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.

Poll, Population Goal for St. Louis in 2050

The population of the City of St. Louis is currently less than any point in the 20th century.  Our population is what it was way back in the 1880s.

Our population decline was as spectacular as the climb.  Both were the result of a number of factors.  My poll this week, visible in the upper right corner of the main page, is asking what St. Louis’ target population should be by 2050.

“The U.S. has nearly 305 million people today, and is projected to reach 400 million by 2039 and 439 million in 2050.” [Wikipedia]  With the U.S. population expected to rise substantially in the next 40 years, mostly in larger regions, what might we expect for the City of St. Louis and the St. Louis region?

I think St. Louis should work to keep pace with the overall growth in our national population.  That would put us at 508,000, roughly, by 2050.    Such an increase isn’t going to happen overnight and it won’t happen if the regional population doesn’t increase as well.

Greater St. Louis has a population of 2.8 million.  If our region were to grow at the projected national rate we’d have just over 4 million by 2050.  Of course some regions will grow more while others will grow less. If the city and region do not grow at all that would be shocking and very telling of major issues.

I think at both the core and regional level we can take actions today to ensure things are rosey by 2050.  A strong urban, walkable, transit-cvonnected core is important to the future health of the entire region.  Our actions could have the reverse impact — causing us to miss a great opportunity to fill in our core (city + inner suburbs).

So thae the poll and share your thoughts below.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 42nd birthday.

As most of you know, I came very close to not reaching 41 due to a stroke on 2/1/08. But I did survive and on February 25th last year I was moved from Saint Louis University Hospital to St. Mary’s/SSM Rehab.  That day I remember seeing one of my brothers and a cousin.  I don’t remember the ambulance ride to St. Mary’s at all.

A few days later my friends came to my room to help me celebrate my 41st birthday. I remember them being there.  I “borrowed” my own iPhone and called my friend Rich Kenney in Seattle after I learned he had flown in to see me.  He was pleasantly shocked to hear my voice.  At that point I did not yet grasp how long I had been out or how close to death I had come.  March 7th I will be flying to Seattle visit Rich for Spring Break – a well deserved getaway.

I hope to have many more birthdays.

Democratic Candidates for Mayor

For the last week I’ve had posts with answers to my questionnaire from candidates for Aldermen in the 23rd, 25th and several Northside wards.  Yesterday I had at least partial responses from the two Green party candidates for the office of Mayor.  Many have found the questions and answers helpful in reaching a decision.

Today I had hoped to bring you answers from the three candidates on the Democratic ballot for Mayor in Tuesdays primary.  However, none of the three bothered to respond.

I mailed letters to all candidates in contested primary races in late January.  This action was also announced here.  The letters were mailed to the addresses given by the candidates to the Board of Elections.  In the letter instructions were given on how to access the online questionnaire.

Democrat Denise Watson Wesley Coleman emailed me after the deadline on 2/10/09.  The questionnaire was closed but I indicated she could answer questions in the public version I had posted.  She never did that.  So answers from her, Irene J. Smith and 2-term incumbent Francis Slay remain a mystery.

Slay is seeking his 3rd term in office.  He might have been offended by the password used on the Mayoral questionnaire, “2Terms.”

It was my original intention to repeat the process again for the general election.  Five of the 14 wards up for election this year will have contested general elections, 3, 7, 9, 11 & 13.  The Mayoral race will be a 4-way race with the winner the Democratic primary, the winner of the Green primary, a Libertarian and Independent Maida Coleman.  But with trying to earn a living in this climate, mid-term tests & projects in grad school and a Seattle & Portland trip planned for Spring Break (3/7-3/16) I don’t think I’ll have the time to do the same for the general election.

I am in the process of revising/streamlining the questionnaire so it works for candidates for Aldermen and Mayor.  A link to this questionnaire will be posted here with a few days after the primary.  I think with a follow-up phone call to the number on record with the Board of Elections I could verify any answers I receive are indeed from that candidate and not another.