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January 8, 2007

Even mentioning the smoking ordinance that takes effect after midnight tonight will get you an earful from Lucy Reddick, owner of the modest Lucy’s Corner Cafe at Broadway and Fifth Street.

Her banana-yellow ponytail sways with the rhythm of her words, spoken with a scratchy but energetic smoker’s voice. She and her customers have talked about the new law every afternoon in recent weeks, she said.

Reddick is convinced the ordinance will hurt her business.

“They come here because they want to eat and smoke,” she said of her customers. “I know I would (lose business.) … I’m a small business. I don’t make a lot of money like everybody else.”

So Reddick came up with a plan, and she’s happy to detail it. Her hips swing her skinny, energetic frame around a dog-leg of tables and through a doorway as she heads toward the smoking section of her diner. Customers sit in red, cushioned booths and at tables along the giant windows, sipping coffee and scraping syrup-soaked pancakes off their plates. A few customers light up, and the familiar smell of cigarettes fills the room.

Reddick announces that she’ll convert this room into a smokers club, where customers will pay a membership fee of $1 a day so they can smoke all they want and get their money back through a $1 discount on their meals. She hasn’t worked out all the details, but she said the smokers club would allow her to maintain a room where smokers can enjoy their scrambled eggs as well as their cigarettes.

“No, that’s not true,” said City Attorney Fred Boeckmann, explaining that any place open to the public will have to be smoke-free. The ordinance also applies to places of employment, he said, so if Reddick will have waitresses in the club room, it would qualify as a place of employment.

Reddick’s idea is an attempt to create a membership organization exempt from the anti-smoking ordinance. But the law states that to be exempt, membership organizations must, among other things, be not-for-profit organizations and be established by April 1, 2006.

In other words, Reddick’s idea simply won’t fly.

Boeckmann said the ordinance will be enforced largely through customer and employee complaints and inspections by the health department.

At Lucy’s, every employee smokes, and customers aren’t likely to complain. But health officials will continue to conduct regular inspections, Boeckmann said.

“When they do inspections, they’ll be looking for ashtrays.”

Reddick said she won’t let the legalities bother her.

“I think it’s wrong for them to tell you what to do.”

Linda Sypkens, a nurse at University Hospital, was among the crowd of people who gathered at Buffalo Wild Wings on Peachtree Circle to watch the playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday afternoon. The bar was packed with fans wearing red shirts and shouting, whistling and clapping for their team. While several were children who had come with their families to sit and watch the game in the nonsmoking section, many of the customers puffed away at packs of cigarettes as the game wore on.

It’ll be the last time they do so.

Although Sypkens applauds the general trend toward smoking bans, she said it’s a bad idea for bars.

“You know that people in bars are going to smoke and drink, and the bar functions that way, after all,” she said.

Corinna Simon, 26, who works at a Jefferson City bar and as a hairdresser in Columbia, said the smoke doesn’t bother her.

“I know this is a perfect place to watch games and drink and smoke,” she said. And she agreed with Sypkens that prohibiting smoking in restaurants is OK, but to do so in bars is wrong.

“Restaurants are the place where families gather and have fun,” Simon said. “And bars are the places where people drink and smoke. You cannot expect people not to at a bar. Drinking and smoking kind of go together.”

MU student John Tierney, 21, said smoking is a cultural tradition that shouldn’t be restricted by city government. “Smoking is different from having a gun.”

A manager at the Wild Buffalo Wings, Chris Perejda, 23, said the ordinance will put a dent in Buffalo Wild Wings’ business.

“Even though we have a patio outside, that won’t help anything because of the 20-feet rule of the ordinance. They put an air-ventilation system on the ceiling, investing a lot of money, but now I guess it turned out to be a waste of money.”

Chris Schulz, another manager at the sports bar, put on a happy face.

“The smoking ban won’t stop people from going out and having a good time,” he said, adding that his customers are drawn to the sports, food and drink, not to the smoking.

Step inside Jon’s Pipe Shop on Eighth Street for an instant reminder of one casualty of the smoking ordinance that’s not often mentioned. The sweet aroma of pipe tobacco swirls in the air, causing the light that cascades through the windows to streak all the way to the floor.

Wayne Davis emerges from behind the pipe- and cigar-filled counters. In his late 60s, Davis is a timeless character with a voice to match: Think Walter Cronkite meets Charles Kuralt, someone completely befitting his surroundings.

Davis isn’t shy about his feelings on the smoking ordinance. “The whole thing is stupid,” he said.

He finds it difficult to believe the measure can be enforced. “What are the nonsmoking vigilantes going to do when someone lights up? Chain them to a bar stool?”

Davis is well aware of the health issues involved. He doesn’t sell cigarettes and chewing tobacco precisely because they’re so bad for people. “It’s not nearly as clear-cut with pipe- and cigar-smoking,” he said.

Davis’ store, and others that specialize in tobacco products, are exempt from the ordinance, but Davis still anticipates he’ll take a hit. Many of his customers, he said, are “people going to bars and restaurants who stop by and pick up a cigar.”

Davis remains optimistic and contemplates ways businesses will be able to get around the ban.

“I hope that a number of these owners come up with a plan of their own,” he said. “I’ve thought maybe there need to be private clubs.”

Richard King has several months of experience keeping smoke out of his downtown nightclub.

The Blue Note banned smoking in October, and King said feedback has been mostly positive — from both customers and workers — and the business hasn’t been hurt.

Going smoke-free was something he’d considered for a long time, he said, and the club had already hosted smoke-free shows.

Nonetheless, King said he disagrees with the ordinance. Whether to allow smoking is a choice that business owners should make, he said: “The marketplace should determine that.”

On the rare occasion that someone has lit up since October, King said, “they are usually embarrassed and apologize, put it out or go outside.” The club deals with smokers by using wristbands and hand stamps to let people go outside and re-enter.

Large crowds sometimes congregate on the sidewalk outside to smoke, King said, which is something he thinks will be difficult to change, even though the new law forbids smoking within 20 feet of a business’s doorway.

“We’re going to do our best to deal with it,” he said.

And what’s happened to the club’s ashtrays? King says that the Blue Note traded them in for what he calls “one giant ashtray” that sits outside, as far away from the building as possible. He hopes that will prevent people from tossing their cigarette butts in the street.

Ernie’s Café and Steak House also got a head start on the ordinance, but much more recently. Ernie’s management initially proposed eliminating smoking in December 2005, employee Erin McNeely said. Workers and diners talked them out of it, though.

“We didn’t eliminate smoking last December because of regulars who have always come to eat and smoke,” McNeely said. “This has become a tradition for people.”

Approval of the ordinance in October, however, made the change inevitable.

Except for the green pack of Marlboro Menthols in the sun visor of his A-1 taxi, there are no telltale signs of James Wile’s habit of smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes each day.

Wiles said he was a smoker for 11 years, quit for about 15 years and started smoking again a year ago because of “boredom or the secondhand smoke.” Of the 30 or so people he picks up daily in his navy-blue Crown Victoria, he estimates about half smoke.

“They usually ask if this is a nonsmoking cab,” Wiles said, “and I tell them that I am a smoker.”

When new city rules take effect at midnight, smoking will be prohibited in vehicles used for public transportation, including taxis and limousines.

Wiles said he plans to take smoke breaks between fares and doesn’t expect any problems. He doesn’t mind if others smoke in his taxi but is uncomfortable with the prospect of having to ask passengers not to smoke.

“It is nice, though, to go to a nonsmoking venue,” he said.

Tabitha Miner, 25, washes her hands and slaps a hamburger patty on the grill. Singing along with the jukebox, she prepares a drink for another customer while the burger sizzles behind her. Miner, an employee at Columbia Billiards on Ninth Street, talks between verses about the smoking ban and the effect it will have on her customers.

“It’s going to make more people quit than they realize,” Miner said.

Regular Billiards customer and occasional smoker Jesse Stauffer, 25, said he will still go to his favorite bars and restaurants, which include the billiards hall, but he’ll definitely think twice about going anywhere else.

“I’ll still come here,” Stauffer said. “I like this place.”

Liz Foley, 22, and Annie Schmidt, 21, think the ban will be an inconvenience, but they’ll still come to Columbia Billiards to enjoy the drink specials on Friday and Saturday nights.

“It won’t affect whether or not I come here,” Foley said.

Smoker Beau Wichert, 26, another regular at the pool hall, thought the business “might be marginally affected immediately after” the ban goes into effect. “But eventually people will come back.”

Miner and other Billiards employees Travis Langley, 23, and Mike Keen, 26, said they aren’t concerned about the new restrictions. Langley indicated they would collect all the ashtrays for a final time on Monday night when the rules take effect.

“We’ll probably just pile them all up in the back,” Langley said. “I’m not sure what we’re going to do with them.”

What draws to certain bars? And how will the smoking law affect bar-goers? Such questions linger in the air as the clampdown on smoking in public areas draws near.

“If you’re a good business, you have a good product, then you’ll stay in business,” Anna Duff, a licensed massage therapist, said while socializing at Quinton’s on Friday night.

Duff supports the ban and looks forward to leaving bars without smelling like smoke.

MU theater student Dan Murphy said the ban could bring other benefits.

“It’s definitely healthier, but bars aren’t healthy places,” he said. He did predict some adverse consequences. “Not everyone has a roof to go onto. It’s going to get dirty outside, and there’s probably going to be more fights outside.”

Although Charlotte Snead, 46, is a nonsmoker, she dislikes the ban. When people go out to bars, Snead said, smoking, drinking and socializing are all part of the package. To her, it should be the customers’ decision, not city officials.

“It takes the rights of smokers (away) when they’re the patrons and spend the most money,” she said.

Jackie Cockrell, owner of The Bull Pen Café on Business Loop 70 East, said she rarely hears complaints about smoke in her restaurant. She said many of her regulars come from out of town to have a meal, visit with friends and enjoy a smoke — or several. A lot of them come in early for breakfast then return for lunch. If they can no longer sit and have a cigarette, she fears many will cut back on their visits.

She anticipates a dramatic effect on her business. “As if you don’t already have enough bumps in the road,” she said.

Rob Chen, 33, owner of Sake Japanese Bistro on Tenth Street, took the initiative a year ago to limit smoking in his sushi bar.

“Since last year, the restaurant has gradually moved toward nonsmoking. We changed it to a no-smoking period until 10 o’clock,” he said.

Chen said it’s difficult in a place the size of Sake to segregate smoking and non-smoking sections. But he thinks smoking is a serious public health issue. “I think everyone, even smokers, enjoy dinner without smoke in their faces,” he said.

“The possibility of losing money in bar sales is a consideration, but I know people will come back because the experience of going out with family and friends is more important than being able to smoke,” he said. “Some of the best bars and clubs don’t allow smoking.”

Chen said over the weekend that he planned to meet with employees to discuss how to ensure compliance with the new law.

Night manager and bartender Vay Vong, 29, is a smoker. He said he plans to step outside for smoke breaks and to ask others to do the same if they light cigarettes. Although he plans to comply, he doesn’t like the ordinance.

“I don’t think it should be up to the city government at all,” he said. “But it doesn’t bother me that much because I don’t mind being in an establishment that is smoke-free.”

It was a typical Saturday night at the Campus Bar and Grill at Ninth and Elm streets. On half the big-screen TVs, the Dallas Cowboys were duking it out with the Seattle Seahawks. On the other half, the MU men’s basketball team was battling Iowa State. At the bar, two college women oblivious to the broadcasts, used their right hands to send text messages and their left to smoke Parliament Lights. After burning a pack, they scuffled to another location.

While the moment seemed less than notable, it was the last Saturday night when smoking cigarettes would be legal inside Columbia bars.

Jason Robertson, 27, owner of the Campus Bar & Grill, said the hardest task will be to control violations of the ordinance at night, when the place gets crowded. He said the business will have to invest in security to catch customers who violate the ban.

If you are upset about the smoking ban but don’t know where or how to vent your anger (or cigarette smoke), there is a club for you. The Smoker’s Club is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of smokers’ rights and fighting against what it calls the “anti-smoker movement.” The club also publishes studies on secondhand smoke and smoking bans.

David Kuneman, of St. Louis, director of research for the Smoker’s Club, attended the October public hearing that preceded the Columbia City Council’s approval of the smoking ordinance. He was unhappy with the outcome.

“The Columbia City Council should have listened to the owners of bars and restaurants instead of the anti-smokers,” Kuneman said. “I doubt whether anyone in Columbia will be any healthier than they were last year. But some people’s incomes will fall.”

Kuneman predicts the ordinance will hurt the city’s economy. Any health benefits will be outdone, he said, by increases in poverty.

“I call on the Columbia City Council to refund the property taxes of any bar or restaurant that can show that their revenue is lower than it was last year,” he said. “If that’s not enough, then the local sales tax can be collected, too.”

— Missourian reporters Adam Wisneski, Alex Cooney, Sheila Johnson, Esther Cho, Yulia Medvedeva, Uthayla Abdullah, Hyun-Jee Oh, Laura N. Mazuch, Nan Wu, Allisan McGee, Jessica Becker, Amanda Wilson, Elizabeth Langton and Emily Freeman contributed to this report.

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Council hears report on ban
December 05, 2006
Catherine McComb
Stephanie Browning, director of the Columbia/Boone County Health Department, speaks about the smoking ban enforcement plan to begin Jan. 9 at a Columbia City Council meeting Monday evening. “We are trying to be proactive,” Browning said.

Smoking ban leaves unanswered questions
October 13, 2006
James Patrick Schmidt, Catherine McComb and Tim Chappell
After four and a half hours of debate and a razor-thin vote, the Columbia City Council decreed that most public places in Columbia will go smoke-free in about three months. Although the ink on the ordinance is dry, many questions remain, including the ban’s enforcement, the politics behind the vote and the impact on local businesses.

Enforcement of smoking ban a hazy proposition
October 13, 2006
MATTHEW LeBLANC
Behind the bar inside the Grand Cru Restaurant, owner George Liggett lights a cigar and takes a puff.
Read

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From: Bill Hannegan
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 7:14 PM
Subject: Arbitrary and capricious new law lacks legitimacy and authority.

To: mayor@GoColumbiaMo.com; ward1@GoColumbiaMo.com; ward2@GoColumbiaMo.com; ward3@GoColumbiaMo.com;
ard4@GoColumbiaMo.com; ward5@GoColumbiaMo.com; ward6@GoColumbiaMo.com

Mayor Darwin Hindman
1223 Frances Drive
Columbia, MO 65203-2317

Dear Council Members,

I am so disappointed that four Columbia Council Members were fooled by this secondhand smoke hoax into voting for a smoking ban.
There is no evidence that smoke in a bar or restaurant is anything more than an irritant and nuisance. Irritation and annoyance are not sufficient causes to justify such a Draconian restriction of freedom on private property, especially when proper ventilation can easily clear the problem away.
I am sending to Columbia bars and restaurants by regular mail the following two studies so that they can fully understand the pointlessness of yourintrusion into their lives well before the actual ban starts.
Arbitrary and capricious laws lack legitimacy and authority, and so can be rightly resisted, evaded and undone.
I hope to help Columbia bars, restaurants and their patrons show your new law the same respect our grandparents showed to Prohibition.

http://www.data-yard.net/2/21/rtp.pdf

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7398/1057

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Smoking ban passes

October 10, 2006
Delphine Soulas, Ben Hogan and Carly Romano

4-3 vote prohibits smoking in bars, restaurants

It was as close at it gets.

In a 4-3 vote that hinged largely on worries about the health of people who work in bars and restaurants, the Columbia City Council made history early Tuesday morning by banning smoking in bars, restaurants and many other public places.

The new ordinance will take effect Jan. 9, giving business owners and their patrons about 90 days to adjust.

The vote took place about 1 a.m., after more than 60 people offered their views during a 41/2-hour public hearing and after the council debated the bill and various amendments for another hour and a half.

In the end, Mayor Darwin Hindman and council members Chris Janku, Bob Hutton and Barbara Hoppe – of the Second, Third and Sixth wards, respectively – tilted the scales in favor of the ordinance. Council members Almeta Crayton, Jim Loveless and Laura Nauser – of the First, Fourth and Fifth wards, respectively – voted against the ordinance.

Janku did, however, push through an amendment that allowed some smoking on restaurant and bar patios, so long as neither patrons nor workers have to navigate smoking sections to access non-smoking areas.

Both the public testimony and the council’s debate centered on a key theme: When do public health concerns trump the rights of private business owners, and those of people engaging in legal behavior?

Hindman, who after the hearing cited “overwhelming evidence” that second-hand smoke is bad for people, said it is smokers who must give some leeway. After all, he said, it is smokers who are engaging in unhealthy activity.

“It’s gonna have to be that somebody’s freedom of choice is going to be affected,” the mayor said.

“Whose freedom should be limited? … I think it really should be the smoker’s freedom that should be limited.”

Siding with the minority, Nauser said the ban represents an intrusion on business owners and the rights of people to make their own choices. She’s been skydiving. She’s been bungee-jumping. And as a child, she said, she never wore a seat belt while riding in a car.

“I quite frankly don’t know how I got this far in life,” Nauser said.

“We have become such a weak society that we want our government to make a choice about everything we do,” she added.

For Hutton, however, the most important issue was worker safety. He didn’t buy arguments from the public that people who don’t want to work in smoky bars and restaurants can simply find jobs elsewhere. Still, he struggled with the decision.

“I truly hope I don’t have regrets over it – over economic impacts – because I don’t want to see anybody hurt over it,” he said.

Crayton acknowledged the evidence that second-hand smoke is harmful. “I really can’t say much about the health stuff,’ she said. But “ … I’m worried about how much the government reaches into your life.”

Testimony from the public ran about 2 to 1 in favor of the ban. The divided stances were predictable.

At the entrance to the Daniel Boone City Building before the hearing, the two main organizations concerned with the smoking ban were trying to catch allies by offering stickers: blue stickers for the Boone County Coalition for Tobacco Concerns and people who supported the ban, red ones for the Boone Liberty Coalition and people those opposed the ban.

By the time Hindman pounded the gavel to end the hearing, more than 60 people had spoken. Forty or so – including several physicians, public-health advocates and MU students – supported the bill.

“This is not an effort to vilify smokers in any way,” said Dean Andersen, co-director of the Boone County Coalition for Tobacco Concerns. “This is a health issue, not a moral issue.”

Recounting data about the negative effects of secondhand smoke, Andersen argued that the council’s role was clear. “Protecting the health and safety of our community is a primary purpose of local government.”

“Secondhand smoke causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke… It’s time for local government to do what they are supposed to do, listen to their constituents and protect the health and safety of their community,” Andersen said.

While members of the Boone Liberty Coalition didn’t deny the health issues related to smoking, they argued that businesses and their patrons should be allowed to choose what’s right for themselves.

John Pelzer of the Missouri Restaurant Association said local bans on smoking in public places hurt business. Indeed, owners of several local bars and restaurants predicted a big hit on their profits. Pelzer said his association would take a neutral stance on a statewide law that, if crafted properly, might create a more level playing field.

“I urge you to let the state address this,” he told the council.

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Smoking ban to receive special public hearing

September 14, 2006
DELPHINE SOULAS

Expecting hours of public testimony, the Columbia City Council has scheduled a rare special meeting to discuss a proposed ban on smoking in public places.

The smoking bill will be introduced at the council’s meeting Monday night and held over for a special public hearing Oct. 9 after a council work session on the topic.

“We decided to have a special public hearing, because there is so much interest that we wanted to allow everybody to talk on the issue,” said Toni Messina, communications director for the city.

The bill, a product of months of work by the Columbia/Boone County Board of Health, would forbid smoking in almost all public areas, including restaurants, bars, bingo halls, bowling alleys and outdoor patios.

On July 17, the council accepted a report and the bill from the Board of Health.

“We believe it is well within the public’s best interest to have smokers refrain from smoking in workplaces and public venues,” the report said. This already happens in many businesses, including theaters, airplanes, hospitals and grocery stores,” the report said.

The debate thus far has centered around the dangers that secondhand smoke pose to workers and business customers versus the rights of business owners to determine their own policies.

John Dupuy, a member of the Boone Liberty Coalition, said he is glad that the council scheduled a special hearing on the proposed smoking ban, but he “doubts that there will be any new argument made during these hearings.”

The issue is “something that deserves attention, but I expect (the City Council) won’t make their decision on public opinion,” said Greg Rennier, chair of the Boone Liberty Coalition.

Dean Anderson of the Boone County Coalition for Tobacco Concerns, which supports the ban, could not be reached for comment.