The Hazy Countdown to the smoking ordinance

I don't smoke, I don't like smoke, and I don't like breathing it.  However, for the handful of operators who are trying to abide by the soon-to-be-official no-smoking ordinance, I can feel their pain.  Mainly, there are a few guys who want to apply for the "tobacco bar" exemption.  As I explained a few weeks ago, the City of Houston is a little late in getting the application to those businesses who want to apply.  In fact, if you go to the smoking ordinance page on the City of Houston's website this morning, still nothing.  For one of the local joints trying to do this by the book, it's been frustrating.  I visited with Mike Shapiro of Char Bar yesterday.  He says his daughter was on the phone for hours with the Health Dept. and nobody would give her an application.  Someone finally promised to fax them an application, but they still haven't received it.  He asks the question:  "If the City Health Dept. can't help me follow the ordinance, how can it enforce the whole thing?"

Good point.  Of course, there are lawsuits already filed, and the health dept. is understaffed.  After all, the health dept. didn't write the ordinance, it's just saddled with the task of dealing with it.  Shapiro says he simply can't tell his cigar-smoking clients to butt out by Sept. 1st.  If he has to, he will turn the upstairs into a private function room, and charge people to get in, and light up.  The far easier solution is either to go smoke-free or, try to do what the City of Houston is requiring... now if that darn application would just show up...

Comments

[Drew]

“The main reason to be opposed to political control of smoking is to keep power --even the smallest and silliest kind of power -- out of the hands of ... members of a dangerous class --the class that knows what´s good for us better than we do."

- P. J. O'Rourke

[Richard Smallwood]

Yes, smoking is unhealthy and non-smokers are offended by a bar full of smoke. Ice cream is unhealthy, as is fried foods, cheeseburgers, doughnuts and many other things that cause people to get fat. Houston ranks very high on the list of Americas fattest cities. So, what will be the next thing banned from use because it is unhealthy? Just as the non-smoker is offended by second hand smoke, I am offended by a 300 pound slob shoving food down their throat like it's the only meal they will have for the rest of the year. Any such bans should be put to a vote by the citizens it will affect and not forced on the public by city leaders pandering to special interest groups (non-smokers). The majority of people who go to bars to drink are smokers. Once this ban goes into affect many bars will be forced to close due to loss of customers. It's a sad day when the city goverment knowingly destroys small family owned businesses and that is exactly what this ban is meant to do. Non-smokers rejoice, you have contributed to the destruction of many peoples livlihood and only source of income. Smokers unite in an effort to have this ban removed from the books by calling, e-mailing or writing to the mayor or your district representative demanding your rights as a tax paying citizen and more importantly, a voter. If these dictators at city hall continue to force their will on the people they are supposed to represent their political careers will be short lived. Vote them out of office at election time if this ban is not lifted. Smokers unite and we will be heard loud and clear.

[Richard.Smallwood]

Several of these comments are posted under the wrong names. I want to get full credit for my own opinions and not have them posted incorrectly. Abolish the smoking ban for bars and allow people to vote on city laws. Not only are we being restricted by goverment forcing laws on us, but also losing our rights to make personal decisions in our lives.

[Chris Bishop]

My Husband & I bought a small bar this past Feburary, I feel as though we are now living in a comunist state where we are being dictated to on what we can and can't do. I will most defintely VOTE for a new city counsel and a new mayor at election time. What is so amazing is that the City Councel (that we the Tax Payors are paying) have the right to enforce a Non-Smoking Law that has no effect on thier paychecks. My husband is a Vietnam Veteran and Fought for the FREEDOM of this Country just for his business to be Killed by His City Councel. Everything he fought for and worked for all his life is being Threatend because OUR BAR is only 1 mile from the county line where you are allowed to smoke. So Guess where all of our business will go, Exactly, 1 mile down the road where they CAN SMOKE. No provisions were made for this.I feel as though we shoud be able to VOTE on this since it effects loosing all of our 401 k plans, because that is what is happining to us, since that is what we used to open our bar. It is a shame that we have spent the last 6 months making a good name for our bar and having a place that abides by all the laws just to have it ripped from our hands by 15 people making this law. I feel as though the City Councel owes my husband and I the $50.000 that we have put into our bar since the City Councel is the ones closing us down. What is so sad is that These particular 15 people on the city councel would have never stepped foot in my bar anyway. Let's all stick together and ABOLISH THE PROHIBITION OF SMOKING.

[Richard Smallwood]

This is to share my sympathy for people like Chris Bishop and her husband over the loss of their livlihood. Many bar owners will soon see a drastic downfall in business and will be forced to go out of business. I am a smoker and I enjoy going to small establishments for a few beers every once in a while. Some of the places I went to this past Labor Day weekend seemed to be already dead. There were less than half the usual patrons and at one place the owner was almost in tears. She (a legal Korean immigrant) can see the writing on the wall and the future does not look good for her business of 20 years. She is a sharp business woman and worked hard to open her own bar, but she is not skilled in anything that will give her an income equal to what the bar makes. The statement I keep hearing from non-smokers is that smokers have their right to smoke as long as it doesn't infringe on their right to have clean air. Ok, the twist. A non-smoker has a right to clean air as long as it doesn't infringe on my rights as a smoker. See, it works both ways but the dictatorship at city hall has chosen to listen to the whinny special interest group (non-smokers) and put an ignorant law in place that stomps on my rights. If I make a personal decision, as an adult, not to frequent a place because I don't like the environment then that is the choice I make. All non-smokers have the same right to decide where to go and where not to go. Smokers in bars is always the majority, yet we are being dictated to by the minority bar patron, the non-smokers. So, tell me again whos rights are being stomped on. All non-smokers must hurry to their now smokeless bars because they will soon be going out of business. Then you and city hall can celebrate destroying peoples lives and creating longer lines at the unempolyment offices. And by the way, you'll probably be celebrating at your favorite smoke-free restaurant and not at a bar.

[Ron]

I agree entirely. Mc Donalds and every fast food joint sell customers fau food that has NO nutrisional value. It has chemicals and growth hormones that have been noticed by the average person. Some high school coaches have incouraged football players to eat more fast food because of these growth hormanes. So they will grow larger. I have personally known two people that died from cancer. Neither was a smoker. I don't personally know any smoker that died from cancer. Do you? We are in the middle of a diabetes epidemic caused by fast foods but no one seems to notice. I personally try to eat correctly but every where I go I am forced to buy enough food to eat three times. Can the goverment please allow me to get one meal for three dollars instead of three meals for ten dollars?

[Ron]

I went to a bar across the street from me. It is now non smoking. I was forced to go into a small un air conditioned room to smoke. Not only was I forced to go there I was also forced to listen to the brain dead women whining about it. These are the same brain dead women that did this in the first place. Every stupid law on the books has an idiot woman right behind it.