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by LibbyLiberty
on Fri Jun 11, 2004 12:36 pm |
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City Council members in my city will be voting in the next couple weeks to decide whether or not smoking should offically be banned from bars and restaurants. They want to make it offical by the 25th I think, their decision that is.
This is horrible! I am putting up a good fight though, I have written to City Council members urging them to reconsider, but I don't think it's going to work out in my favor.
What is this country coming to???
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LibbyLiberty
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by Tom
on Sun Jun 13, 2004 10:55 pm |
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| I know that issue has been considered in my town, but it never quite went through. Our town figured it should be for the state to decide if smoking should be banned. Also, some of the most important taxpayers in our town own restaurants or bars and smoke themselves. I would find out who owns restaurants, pizzaria's or bars in your town or city, find out if they smoke. Then ask then to go to the council meeting with you when this issue is being voted on and speak a few words. Town councils seem to listen to taxpayers of commercial property more carefully then residential taxpayers, because a loss of commercial tax is an increase in residential tax, and that means the council members won't be re-elected. Good luck. |
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Tom
Smokers Rights Activist
Joined: Aug 24, 2003
Posts: 961
Location: The Kingdom of New Jersey
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by Rick
on Mon Jun 14, 2004 8:31 pm |
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Hi,
I just wanted to let you know that I work for a CPA, a few of his clientel happen to be restaurants/bars. One of the restaurants was considering an all out smoking-ban throughout the restaurant. We had the owners keep track of how much business would be lost/gained if a ban took place by tracking daily sales figures of the already existing smoking/non-smoking sections. Guess what, if they'd gone through with the ban the restaurant would have been forced to close, meaning a lot of lost revenue for the state and city. I happen to agree with Tom's advice in that: By having the backing of some of the local restaurant's in your town, the council will listen more carefully to what you have to say (restaurants close = lost sales tax & personal income taxes for the city).
I also have an added word of advice: even if a non-smoker owns a restaurant but feels passionately about running THEIR business how they see fit, include them in your group. After all, it's their business and they should be able to allow smoking if they want to. |
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Rick
Smoker
Joined: Jun 09, 2003
Posts: 124
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by LibbyLiberty
on Thu Jun 24, 2004 9:59 am |
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I wanted to give an update on this issue.
It seems to be a hot-topic in my town. So many people oppose this ban. Hundreds of workers have come out against it, even church groups and charities because they will lose a lot of their donations.
People are especially upset about in the proposed law, it says you can't even be withing 20 feet of the building smoking so it can't get into the "heating and air conditioning". How ludacris is that????
Oh well, a lot of "forgotten" checks now . . . |
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LibbyLiberty
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by KYBrian
on Thu Jun 24, 2004 11:42 pm |
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Miss Libby Liberty, I hope you have better success up there than we did in Lexington. Bars are down an average of 60% and restaurants are down an average of 15%. Charitable Bingo is a HUGE fundraiser here for school organizations, and they are down 80%, some have even LOST money in their Bingo endevours. So they are the ones that are trying to get an exemption, and if they do Kentucky courts will probably overturn the whole law since it was barely deemed consitutional in the first place.
I seriously don't understand why we and them can't get along. OK I can go for having seperate rooms for smoking and non, having smoking and non tables next to each other is kind of silly, but other than that I don't see why the anti's are fussing so much.
Best of luck to you......the protest I talked about in another post has been delayed until 7/25 because the court case was delayed, it will be an interesting mix of strippers (whose income dropped the most) drag queens from gay bars (whose income dropped a lot too I guess) to us regular bar and restaurant workers. Miss Libby, I hope it doesn't come down to this in Ohio. The Toledo law has been horribly devestating, not sure if it was repealed or not but think it was lessned. |
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KYBrian
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Joined: May 11, 2004
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Location: Lexington KY
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by LibbyLiberty
on Tue Jun 29, 2004 9:02 am |
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It happened.
Columbus, Ohio will officially be smoke-free in 90 days.
This sucks!  |
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LibbyLiberty
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by BWilliams
on Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:44 am |
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BWilliams
Smoking Lobby Sponsor
Joined: Jun 05, 2003
Posts: 1104
Location: New York City
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by KYBrian
on Tue Jul 06, 2004 2:22 pm |
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LL,
I read the Columbus ordinance, at least it allows for future exceptions with inspected ventilation systems, a bit more reasonable than what I have to put up with, you can't even stand under an awning and smoke legally in Lexington. BTW today's bar count of places putting their ashtrays back and ignoring the law and overwhelming the court system: 21. Good luck there. |
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KYBrian
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Location: Lexington KY
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by Jay
on Wed Jul 07, 2004 5:42 pm |
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| Maybe the Columbus bar/restaurant owners will be willing to pay the fines for allowing smoking in their establishments, like the FL owners paying fines with donations help. FL owners have jars in their establishments for donations (not for tips) from customers. Those FL owners think staying in business period is more important than following a ludricous smoking ban. Good for them. |
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Jay
Enthusiastic Smoker
Joined: Jun 10, 2003
Posts: 647
Location: Chicago
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by LibbyLiberty
on Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:09 am |
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| Yeah, I had read about that in a local underground newspaper. They have a "kitty jar" setup to help pay fines. There are "rogue" bars and restaurants popping up all over the places where smoking has been banned. Many owners say the fines cost them less than the actual money they lost when the ban took effect. Doesn't surprise me one bit! |
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LibbyLiberty
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