Proposed Smoking Ban Ordinance for St. Louis City

Normally I’d not do another smoking related post so soon after the one earlier this week.  But, I agreed to publish the proposed ordinance to ban smoking in the City Of St. Louis.  28th Ward Alderman Lyda Krewson sent along the following note with the draft board bill:

Attached is a draft of a proposed smoke free air ordinance I plan to introduce soon.

I hope you will consider joining me in this effort.  Most states already have smoke free air legislation, including our neighbors, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska & Arkansas… and of course, well known places such as California, New York, France and Ireland.

The following link gives a quick map and summary of the current laws in the U.S.  All but 15 states have some form of smoking ban, to provide smoke free air.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans_in_the_United_States

Many think this legislation should be done at the state level, and frankly I agree.  But Missouri is unlikely to move this forward.  Many legislators consider it a ‘city issue’.  Kansas City, Columbia, Kirksville, Nixa and others already have a broad smoking ban.

It seems clear to me that Mo’s largest city needs to provide leadership on this issue!

The science is clear… second hand smoke causes or exacerbates a wide range of adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory infections, and asthma.  Banning smoking in public work environments is about the health of workers… not about smokers.  About smoke… not smokers.    It is a health safety issue, not a social issue.

The attached draft Board Bill says that  it will become effective in the City, when St Louis County passes a similar ordinance. I am not interested in creating an advantage/disadvantage for a city vs. county establishment.  Let’s take the leadership role on this. Maybe we can move the whole state?

I look forward to our discussions about this ordinance.  The pressure not to do it will be heavy…   I hope you will join me in this effort.

Thanks Lyda

Lyda Krewson
28th Ward Alderman

314-231-7318 (work)
314 607 3452 (cell)
lyda.krewson@pgav.com

You can view a PDF of the proposed bill here.  One of the most important clauses is on the last page:

SECTION SIXTEEN. Effective Date
This Ordinance shall be effective on such date that a similar smoking ban ordinance becomes effective in St. Louis County, Missouri.

So we can pass the ordinance in the city but until St. Louis County passes a similar bill we will keep things as is.  This prevents the challenge of city establishments losing customers to the county.  Read the language and share your thoughts in the comments section because Alderman Krewson will be reading them.

Go Smoke-Free, Get Free Advertising

Used to be I had to make sure that, as a vegetarian, I could get something besides a salad when eating out.  Now, my first question about a place is not about the quality of the food, the variety of the menu or the location.  It is whether or not they allow smoking — which ruins it for me if they do.

A recent post (A Smoke-Free Vacation) prompted the following response from a reader:

I’m always a little stunned at this conversation.  40% of St Louis establishments are completely smoke-free.  A vast majority of the rest either restrict it and/or ventilate it.  There are plenty of choices for people who hate smoke, people who smoke and those that don’t care.

I[t] would be a rarity to have to deal with smoke in a dining area St Louis Restaurant.

Read the non-smoking restaurant lists and you’ll find lots of McDonald’s, Subway shops, grocery store deli counters and such.  Not exactly my idea of a nice Friday night dinner out.  Using the “near me” feature on my Urban Spoon iPhone app I get a long list of restaurants downtown but only a handful are smoke-free.  Many of those aren’t even  open for dinner.  Of the non-chain places for dinner in the City of St. Louis too few are smoke-free.

I recently turned down a free meal with a friend at Mike Shannon’s because they have indoor smoking.  I’m not a fan of turning down free food – especially expensive meals.  But I’m no longer going to go along just because a few folks can’t be indoors for a hour without feeding their addiction.  More on that later.

In response to a prior comment I listed the places I’d like to see go smoke-free.  Below is an expanded alphabetical list of nearly 20 places where I have eaten in the past that I’d like to see go smoke-free so I can return:

• Chimichanga
• City Diner
• Joe Boccardi’s Ristorante
• Joanie’s Pizzeria
• Mangia
• Mi Ranchito
• Mike Shannon’s
• Mokabe’s Coffeehouse
• Scottish Arms
• Soulard Coffee Garden
• Stable
• Square One Brewery
• Tap Room
• Three Monkeys
• Triumph Grill
• Tucker’s Place
• Vito’s

You’ll note most of these have non-smoking sections but smoke doesn’t know how to stay out of adjacent spaces.

Here are a couple of places I’ve not tried but won’t because they have indoor smoking:

• Herbie’s Vintage
• William Shakespeare’s

In total it is a pretty long list.  Too long.  So I’ve got an offer for the owners/managers of these establishments.  Go smoke-free and I’ll give you free advertising.  The first one will get a year’s worth, second gets 9 months, third gets 6 months and the fourth gets 3 months.  The establishment must remain smoke-free to continue receiving free advertising.  The entire indoor space must be smoke-free.  Go smoke-free and I’ll help publicize your decision.  Will I get any takers?

Back to the addiction.  My parents were smokers.   In the 80s my dad quite cold turkey.  My mom struggled to quit for 20 years.  Smoking was not a primary factor in their passing, old age was.  I saw, first hand, with them, how addictive smoking can be.  I know many smokers. I would imagine that most would like to be former smokers.  But quitting is not a simple matter.

Often the addicted has an enabler that feeds the addiction — making it that much more difficult to break free.  The “freedom” folks out there enable smokers – ensuring the many places they visit will have other smokers.  So even the person who wants to quit is constantly surrounded by smokers feeding their own addiction.  Giving their brain the nicotine it craves.  The persons talking about protecting the rights of the smokers are really the ones helping to keep the smoker addicted.  They don’t have the strength to quit so they don’t want others to be able to quit.  Misery loves company.

If you own or manage one of the above restarants I’d love to hear from you.  Say your smoking place in the city isn’t on my list but you are contemplating  to go smoke-free, I’ll pretend you were on the list and give you free advertising if you are one of the first four.  This offer expires at the end of June, 2009.

A Smoke-Free Vacation

On Monday I returned from a 9-day trip to the states of Washington & Oregon.  Both are states with bans on smoking in public places. Most of the trip was spent in the City of Seattle.  Going out to eat was never a chore of having to wade through various lists of non-smoking restaurants as I do here.  Instead we could focus on the location, menu and price.

One day was spent visiting the small mountain town of Granite Falls, WA and the bay side town of Poulsbo, WA.  Granite Falls is not a tourist town.  It has only a few restaurants.  Without the smoking ban they few restaurants in town would have all had smoking.  This would leave persons with no choice but to endure the smoke if they wanted to eat out.  Poulsbo, on the other hand, does cater to the tourist crowd so some of its places might have been non-smoking without the ban.    As with Seattle, we could select our dining options based on factors other than smoking.

Saturday we drove to Portland for an overnight stay.  Our downtown hotel was across the street from numerous gay bars.  We visited three that night.  All were very busy.  Gay bars are notoriously smokey.  But these were smoke-free thanks to Oregon’s smoking ban.  We met up with friends for lunch on Sunday but our first choice had a long wait so we went to another restaurant.  If business was hurt by the smoking ban you couldn’t tell.

Smokers outside a Portland gay bar huddle under an umbrella to get out of the rain.

Having to seek out non-smoking places is a major hassle.  Not having to worry about finding non-smoking places truly was a vacation.  I’m established here in St. Louis but if I weren’t I’d consider relocating to a state that placed greater importance on the health of the public. I personally don’t care if someone wants to smoke cigarettes (or marijuana) in their home.  I just don’t want to be forced to inhale their smoke while in establishments serving the general public.

KDHX & The Royale Tonight

I’ll be the guest on KDHX’s Collateral Damage program tonight from 7pm to 7:30pm.  Listen at 88.1FM or tune in online.

Afterwards I’m heading over to the smoke-free Royale for some last minute preliminary election conversation.  I might even have a beer.

Voluntarily Smoke-Free Restaurants & Bars

Until we have a local, regional or statewide ban on smoking in public places, businesses are free to make the smoking/non-smoking decision for themselves.  As mentioned in a prior post, I’d like customers to let businesses know they’d appreciate a non-smoking environment.  For me personally, I’m only going to patronize 100% non-smoking establishments.  Last night I opted not to join friends for dinner because they were going to a place that was not 100% smoke-free.

People debate studies regarding the health impacts from second-hand smoke.  They advocate costly filtration systems.  I’m not going to get into that, I don’t need to.  I know that when I visited places that allow smoking I’d leave with a scratchy throat, watery eyes and smelly clothes.  Meals would not smell or taste as good.  No more for me.  Enough businesses have made the decision to have a smoke-free environment that I can go out and enjoy a meal and drink without the hassles I find in smoking places.  For now, each business must make the decision for themselves.  And it is a decision.

I believe for many bar/restaurant owners the decision to allow smoking is made out of fear.  Fear of losing the business of smokers.  Fear of not having the right mood — bars are supposed to be smoky, right?  So they open with smoking in the entire place, in a smoking section or at the bar.  Once they are open with smoking permitted, few voluntarily change their policy.

Just as many non-smokers will go to places that permit smoking, smokers will go to places that do not.  A few places I visit that are non-smoking include Crown Candy Kitchen, Crepes in the City, 10th Street Italian, The London Tea Room, The Fountain on Locust, Sen Thai, Lily’s, 10th Street Italian and The Royale.  The owners of these non-chain businesses voluntarily decided their establishments would be smoke-free.  Their place, their right.

I recently sat down and talked with the owners of two of the above, Steve Smith of The Royale and Mary Deacon of Crepes In The City, about their decisions to have their respective businesses be smoke-free. The Royale is a lively bar/tavern that happens to also serve good food. Crepes in the City is a Creperie that also happens to serve alcohol.  Runtime on this video is 8:51:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noZXCbLi_fs[/youtube]

As Smith mentioned he was open for three years allowing smoking before going smoke-free on April 1, 2008.  His business has increased since going smoke-free.  He references a study he conducted of his customers before going smoke-free.  It is interesting reading.  A year ago he announced that The Royale would go smoke-free on April 1, 2008.  I’ve seen people cite studies that show a drop in business in areas with new bans.  A few weeks isn’t enough time to judge.  A year is.  I found it interesting that Smith’s employees that smoke welcomed the change to non-smoking.  Thank you to Steve Smith & Mary Deacon for your time and for creating places I enjoy patronizing!

The hospitality industry website RestaurantReport.com has a section on great debates in their industry, one of which is Smoking in Restaurants.  Here is an excerpt:

Like it or not, it’s inevitable that smoking will be illegal in all restaurants sometime in the near future, and we can talk about what’s going to happen to the hospitality business when this law takes effect. And I suspect that most owners would welcome such a law, and it’s even highly possible that business will actually improve.

If you own a restaurant or bar that allows smoking I ask that you do what Steve Smith did, survey as many of your customers as possible.  Find out if they’d come back more or less if you went smoke-free.  Keep in mind your customers may skew toward more smokers because non-smokers like me may not patronize your establishment because of the smoke.   It is a tough economy, can you survive on smokers and non-smokers willing to tolerate being in a smoking environment?  Don’t wait until a ban forces your business and your competition to go smoke-free, do it now and set your business apart from others.

I still advocate a ban ( city/regional/state) but in the meantime I’d like to see more places voluntarily be smoke-free.

Non-Smokers Speak Up For Change!

My recent post requesting a smoking ban for the region & state generated the most comments for a single post for the entire 4+ years I’ve been writing this blog.  While many found smoking to be as equally disgusting as me, others took a more libertarian viewpoint — let customers, business owners and the market — not the government  — decide.  Fine.

I’m no longer going to patronize establishments that permit smoking anywhere. I encourage others to do the same.

The whole non-smoking section is really a joke anyway.  If smoking is allowed indoors with the same ventilation system then the ill-effects of smoking are throughout.

But avoiding smoking places is not good enough.  We non-smokers need to tell the smoking places why we are no longer going to patronize their establishments.  And we need to make sure the non-smoking places we do visit know we are there, in part, because they are 100% non-smoking.  So how do we do this?

First, if you are heading out to dinner call ahead and ask if the establishment is 100% smoke-free.  If the answer is no say something like, “Oh, too bad.  Thank you, but I won’t be eating at your place as long as smoking is permitted.” I know it sounds harsh and perhaps you can suggest different phrasing but they need to understand that allowing smoking costs business.  When you visit a place and they ask “smoking or non-smoking?”  you can respond with, “Oh, I didn’t realize you still allowed smoking.”  Ideally you’d do a 180 and leave.  I did this recently even though I was ready to eat then.  If you don’t want to find another place to eat go with, “I guess we’ll stay this time, please seat us as far away from the smokers as physically possible.”  Remember, most likely the person seating you didn’t make the choice to allow smoking so you don’t want to direct your anger at them.

I’m convinced many restaurant owners only see and count the smokers.  These owners fail to realize they have more non-smoking customers than smoking customers.  Recent reports indicate that less than 20% of U.S. adults smoke (source).  Owners are afraid to ban smoking because they might lose a minority of the population.  They don’t fear losing the non-smokers.  We need to change that.  Instill some fear.

Most places I visit are 100% smoke-free.  But I will stop going to a few places — Chimichanga and City Diner to name a couple — that are not 100% smoke-free.  Since I started writing this post a week ago I’ve found myself in places with smoking allowed at the bar.  It certainly won’t be easy.  Friends might not so understanding when I insist we go elsewhere.  No everyone is comfortable being perceived as confrontational or difficult.  So to help out I’ve created some card templates that can be left behind when you leave.

For those unpleasant places that still allow smoking:

The above language works for contacting restaurants through there websites.  Just copy & paste:

I enjoy your establishment but the presence of cigarette smoke makes the experience less than ideal for me.  I eat out less due to the economy so when I do I want to enjoy it.  Please remove smoking so I can return.

For those awesome places that are smoke-free:

Click each of the above for a PDF document set up with 10 cards per sheet (Avery 5371).  Just print, cut and carry.  Leave them behind at places so they hopefully get the message. It is a tough economy out there and we non-smokers account for 80% of the population.  We don’t need to be subjected to the disgusting addictive habit of the remaining 20% of the population.  We, the complacent non-smokers, have the purchasing power to rid smoking in places.  We just have to speak up.

Can We Please Ban Smoking in the St. Louis Region? Missouri?

I really hate cigarette smoke.  Nothing ruins a good meal like someone puffing away at the next table or even the next room.  But it is not just restaurants  I recently went to a local locksmith to have a key made.  I left smelling like an ashtray.  I can’t meet clients smelling like a smoker.

Illinois has had a smoking ban for a year.  I recently had lunch at a sports bar in Granite City, IL — I was able to breath and enjoy my salad.    Oklahoma requires completely separate closed rooms with different HVAC systems in order to have smoking areas.  Would you like that key made in the smoking or non-smoking section?  Both states as well as others with bans still have open businesses.  Despite what you hear, places do remain open.  Some even thrive.

Of course smoking is addictive.  Just like coffee is.  I don’t like either. But I can have a meal with the person next to me getting their morning coffee fix.  People with destructive addictions need help.

Short of a statewide ban we need a more local ban.  But at what level?  St. Louis City is small relative to the Missouri  side of the region.  St. Louis County has 90+ municipalities and quite a bit of area not in an incorporated municipality.  The City of St. Louis or anyone of the 90+ munis in the county could ban smoking but would that just drive business to a neighboring municipality?  I guess those people who must have a Marlboro with their wings just might change where they will eat.

You may have seen the article, “Smoking ban issue resurfaces in St. Louis County”in the Post-Dispatch on the 26th which talked about a letter from five out of the 90+ mayors in St. Louis County urging the St. Louis County Council to ban smoking county-wide. From the article:

The mayors of five adjacent cities in St. Louis County have reignited the smoking ban issue, asking the County Council to ban smoking in public places. Signing the document were Mayors Joseph L. Adams of University City, Jean Antoine of Olivette, Harold Dielmann of Creve Coeur, Linda Goldstein of Clayton and Mike Schneider of Overland.

Thanks to reader “Jason”, I have the letter for you to read for yourself.  Click here to view the 2-page PDF.

As a patron I have the right to avoid businesses that permit smoking, and I do.  However, employees don’t have that luxury.  To keep their job they are often subjected to second-hand smoke.  When they have lung cancer 20 years later we all pay the price as medical costs are boerne by all either through increased insurance premiums or taxes.

I find visiting regions & states with bans more pleasant.  No need to pop into places to ask if they prohibit smoking.  We are competing with many regions & states for jobs and for population.  Banning smoking in public places is a good way to be able to remove an objection for relocating to the Missouri side of the region.

Kudos to these five mayors.  I have sent an email to several members of the Board of Aldermen and Mayor Slay’s staff asking them to pass a smoking ban in the City of St. Louis that would take affect upon approval of a similar measure in St. Louis County.  If St. Louis County did the same we might actually get somewhere in our fragmented region. I suggest you contact your elected official in the city/county where you live to try to get this done.

Not blowing smoke

Lost among the election last week was the news a smoking ban took effect in one St. Louis area municipality. Yes, Arnold Missouri now has a smoking ban in public places. For those not familiar with the St. Louis region, Arnold is located on the Southern edge and is very white middle class. Very white. Blue collar. Very suburban – land of Wal-Mart and trucks.

This is hardly the type of municipality that you’d think would be the first in the region to ban smoking but I applaud them for their efforts. If the good ole boys in Arnold can have a meal without a cigarette then why can’t the rest of the region. For that matter, why can’t we free ourselves of smoke in public everywhere?

I had lunch at McGurk’s patio over the weekend but I was unable to have a meal without cigarette smoke blowing past me as I ate. Yuk. A big part of living in a civilized society is getting along with others in society. Somehow my trying to keep from having their smoke in my face is an infringement of their rights. Bullshit. When their smoke enters my air then my right to breath fresh air has been infringed.

Back in Arnold a compromise was reached when the law was written. If a business creates a separate smoking area, complete with separate ventilation systems, then smoking is permitted within the smoking area. I’m not sure what the rights are of workers are in this case – do they have the “right” to work in a non-smoking environment or must they risk unemployment for refusing to work in the smoking section? Smoking advocates say the employee is free to quit if they don’t like it. How civilized.

Asbestos & lead are two hazards we’d never ask an employee to expose themselves to. Why? Concern for their health or concern about lawsuits? Yet most folks have little concern about exposure to cigarette smoke. Children are constantly exposed to second hand smoke. At one time you had tv stars smoking on their programs and it was normal for adults to smoke. Kids took up smoking. Now smoking is not OK and yet kids still take up smoking.

Banning smoking will not lead to a world free of smokers. But, it will allow me to go out and not inhale deadly smoke. I’m selfish that way.

For more information on a smoke-free Missouri click here.

Steve