Burlington Update
Council Snuffs Out Smoking Ban
November 27, 2007
The Burlington City Council voted against a smoking ban on the Church Street Marketplace.
Councilor Ed Adrian proposed the idea saying smoking is a health and quality of life issue for people walking up and down Church Street. Many residents liked the idea.
But the Burlington Police Department said the ban would be difficult and expensive to enforce.
Councilors voted 8 to 5 against the smoking ban. The said things are going well on the Marketplace and did not want to change anything.
A Proposed Smoking Ban For Church Street
October 5, 2007
Burlington’s Church Street may soon go “smoke free” if a city councilman has his way. City Councilman Ed Adrian has drafted a proposal that would ban all smoking on Church Street. Adrian says it’s is the quality of life and health impacts that smoking has on people walking up and down Church street that has prompted him to do something. He chairs the city’s public safety committee. That committee will take a look at the ban this week, and Adrian says he knows that it’s an issue that will spark plenty of public debate. Kevin Shea, a Church Street hot dog vendor says, “it’s going to be pretty hard stopping 2,000 drunk kids from walking up college street with a cigarette in their hand.
Mary Blackwell, a Burlington citizen, says, “I think it’d be fine. I never like walking through a cloud of smoke. It messes up my day, so I have no problem with it.” Others, like Katie Klingerman, say “I’m a non smoker. I don’t really like smoking, but it is open air, so, I’m not going to say they should ban it.” But the debate isn’t about to stop Ed Adrian. He says his motivation is his two young children, who he says should not be subjected to second hand smoke, and that’s why he vows to move forward with his resolution, no matter how vocal the opposition might get.
Bar smokers shown the door today
September 1, 2005
By Terri Hallenbeck
Free Press Staff Writer
By Terri Hallenbeck
Free Press Staff Writer
A white bucket outside the front door of Finnigan’s Pub in downtown Burlington is a telltale sign of a bar frequented by smokers who are no longer permitted to smoke inside. On the door is a no-smoking sign.
Out back, wedged into an alley, a few tables with umbrellas make up the new patio — open only when staffing and weather permit.
Inside on a Friday afternoon, a few men sit with drinks before them. On another day in another time, Stuart Monteith says, he would be surrounded by more regulars and many of them would be smoking. If he wants to do that now, he leaves his barstool and steps out to the sidewalk.
What is routine in Burlington bars, where smoking was banned in May 2004 and was followed quickly in South Burlington, Winooski and Williston, is about to take hold at bars and private clubs throughout the state. Today, Vermont will become the ninth state in the nation to add bars to previous smoking bans in restaurants and workplaces.
Patrons will leave their seats, sometimes mid-drink, to duck outside for a smoke. They will congregate on sidewalks, in a leisurely way on midsummer evenings, more hurried once winter sets in.
The air inside the bar will be clearer; bartenders will remark how they go home for the first time in their careers without their hair smelling of smoke; some bar owners will fashion outdoor patios in places you never knew existed to give smokers a haven; some regulars will stay home.
Nonsmokers might filter through the doors more often, especially at bars that offer a full menu of food. Whether they come as often or spend as much money as the smoking regulars did is a matter of speculation.
Some bar owners will say the ban is killing their business. Others will say that, against all fears, it is not.
There will be some healthy barstool debates about the merits of the smoking ban, the role of government and money spent on filtration systems no longer needed. The Legislature’s name might be taken in vain.
At the very least, all Vermont bars and private clubs will be in this together.
Ups and downs
Ups and downs
That’s the part Finnigan’s Pub owner Pat Finnigan is waiting for — a level playing field. He has watched regular customers flee, first to private clubs in the city and then to neighboring towns when the ban extended there.
Customer Stuart Monteith speaks wistfully about the crowd of regulars who used to convene at Finnigan’s. He hasn’t seen the guy who smoked cigars since the Burlington smoking ban went into effect. Although Monteith wears a Finnigan’s Dart Team shirt, he no longer plays in the dart league because it’s just not the same without smoking.
“I used to come here more. I come half as much as I used to,” he said. “There used to be a whole regular crowd.”
Those changes have taken their toll, Finnigan said. He is working longer hours, concentrating more on live entertainment and making sure he has the right sports TV packages.
“We came very, very close — within weeks — of making a decision of calling it quits,” Finnigan said.
Not all the talk in bars is gloom and doom. Buck Shepard has worked behind the bar at The Other Place on Burlington’s North Winooski Avenue for three summers. Finally, he said, he can go home without smelling of tobacco smoke, and he doesn’t cough as much as he used to.
The smoking ban hurt business at first, Shepard said, but this summer, the bar is busier than ever, even though the OP has no outdoor patio. Smokers are relegated to a single park bench on the sidewalk in front of the bar.
Larry Crist, director of the state Department of Health’s Division of Health Protection, said bar owners should hang on. When the state’s smoking ban in restaurants went into effect in 1993, there were fears that restaurants would go out of business. The Health Department tracked the trend for about eight years, he said, and found a slight dip in sales for the first three months or so, then a rebound. That, he said, has been the trend wherever smoking bans have been instituted.
Advice from the front
Advice from the front
Finnigan can’t use his outdoor patio all the time, but he recommends it to bar owners in the rest of Vermont who are facing the smoking ban for the first time.
He set up tables in the alley behind his College Street bar, but state liquor laws don’t allow him to let customers linger out there unsupervised, so the patio can be open only when it makes economic sense to have more than one bartender on duty. It’s also subject to the whims of Vermont weather.
Vermont’s weather makes it tough, too, to stand out on the sidewalk for a smoke. Even on a warm summer evening Finnigan’s customer Steve Murphy had to admit that going outside for a smoke is inconvenient. Smokers precariously share the sidewalk with passing pedestrians, he noted, and you risk losing your seat at the bar while you’re outside. All in all, smoking out in the open in the middle of downtown can make you feel, Murphy said, like a “pariah.”
“It’s kind of a pain,” he said.
That said, customers tend to comply with the law. Someone lit up a cigarette at The Other Place recently, and put it out as soon as he was told of Burlington’s ban, Shepard said. “Nobody’s ever kicked up a fuss about it.”
Of all the things bartenders have to watch out for — fake IDs, overly drunk patrons, drug deals — cigarette smoking in an otherwise clear room is fairly easy to detect, Shepard said.
The Health Department’s Crist said the state discovered after banning smoking in restaurants in 1993 that the ban pretty much enforces itself. Customers complain. Liquor and health inspectors make spot visits. Businesses have too much at stake to risk fines or the loss of their licenses.
Officials in the four Chittenden County communities where smoking has been banned in bars for more than a year reported no violations.
“Other communities will discover it’s not the end of the world,” Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle said.
Finnigan, as strongly opposed to the ban as he is, said bar owners in the rest of the state should have an easier time than those in Burlington did. Except in towns along the New Hampshire and Quebec borders where smoking is still allowed, patrons won’t have the choice to scamper to another bar the way some of his customers did.
Then he’ll see how business goes. “It’ll take three to six months to find out if we’ll recover 100 percent,” he said.
Ready or not
Ready or not
On a recent Tuesday afternoon at McGillicuddy’s Irish Pub in Montpelier, four of the five people sitting at the bar were smoking.
They and owner David Nelson reserve the right to complain about the upcoming ban, but they are also resigned to it.
Nelson fought the ban before the Legislature this year. Then, he opened a new bar in Barre that was, by choice, smoke-free from the start. He has to admit, he’s had no complaints there, only compliments from nonsmokers.
Nelson points to a $20,000 air filtration system in his Montpelier bar that will no longer be needed and grumbles about government interference, but like Finnigan, he’s grateful that the ban covers bars and private clubs statewide so everybody’s operating under the same rules.
“Doing it town-by-town was the craziest thing,” he said.
Patron Ed Dufresne of Montpelier, between puffs on an American Spirit, expects he will probably smoke less once he can’t smoke at the bar. It’ll probably even be good for him, but he said, “It’s not their decision to make for me.”
Customer Joe Mullins of Montpelier said he goes outside to smoke at work. He even goes outside to smoke at home. Beginning Thursday, he’ll go outside to smoke at the bar.
“I’m used to going outside,” he said. “I enjoy smoking, so I’m just going to deal with it.”
Contact Terri Hallenbeck at 229-9141 or thallenb@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Smoking ban facts
THE BAN: Starting today, smoking is prohibited in all bars and private clubs in Vermont.
THE IMPACT: In June, 312 bars and 112 private clubs were operating under cabaret licenses in the state.
THE HISTORY: Vermont banned smoking in public places, including restaurants, in 1993, but allowed bars that make less than half their money on food to apply for a cabaret license that allowed them to permit smoking. Burlington, South Burlington, Williston and Winooski banned smoking in bars in 2004. Before that, efforts to enact a statewide ban failed, but after those four communities had fairly smooth smoke-free transitions, the statewide ban was passed relatively easily in the Legislature this year.
THE ARGUMENTS: Those in favor of the ban say secondhand smoke endangers bar employees. Those against the ban say employees have the choice of working in bars with smoking, and the free market should drive decisions to allow smoking.
ENFORCEMENT: As with the smoking ban in restaurants, the new ban will be mostly self-enforced, although state liquor control officers routinely visit bars, and authorities will respond to complaints from the public. Bars that refuse to comply could face up to a $10,000 fine per incident. Lack of compliance could be taken into consideration in renewing the establishment’s liquor license.
FOR HELP: The state Health Department offers a toll-free number for people looking to quit smoking at (877) YES-QUIT or 937-7848; or at http://www.tobaccostories.org.
INFORMATION: To see smoking laws in other states and localities, visit http://www.no-smoke.org/pdf/100Map.pdf
Contact Terri Hallenbeck at 229-9141 or thallenb@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Smoking ban facts
THE BAN: Starting today, smoking is prohibited in all bars and private clubs in Vermont.
THE IMPACT: In June, 312 bars and 112 private clubs were operating under cabaret licenses in the state.
THE HISTORY: Vermont banned smoking in public places, including restaurants, in 1993, but allowed bars that make less than half their money on food to apply for a cabaret license that allowed them to permit smoking. Burlington, South Burlington, Williston and Winooski banned smoking in bars in 2004. Before that, efforts to enact a statewide ban failed, but after those four communities had fairly smooth smoke-free transitions, the statewide ban was passed relatively easily in the Legislature this year.
THE ARGUMENTS: Those in favor of the ban say secondhand smoke endangers bar employees. Those against the ban say employees have the choice of working in bars with smoking, and the free market should drive decisions to allow smoking.
ENFORCEMENT: As with the smoking ban in restaurants, the new ban will be mostly self-enforced, although state liquor control officers routinely visit bars, and authorities will respond to complaints from the public. Bars that refuse to comply could face up to a $10,000 fine per incident. Lack of compliance could be taken into consideration in renewing the establishment’s liquor license.
FOR HELP: The state Health Department offers a toll-free number for people looking to quit smoking at (877) YES-QUIT or 937-7848; or at http://www.tobaccostories.org.
INFORMATION: To see smoking laws in other states and localities, visit http://www.no-smoke.org/pdf/100Map.pdf
Smoking Ban Revisited
Friday, March 4, 2005
We may see through the smoke.
We may see through the smoke.
Burlington’s city council has reversed itself—at least temporarily—and we’re glad.
The council says it will take another look at its ban on smoking in private clubs. An outcry by members of clubs like the Elks and Veterans of Foreign Wars evidently got the council’s attention.
It’s about time.
We’ve said it before: We don’t need any more governmental regulations that protect ourselves from ourselves. We especially don’t need Big Brother interfering in private clubs. Members of those clubs can decide how they want to regulate smoking, or if they want to regulate it at all.
It should be up to them, not the council. It’s their club.
On March 7th, the council will make its final decision. They showed good sense in taking a second look at their proposed ban. Now, they can show even more sense by dropping the idea altogether. We hope that’s just what they’ll do.
That’s our opinion. What’s yours?
Aired by President/General Manager Paul A. Sands
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Private Clubs Battle Smoking Ban
February 16, 2005
Private clubs have come out swinging against a smoking ban in Burlington. Leaders of the clubs met to discuss the ban at the St. John’s Club Wednesday night. Last week, the Burlington City Council voted to extend its current smoking ban to private clubs. Now those clubs have collected more than 700 signatures to get the measure back on the table.
“I would like them to reconsider this and leave it up to the private clubs to vote on it. The members to vote on it. It’s their choice. It’s a private club– it’s not a public place,” says Jim Robar of the St. John’s Club.
The private clubs say they supported a compromise proposal that would have allowed club members to vote whether to go smoke-free. The private clubs say they were unaware the exemption may be scrapped. The groups say they’ll consider legal action if the city council does not take up the matter again.
Legislators push smoking ban for clubs, taverns, restaurants
February 18, 2005
By John Zicconi Vermont Press Bureau
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MONTPELIER – A dozen influential Vermont lawmakers Thursday stood shoulder to shoulder with a New York anti-smoking advocate and called on the General Assembly to follow the Empire State and ban smoking in bars and private clubs.
By John Zicconi Vermont Press Bureau
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MONTPELIER – A dozen influential Vermont lawmakers Thursday stood shoulder to shoulder with a New York anti-smoking advocate and called on the General Assembly to follow the Empire State and ban smoking in bars and private clubs.
“There is a strong culture in the state that supports smoke-free workplaces,” said Sen. Virginia Lyons, D-Chittenden. “Our clean air should be available to all, especially those in places of employment. It is an important right that goes beyond the right to smoke in a public place.”
Vermont in 1993 banned smoking in restaurants and other public places, but created a loophole for private clubs and bars that make more than 50 percent of their money from alcohol and entertainment sales.
Polls show 78 percent of Vermonters support banning bar smoking. Three Vermont towns – Burlington, South Burlington and Winooski – have already implemented a ban, but some 275 pubs around the state allow customers to light up.
The House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee has just begun taking testimony, but Democrats and Republicans alike are already predicting the so-called “cabaret exemption” will be extinguished by the time the Legislature adjourns this spring.
“It’s coming,” a Republican said privately of the bar ban. “The only question is private clubs. I see them as a compromise that might be made to get the bill through.”
Democrats, who control the House and Senate, have introduced competing bills – two ban smoking in all public places while one exempts private clubs. The House Human Services Committee and the House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee will hold a joint public hearing about the proposals Thursday at the Statehouse.
New York banned smoking in all public places in 2003. Russell Sciandra, a spokesman for the Center for a Tobacco Free New York, helped pilot the measure through the New York General Assembly and was in Montpelier Thursday to support efforts in Vermont.
He told lawmakers that public support for the New York ban has grown with time, even among smokers and bar owners who originally opposed the law.
“Public acceptance in New York has been very high,” Sciandra said during a press conference with a dozen Vermont lawmakers by his side. “The spread of clean air laws around the world in places like Ireland and Italy as well as states like Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine, make it clear that a tipping point has been reached and smoke-free environments are becoming the social norm.”
Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington, and chairwoman of the Human Services Committee, said the state spends $183 million annually to treat smoking-related diseases. A bar-smoking ban will help bring that cost down, she said.
Pugh said lawmakers have been hesitant to ban bar smoking because tavern owners claim it will hurt business. But studies in places like New York show those fears are unwarranted, she said.
“We now have reputable data that shows we can protect health without affecting business,” Pugh said. “I think many bar owners who are against this are afraid and don’t have access to the economic data that shows this does not hurt business.”
The Vermont Tavern Association opposes a statewide bar-smoking ban. Group spokesman David Nelson, owner of McGillicuddy’s Irish Pub in Montpelier, said pub owners would ban smoking on their own if it would improve bar receipts.
“I own the only place in Montpelier where you can eat, drink and smoke,” Nelson said. “How will this affect me? I don’t know. But if it hurts me they won’t care… If there was a market for a non-smoking bar don’t you think somebody would have done it?”
Sciandra said fears that large numbers of bars would close were unfounded in New York. Liquor tax collections increased 2.2 percent in the year following the smoking ban, despite a 12 percent reduction in the state’s beer tax, he said.
“New Yorkers reported going out to bars and restaurants more frequently,” Sciandra said. He added that surveys indicate “… 32.4 percent of people were going to restaurants more and 20.4 percent said they were gong to bars more frequently.”
Contact John Zicconi at john.zicconi@timesaragus.com or john.zicconi@rutlandherald.com.
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