihany to create another meat and wine outpost, this one in the Plaza Hotel, called ONEcps, one more outpost for the twice-annual Wine Week pourathon.
And the latest chef to come to NYC to cause a stir? Todd English of Olives and Figs fame, will be opening his first NY places, an Olives and OPM Bar, in yet another W Hotel.
Luvjuice
... and halitosis, long hair, wearers of Maine blue jeans (aka "plumbers jeans," the ones with a crack in the back), booming car stereos, using cellphones while driving ..., man, I can think of tons of things that annoy me.
But I abhor making any of it illegal.
Was that before the smoking ban in NY? I think it was. Smoking was permitted at least in drinking places, e.g. La Guardia bar, in October 2000, but not in Oct 2003.
According to everything I read, NY is still bustling after the ban.
Please don't. Personally, I think your a very lonely man who just loves coming into the Smoking Forums to bash us with your narrow minded views of what you think the world SHOULD be like. You have no tolerance for the rights of others. You wear blinders and the world should rotate on your arze.
Your the only one that came in today that has this dogmatic point of view that people who consume a LEGAL product should be outlawed. If your so against smoking and smokers, why don't you go to the core of it all and have tobacco and cigarettes banned? Your full of so much hot air. You just like to bash people who have a different view of life then you do.
Cut the bull and go after banning the product and stop bashing good people who enjoy it.
No doubt, but you tend to disbelieve anything written that disagrees with your point of view or choose not to read those things.
It's no big deal to you that you use an article written prior to the ban going into effect and so is therefore of no meaning in the context of this discussion, but pooh-pooh anything, including first hand experience, that says something different than your already preconceived notions.
Why we bother trying to confuse you with facts is beyond me, your mind is already made up.
Except for the exagerated joke response to someone who attacked a posistion I never took, I never stated the bans are correct.
I pointed out the irony of the guy whose name was brown (Brown lungs, hands, etc) who smoked Luckies (trying his luck flirting with cancer) who was "trying to live it up" (by smoking something that can kill him)
I assumed it would escape you folks.
Then I pointed out the absurdity of using the argument that the bars are going to lose business from heavy drinkers when they are the major cause of fatal accidents.
For the record again, I'm against the forced bans by gov't. I prefer the market to handle it. I acknowledge though that part of the market is behind these bans because larger places think they will fare better with a level playing field. I also believe that issue of requiring workers to have to tolerate SHS while their retail and office counterparts don't is an unfair application of the existing laws and based on equal application of the laws they should hurt all business equally. But, I'm not for gov't bans.
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