Smoking ban and your city

[Slim Pickens]

Smoking is banned in all public and private establishments in Anchorage. To have a smoking section, an establishment must have a completely seperate room and ventilation system.. Big brother..

[Timeliner]

I've often wondered whether a state, county or city might try a tax incentive to reach a goal of a certain percentage of bars and restaurants being smoke free. The target percentage might be, say, 50% being smoke free. A small tax advantage would be given to establishments that went smoke free. If the percentage goal was reached the tax advantage would be reduced. If the goal was not being reached, the tax advantage would be increased gradually. This would give patrons and workers an adequate choice without forcing it on everyone.

[the pope]

^what country do you live in timeliner?

[Clevelumbus]

Columbus has been thinking about putting a smoking ban on all public places, but I would not support it. I am a smoker but I think it's just another limitation on your US rights.

[giovanni sasso]

Originally Posted by Dampyre

^If you want to smoke go outside.

Originally Posted by frank_pentangeli

^If you don't want to smoke, go to another restaurant.

that's priceless.

... and so goes the debate. my personal choice is: make restaurants smoke-free; make bars obtain a permit. (you know, like a liquor permit, only a tobacco permit.) make the people who truly want to offer smoking work for it; reward the people who choose to be smoke free by giving them the option of not spending money and traipsing through extra red tape.

volguus, i hadn't heard that anything was in the works in city council. that's kind of embarrassing, actually. i've never so much as taken a puff off of a cigarette, but there's something weird and just not right about being in a pool hall and not peering through the gray fog of cigarette exhaust. philly is a smoking town ...

[NYatKNIGHT]

Same with Jazz clubs. Shouldn't it be required that the bass player be smoking while on stage? They're actually hurting in New York, business is way down from what I hear....

in perth you can't smoke on public transport, schools, cafes, shopping centres, stadiums etc etc so pretty much anywhere in public smoking is banned

[volguus zildrohar]

Sasso, it's a proposal. After a bit of Googling, I found a nearly three year-old City Ppaper article that mentions it. I remember reading something about it again sometime this past fall in one of the weeklies. My memory is nothing if not unreliable.

[caterpillar]

Was recently in Charleston, S.C. The city was in the process of banning smoking in public places. Definately a good move for that tourist friendly city.

[middeljohn]

Odd how much has changed in ten years. Most of the debates on this thread wouldn't happen now, in North America at least.

This is my third day without smoking and I feel like my flesh wants to jump out of my skin. Started because I thought it'd be an interesting experiment. Silly thing to do.

[initiald]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

Odd how much has changed in ten years. Most of the debates on this thread wouldn't happen now, in North America at least.

This is my third day without smoking and I feel like my flesh wants to jump out of my skin. Started because I thought it'd be an interesting experiment. Silly thing to do.

Now the debate is about banning vaping in public because... well, there's no tobacco, no smoke... gosh darn it we just don't like anything new!

[TexasRE]

I just want to add my 2 cents to this thread. Smoking bans in cities are just ridiculous. It's all about being politically correct. Let each individual business determine if they want a smoking ban or not, not local governments. I don't smoke, but I'm more for personal responsibility than government control.

[bystander1]

Montgomery has had a ban on smoking in restaurants for about ten years now. Most business owners say business has been great because of it. Now it's very strange (and annoying) when I go to other cities and smell cigarette smoke while sitting down to eat.

[jpdivola]

Wonder how many "big cities" still have some smoking left? I can't remember the last time I was around a smoking bar/restaurant. Arlington, Va used to have a couple enclosed "smoking sections" at bars. But, I think those have since closed.

I know there are a few airports in the south/west that still have smoking rooms.

[atlantaguy]

Originally Posted by jpdivola

Wonder how many "big cities" still have some smoking left? I can't remember the last time I was around a smoking bar/restaurant. Arlington, Va used to have a couple enclosed "smoking sections" at bars. But, I think those have since closed.

I know there are a few airports in the south/west that still have smoking rooms.

We still have them in Atlanta, but mostly in the City of. In almost all of the surrounding Counties & individual suburbs, no.

In the City, many bars allow smoking - and some bar/restaurant establishments do. Nobody under 18 allowed, of course.

And yes, we still have smoking lounges scattered around the Airport. They're disgusting but extremely busy, with 250,000 people a day passing through. They are pretty well contained, though.