Smoking Ban Signed Into Law
Submitted by Dan U-A on Thu, 09/14/2006 - 1:57pm.
Councilman Nutter, my hypersensitive lungs thank you:
Philadelphia is going smoke-free.
Mayor Street has signed legislation prohibiting smoking from almost all Philadelphia bars and restaurants, ending weeks of speculation about whether the proposed ban would fall victim to City Hall politics.
The ban takes effect immediately. But the city still needs to figure out how to enforce it.
And it takes effect immediately... Wow. Seriously, the idea of going out with dealing a Chuck Norris Roundhouse to my lungs is really great to think about.
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Badges? We don't need stinking badges.
That little bit at the end there... the part about enforcement... that's going to be a lot more important than we realize.
Think about it. Didn't we just see an article not too long ago about the amount of time that passes between health department inspections on restaurants. You remember, it was the one that said that some restaurants actually need to be told that they can't let sewage drip into food.
Does L&I enforce it? That's nothing a couple envelopes of cash can't get around.
Does the Fire Department enforce it? I already saw the huge list of things that the Fire Department does, aside from fighting fires, so how much time will they have. Are bouncers supposed to enforce it? Owners ("Please, don't smoke in our restaurant; we don't serve contemporary Californian cuisine in your lungs...?") Other patrons? ("excuse me, I ordered a Zima, not emphyzema").
I love the smoking ban. I have a very limited wardrobe. It'll be extremely helpful for me to be able to wear the same sweater on Sunday that I wore out to the bar on Saturday without smelling like an ashtray. But now that we've seen our City Council and our Mayor come together in a rare moment of illumination, we get to observe our city government making the idea into a reality. Any bets on how long it'll be until we start seeing the Daily News and Inquirer stories about bars and restaurants that are getting around this law?
And by the way, it's the Health Department that'll be in charge of enforcement.
I feel weird
I'm glad, but I'm not sure why. I've never smoked but it also doesn't bother me (unless it's really, really bad). That said, I'm glad. Go team.
Though how am I going to know not to talk to certain girls at bars? This is a major issue! It's always so hard to decide who you want to talk to when you go randomly approaching folks. If they have cigarettes, that's one more factor for counting them out, you know?
I should have presented on this at Council: "Madame President, I'm here to speak in objection to the proposed smoking ban. I like to hit on randoms when I go dancing, but I'd prefer not to waste my time talking to the ones who smoke. As a busy person, I only get to go out every now and then, and this measure will force me to waste time chatting up ladies with ash-tray mouth."
That would have been hilarious.
Once upon a time, I teased the anti-smokers. When I was in college and my allies and I would go out and do shady activist things that bent campus rules, I would instruct all the newbies to tell anyone who asked that we were with "Students for Smoke Free Lungs." (which was a real campus org at the time, and I liked mocking them - why, I don't know?).
Anyway, I guess the SFSFL'ers showed me in the end. They and their allies and fellow travelers are winning the day all across the nation. Madison's ban went into effect right after I left, but now Philly has the ban, too.
-BR
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BradyDale OnLine
Yes! That is great news :-)
If you don't care about the health or smell, think of it as a workers' issue.. the wait staff, bartenders, etc. will no longer have to choose between having a job and not breathing in all that pollution.
Yes!
I'm very excited about this. Now if we can just ban drinking, fornicating and drugs (and I mean seriously, not the joke laws we have now) Philadelphia will be a worthwhile city! Michael Nutter is truly a hero.
Aren't there Major Exemptions?
I thought I heard that the corner neighborhood bar was going to be exempt. Establishments that get less than 10% of their sales from food (it's not hard to finagle the books btw to make them show whatever they need to) will be exempt. It's going to come down to whether the place wants to be smoker friendly or not bottom line. It's a culture issue. My guess is most corner bar places will stay smoking and the upscale places catering to a more 'sophisticated' clientele will go smoke free. A tale of two cities again. Or the best of both worlds! One smokes and don't care who don't like it - too bad. The other is more 'progressive' and self-consciously health conscious. The national chains like TGIF and Chili's will come down with corporate policy to ban smoking of course. Basically Philadelphians will have a choice of going out: cheaper and smoky or more toney and smoke-free.
I don't think the scenario yo
I don't think the scenario you see will come to pass.
A huge amount of neighborhood bars sell a ton of food, making it hard for them to credibly claim that. But more importantly, if they do want to keep letting people smoke, they can't be open on Sundays.
Especially if the law is in effect immediately, that is a lottttt of lost revenue. Pretty much every bar in every corner of Philly rakes in money off of Eagles games. And generally, I can't see them forsaking an entire day of business just to allow smoking.
My guess is that the overhwhelming majority of bars will be smoke free.