Smoke Free Air Act passes Senate
Senate Bill 1161 passed through the Senate (23 — 16) yesterday. Now it goes to the House, where it will probably be shot down (like last year). The bill will prohibit smoking indoors in most buildings.
If it passes, what effect will it have on Carytown and the Museum District’s many restaurants?
PS. Richmond Sunlight is an excellent resource for Virginia’s legislative goings on. Check it out.
It will have the effect of me maybe patronizing them once in awhile.
I spend a fair amount of time in New York, which has had the smoking ban for a couple years already, and going out for drinks there is so much more pleasurable than it is here.
Oh please please please pass. I know my delegate is already in support of the bill but I want to message everyone else and say PUH LEASE for the love of Richmond, ban the smoking so I can breathe when I go out.
Yeah, I mean, this is a law that would make my life better. I know it won’t pass, but I’d be all about it.
Eh… I just can’t get behind a bill that’ll force businesses to change the way they do business like this. Let the market decide on smoking or non. Strawberry St. Cafe let their patrons vote and that worked for them. But to outright ban smoking in certain private businesses could ultimately hurt the small businesses and drive their patrons away.
It’s an odd line to walk, really.
I know the House will never pass this ban, but I know that my frequenting of bars will increase if it is passed. What really bothers me with the current situation is that I can’t go to a bar and listen to a band (unless it’s Ashland Coffee and Tea) because almost all of them allow smoking. I love music, but not at the expense of my lungs.
i am meh about smoking indoors ( i dont smoke but it really doesn’t bother me) but I must admit that while in Colorado Springs (bar & restaurants smoke free) I enjoyed coming home and not reeking of smoke. People would bitch and moan if something like that passed. Like Jason, I think I’d rather leave it to the individual establishments.
And I just want to chime in and say, yeah, it’s great to come home not reeking of smoke and it was one thing that really stood out when I went to NYC this past November for a bunch of bar shows. If a venue were to offer that kind of atmosphere in Virginia I’m sure it’d thrive, but I’d rather it be up to the venue than the state as to whether or not that is provided.
One important thing missing in this conversation is the health of the workers at the bars/restaurants. While those of us who are patrons have a choice in which bars we visit, changing workplaces is a much higher burden for waiters, bartenders, etc. I don’t care about my clothes or MY lungs (i usually smoke while i drink), but I care about those workers whose workplace is polluted by others.
Here’s the thing, Jason. If a small business banned smoking but other businesses did not, it would maybe hurt their patronage because the smokers would all flock elsewhere, but with this ban, they CAN’T go elsewhere without running into the same problem. If they want to go out at all, they’ll still go to the same places. Leaving it up to the venue would just create this problem. Venues would HAVE to worry about banning smoking because they’d be worried about losing patrons to venues who didn’t vote to ban it. It’s better if it’s across the board. This way it protects smaller businesses. Also: I smoked heavily for ten years and could never quit because everywhere I went people were smoking. It wasn’t until I started spending so much time in New York where you can’t smoke anywhere that I was able to really quit – out of sight out of mind, etc.
If the people or the government gave a crap about “letting businesses choose” or “enhancing nightlife,” bars would be legal here.
I’ve got an idea: lets trade laws. You can’t smoke in public places, but now you can have a bar that is not also a restaurant.
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In every city that has done this there is always a lot of reluctance at first, but the end results are certainly nice… being able to go out to dinner without having being emersed in a cloud of smoke. For some of us, like myself, it goes far beyond the unpleasantries of having to smell someones cigarette. I’ve suffered from asthma and allergies all my life, and smokey bars and restaurants cause me to become congested at best, and cause breathing problems at worse. It’s just something I’ve had to deal with.
I understand the libertarian/freedom argument, believe me, because I’m all for keeping the government at arms length. The issue with smoking is it impacts the people around the smoker. An analogy might be… consider if you had to drink a 1/4 a shot of whiskey every time the guy next to you had a drink.
I’m all for smokers sitting on their front porches and lighting up, or on a city street (where the smoke gets dispersed, or I can at least walk away). Smoke all you want. In fact, there are plenty of things that are illegal now that I’d have no problem with people doing at home. If it doesn’t effect me, I don’t care what you do.
But smoking is NOT harmless, and it DOES effect others.