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Smoking ban means agony ... or ecstasy
By: Scott Morgan, Staff Writer 01/12/2006
Gov. Richard Codey expected to sign
smoke-free bill into law
It was the
most controversial piece of legislation in an enormous last-day slate of bills
facing the state Assembly on Monday; and by a very large margin, it passed.
On
Sunday, Gov. Richard Codey is expected to sign the
bill into law and 90 days after that, it's lights
out for smokers.
The
New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, passed last week by the state Senate and on
Monday by the Assembly, outlaws smoking in indoor public places from museums
to libraries and from schools to offices. Most of the controversy (and the
lion's share of media attention), however, is squarely focused on the two
types of public venues with historically liberal policies on smoking
restaurants and bars. While state officials tout the obvious public health
benefits of decreasing exposure to second-hand smoke, numerous restaurant and
bar owners argued in front of state legislators that banning patrons from
smoking could hurt their businesses.
Depending
on where you look, it actually might. In 2002, the city of El
Paso, Texas, followed a growing
urban trend ignited a few years before by the state of California. Smoking in bars and
restaurants became illegal, amid much of the same furor as Monday's decision
in Trenton.
Two
years later, a study by federal officials published in the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly showed that
business for El Paso's
bars and restaurants did not change in any appreciable way. Likewise, a 2005
study published through Rutgers University found that smoking bans in California, El Paso and New York City had no
detrimental effects on restaurant and bar income. In fact, the Rutgers report claims "business either stayed the same
or increased slightly."
A
2005 poll conducted by International Communications Research, or ICR, of Philadelphia also
suggested there may not be too much cause for concern. ICR's study of 496 New
Jerseyans found that nearly 30 percent of those
surveyed said they would dine out more often if there were a ban on public
smoking. But ...
The
Rutgers study went deeper than just New York, California and El
Paso and looked at the effects of smoking bans in
smaller, nonmetropolitan areas. It found that in
small towns, even those the size of Lawrence,
Kan., which boasts a population
of 80,000, "business drops drastically" where public smoking bans took hold. It continues, "A lot of restaurants
and bars have to shut down from the lack of clientele base."
The
reason for the difference, according to the Rutgers report, is that while
large metro areas offer more than just a place for drinking
and smoking (warm weather in California,
theater in New York),
small towns do not.
"With
small municipalities and towns these customers go to the tavern to relax and
just get away from home, because they can't go to upscale restaurants or do
not want to go into a city. (T)here are more casual
smokers, who if they can't smoke at their relaxing spot, would rather stay
home," the report states.
The
Rutgers report reminds, however, that
long-term effects are impossible to tell due to the fact that most of the
nation's smoking bans have been enacted only in the past few years. It also
cautions against its own sources of information about the doom smoking bans
bring to small towns many of the surveys it cited were paid for by tobacco
companies.
What
the impact of the smoking ban will be on New Jersey's small-town bars and
restaurants is anyone's guess. For Verann Wesley,
owner of Wesley's Pub in Roebling, the future looks
a little gray.
"I've
got (90 days) to stay in business," Ms. Wesley said Tuesday in reference
to the time between Gov. Codey's signature and the
date the smoke-out becomes effective.
Ms.
Wesley estimates that 85 percent of her customers smoke and worries that not
allowing them to have a cigarette when they come to the bar might discourage
them from staying around as long as they used to.
"If
you're a drinker and a smoker," she said, "you come out to drink
and smoke. Now you're going to have to put your coat on and go outside."
Her
solution to build an outdoor area where smokers can freely puff away is a
simple one, but will cost money Ms. Wesley is afraid she'll lose to the
smoking ban. She also worries that she'll be forced to play "patrol
monitor," watching patrons and making sure that they don't light up
inside.
Incidentally,
if someone does, and if state inspectors notice, Ms. Wesley would be subject
to the fines $250 for the first offense, $500 for the second and up to
$1,000 per offence thereafter.
Still,
Ms. Wesley is not all doom and gloom. She said, somewhat hopefully,
"We'll see what happens.
Then,
of course, there are those places exempted from the statewide smoking ban.
Casinos, despite that casino workers adamantly
fought to have the bill passed and include their places of work, can still
welcome smokers indoors. As can the owners of cigar bars, where tobacco and
smoking become more of a social event.
"I'm
ecstatic," said Joe Salera, owner of Ashes to
Ashes Cigar Shop in Bordentown
City. "I think
it's great. For me."
In
terms of timing alone, Mr. Salera's couldn't be
better. Ashes to Ashes opened on Farnsworth Avenue the week preceding
Christmas and now stands poised as one of the few spots north of Atlantic
City where patrons can as is encouraged on the shop's mini-flier
"sit, sip, smoke, savor, socialize." What started as an extension
of one of Mr. Salera's hobbies has, without his
intention, become a place to have a smoke and a bit of spirits the latter
due exclusively to the bar's bring-your-own policy.
While
he said he has talked with a few of the city's bar and restaurant owners (and
that they have shown little cause for worry), Mr. Salera
is quick to understand the primary benefit his smoking lounge offers a
place that doesn't make tobacco enthusiasts feel like outcasts.
"A
lot of restaurants frown on (cigar smoking) already," Mr. Salera said. "We welcome it."
Then
again, there are other businesses where food and drink are not the main
attraction, but are still traditionally open to smokers. Bowling alleys, for
example.
Just
around the corner from Ashes to Ashes is Papp's Bowling Center, a 41-year stalwart in
Bordentown's business district. And after 41 years, what are Andy Papp's customers telling him? "They've been telling me, 'You won't
see me here again,'" he said Wednesday.
Though
Mr. Papp said he wonders how much of the tough talk
is just talk. A lot of people, he said, rail against
a new piece of legislation, but soon conform to it and balance returns.
Still,
based on other members of some of the professional organizations he belongs
to, he is a little worried. Some of his friends in the National Bowling
Proprietors Association who once operated bowling alleys in areas that
introduced smoking bans are now out of business. He said, plainly, "I hope it doesn't
come to that. I won't know until next year when people sign up (for
leagues)."
In
the meantime, between now and the 90 days after Gov. Codey
signs the bill into law, Mr. Papp and other members
of the New Jersey Bowling Proprietors Association are fighting what he calls
the hypocrisy of letting casinos slide while small businesses like his are
forced to face an uncertain future.
He
asked, somewhat rhetorically, "Don't I count?"
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