Posted on 11/18/2007 7:13:28 PM PST by Libloather
Smoking ban leaves some bars smoldering
A few ignore state's six-month-old law rather than lose customers. Officials continue to issue fines
By Tracy Wheeler Beacon Journal medical writer
Published on Sunday, Nov 18, 2007
Billy McFrye, owner of Corky's Thomastown Cafe, in Akron, Ohio, stands Nov. 16, 2007, in the patio built in May for smoking customers. He is fighting for smoking to be legal in it. The business leads Akron in smoking complaints. (Gavin Jackon/Akron Beacon Journal)
In the first month of Ohio's public smoking ban, the little bar in a blue-collar Summit County neighborhood lost $1,000.
The reason was obvious: The bar's owner followed the law, telling customers they couldn't smoke. The bar's competitors didn't, and some even ''rented'' ashtrays to customers, with the money going into a kitty to defray any smoking-violation fines.
The bar-hopping customers stopped hopping into the little bar. And the regulars, although they kept coming, were buying fewer drinks.
''They'd spend 20 minutes at the bar drinking a beer, then 10 minutes outside smoking,'' said the owner, who spoke anonymously to protect himself from health department inspectors. ''Instead of drinking five or six beers, they were drinking one or two.''
After losing a grand in May, the bar owner changed course in June.
''I figured if that pace kept up,'' he said, ''I'd be out of business before anyone else. So I said, what I'll do is I'll let them smoke until we get caught. The next month, instead of losing $1,000, we made $2,500 more.''
And he hasn't been caught.
''I had to make a decision,'' he said. ''I just decided to break the law and be done with it. It's like speeding on the highway — you're breaking the law, but until you get caught, you're going to keep speeding, I guess.''
Enforcing law
In that analogy, Terry Tuttle and Cheri Christ are state troopers for the Akron area.
It's their job to enforce the ban, which was approved by Ohio voters in November 2006. The issue outlawed indoor smoking in virtually all public places, including restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, and, for now — depending on court appeals — private clubs such as American Legion and VFW halls.
Tuttle and Christ have bad news for the scofflaws: If you're caught and you fail to comply with the law, you will be fined. After an initial warning, a second violation brings a $100 fine, which grows to $500 for a third violation, $1,500 for a fourth, and $2,500 for fifth and subsequent violations.
And the fines could go higher.
''If they're flagrant and admitting that they're allowing (smoking), basically, we can double the fines,'' said Tuttle, environmental health supervisor for the Summit County Health Department. ''We have the authority to do that.''
Business owners also could find themselves facing nuisance charges before the health board, which could lead to more fines or possibly even closure.
Since local health departments began enforcing the ban on May 3, the Ohio Department of Health has logged 17,900 complaints — an average of about 2,750 a month, or 92 a day.
Tuttle and Christ, the sanitarian supervisor for the Akron Health Department, said most businesses are complying with the smoking ban.
The state department's hot line — 1-866-559-6446 (OHIO) — has logged 1,077 complaints in Summit County. That number, though, is deceptive because most are multiple complaints against the same establishments.
''For the most part, it was a learning curve, and once (business owners) get our letter and see we're serious about this, for the most part, they have tried to comply,'' Christ said.
Top violator
In Akron, Corky's Thomastown Cafe on South Arlington Street has drawn the most complaints: 37.
Owner Billy McFrye is facing a $100 fine, on top of a loss of customers.
''People aren't coming out,'' he said. ''I've got numbers from last year to this year, and you can see it. It's unreal. It's gross. It's down at least 25 percent.''
He remembers hearing the argument that nonsmokers would come out to take the place of smokers who stay home. But that hasn't happened at Corky's.
''Nonsmokers don't go out anyway,'' McFrye said. ''They're the cheapest people breathing air. I've been in business 23 years, and I know there's nothing cheaper than a nonsmoker. I'm really upset with it. I wish the people who voted for it would get cancer, that's how pissed I am about it.''
McFrye built a patio for smokers so they could go outside and smoke without having to deal with rain, wind and snow. The health department, however, told him he couldn't allow smoking on the patio because the patio's roof and walls make it an enclosed space — and the law prohibits smoking in enclosed public spaces.
McFrye has an attorney fighting his fine and the health department's ruling on the patio. In the meantime, he's going to continue to let customers light up.
''I've got the signs up and ask them not to,'' he said, ''but I'm not going to fight with anyone over smoking.''
Christ has heard that before.
''I've had owners tell me that as long as they're open, they're going to allow their customers to smoke,'' she said. ''The next fine is $500. That might have a little bearing on that decision.''
New clientele
When the smoking law was passed, Ed Gazdacko, owner of Sto-Kent Family Entertainment Center in Stow, worried that business would suffer.
''The nature of the business — having a bar, having bowling — is conducive to cigarette smokers,'' he said. ''I was really concerned at first. I didn't know if they'd keep coming in.''
At first, some didn't. Bar receipts were down slightly, 3 percent or 4 percent, after the law went into effect. But bar business has since rebounded and is actually up compared with the spring. And on the bowling side, business is up by about 10 percent.
''It's worked out really well,'' he said. ''The atmosphere is better. I've got new families coming in here, and they tell me: 'We knew you kept a clean place, but because there was secondhand smoke, we didn't come here. Now we do.'''
In other words, nonsmokers have put their money where their votes were.
''I said that I hoped the people who passed the law would come in and patronize our business, and they have,'' Gazdacko said.
Creative solutions
Bingo halls had concerns, too.
At the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church on Portage Trail in Cuyahoga Falls, business dropped by 25 percent after the smoking ban went into effect, parishioner Matt Pagni said.
Instead of breaking the law to allow smoking, the church bought propane heaters to put just outside the gym doors, along with free coffee. This spring, the church built a patio with chairs, ashtrays and an awning. Volunteers will play patrons' bingo cards if they have to slip out for a smoke.
Now the church's bingo business is back to at least 95 percent of what it was before the smoking ban.
''It hurt us for a short while,'' Pagni said, ''but we reacted fairly quickly and did everything we could to accommodate smokers. We get comments all the time: 'Nobody else does this for us.' It's helped immensely to attract new players and keep the regulars coming.''
It's also attracted new volunteers, who used to stay away because of the smoke.
''Prior to the smoking ban, it was awful,'' Pagni said. ''You'd come home from bingo, peel off your clothes and head straight to the shower. For that reason, we had poor participation in our volunteer program. Since then, volunteers have probably doubled. That's an obvious benefit. And the gymnasium doesn't smell like an ashtray any more.''
Chilly reception at bars
Bars, though, are in a different situation, said Jacob Evans, spokesman for the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association.
''We're hearing from a lot of bars who are talking about drops in sales ranging from 30 to 40 percent, some 80 percent,'' he said. ''And some say they've had a 100 percent drop because they've had to go ahead and close their doors.''
And, now, winter is on the way.
''What's going to happen now when people have to step outside (to smoke)? If it's bad now,'' Evans said, ''it's going to be devastating with the cold weather.''
Liquor-permit statistics don't seem to support the idea that bars are going out of business.
As of December, Summit County had 819 permit holders (for on-premises consumption), said Matt Mullins, spokesman for the Ohio Division of Liquor Control. This September, the number was 834.
But just because bars aren't going out of business doesn't mean they're not hurting, said the owner of the neighborhood bar that lost $1,000 in May.
''I'm a nonsmoker,'' he said. ''I don't enjoy going home at night from my bar smelling like an ashtray. I go home, take my shirt off, and it just stinks. Smoking is obviously bad for people. At the same time, though, this is my business. I can't afford to go belly up.''
It’s stories like this that make me glad that Ohio is no longer my home state, and Akron no longer my home town.
(I still remember getting those wonderful Kippy’s hamburgers after church every Sunday - 25 cents. Best hamburger ever made. They closed 28 years ago.)
In Houston the patios/porches of bars are more crowded than the bars themselves. I’ve seen literally a handful of customers inside while there are dozens of drinkers outside with their cigarettes.
It certainly wasn’t put to the public to push through the measure.
The antismoking drinkers wanted it. Why aren’t they at the bars now? Or are they outside too because that is where the crowd is?
I don’t smoke but believe that it should have been up to each business owner and not the city council.
A judge in Columbus ruled that that part of the law was not clearly written and meant private clubs were illegal, so...
Community response to smoking ban editorial
Updated: Nov 1, 2007 05:57 AM EDT
News Links
WTOL Editorial: Let’s not roll back the ban on smoking
WTOL General Manager Bob Chirdon’s editorial on the push to overturn Ohio’s smoking ban has fired up smokers and non-smokers alike. Here’s what some of you had to say.
Charles wrote, “What these antis don’t get — the voters of Ohio approved the smoking ban. Game over!”
Vicky said, “If you don’t like smoke, exercise your freedom to stay away.”
“That was the rudest editorial I’ve ever read. It’s no secret Issue 5 was a scam the way it was presented to the voters,” replied Joe from Toledo.
Louise went on to say, “There should be a way to solve this problem for smokers and non-smokers that would make us all happy. It gets really cold outside in the winter.”
Luther had this to say. “If a business owner owns the building he/she operates from, it is personal property. No one forces anyone into a bar/restaurant.”
And finally, Derek responded, “I am a non-smoker. I’ll support the rights of a business owner to allow smoking, but I’ll financially support the business that chooses no smoking.”
I’m Bob Chirdon. It will be interesting to see if this topic generates enough interest to get it back on the ballot.
A year or so ago here in Vancouver, Washington, when a similar ban in bars went into effect, with the specific exclusion zone stated as no smoking within 50 feet of the bar, some of the local bar mavens decided on a protest, measured off fifty feet from the front of the building, set up a tent in the middle of the street, and smoked till they were content, (but in reality for about 30 minutes till the Police showed up and politely insisted that they move it).
In any case they made a great point, and got a picture and writeup in the local rag for it. It didn’t accomplish much, but it sure drove home the point about how fascist localities can be with the anti-smoking rules.
I would also point out that Oregon voters just wisely defeated an attempt to tax the hell out of smokers to the tune of another buck a pack, to supposedly finance health care for “our cheeldren...”.
Sure that’s the ticket. Tie the hands of police officers, do not allow them to effectively fight real crime. They are needed to stop people from smoking that nasty LEGAL product!!
At the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church on Portage Trail in Cuyahoga Falls, business dropped by 25 percent after the smoking ban went into effect, parishioner Matt Pagni said.
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Huck’s policy would result in churches having to close
Nothing to apologize for, bud. :-)
thanks for the heads up...
Here’s the article about the private club exemption:
http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/04/30/smoking.html
Wow, can you say issues?
I guess that will show them! /s
Well, people voted to take away his living.
I am a smoker, no apology, I’ve been give free will to make choices, good or bad.
I live in Birmingham, where you can can get shot, witness drug deals, and homies lighting a “blunt”, but you can’t have a cigarette after dinner.
What a crock of shit.
Happy Thanksgiving, boop! Hope all is well with you. :-)
Heck, even Rush Limbaugh said recently that you have to give people places where they can smoke — they’re paying taxes.
Police in every community have shifted focus from being “peace officers” (keeping the peace) to “law enforcement officers” (enforcing laws: writing tickets and issuing fines for revenue for the city/county).
The NJ Supreme Court has ruled that you have no right to expect the police to protect you when you call 911. A woman was witnessed being abducted and the police decided not to respond. She was raped and murdered. You are on your own in this world. Pay your taxes, fees, etc. Keep the system running.
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