NEW YORK CITY: 
Posted on 12/18/2002 4:31:05 PM PST by SheLion
NEW YORK, Dec 18 - New Yorkers, say goodbye to the smoke-filled saloon.
The City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed one of the country's toughest anti-smoking bills, outlawing smoking in virtually all workplaces, including bars, nightclubs and restaurants. The most populous U.S. city would join California and Delaware in adopting sweeping curbs on smoking in public.
"This is an important protection for employees and a quality of life improvement for all New Yorkers," City Council Speaker Gifford Miller said.
The bill will become law 90 days after it is signed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an ex-smoker who over the summer proposed tightening the city's smoking ban.
The measure will expand a 1995 city law that banned lighting up in restaurants with more than 35 seats. It offers only a few concessions to businesses, despite complaints that the new restrictions will drive away customers.
"It's a disgrace that they voted against our businesses and against our families," said Ciaran Staunton, owner of O'Neill's, a midtown Manhattan restaurant and bar.
Passage was widely expected after Bloomberg and the council leadership reached a compromise last week.
Exceptions include allowing smoking in portions of outdoor cafes, rooftop restaurants and some private clubs without employees. A handful of existing cigar bars will be allowed to continue to permit smoking. Existing bars may also build ventilated "smoking" rooms.
"It would have been better to pass a total ban than what they wound up with," said Chuck Hunt, executive vice president of the New York State Restaurant Association, which represents about 2,500 city restaurants. "Any exception creates an unlevel playing field."
The council said the bill was aimed at protecting employees in every workplace from being exposed to cigarette smoke on the job.
A spokesman for Philip Morris USA, the domestic tobacco division of Philip Morris Cos. Inc. said the company opposed the measure and would have to study how it would affect smoking policies at its Manhattan offices. The company's offices have designated smoking and non-smoking areas.
"We'll take a look at our own office situation and determine what changes need to be made to bring our particular building into compliance," spokesman Brendan McCormick said.
In another move to improve "quality of life," the council passed a bill to curb cellular phone use during movies, plays and other public performances, excluding sporting events.
The legislation is believed to be the first in the country to ban talking on mobile phones or using the audible ringer on the devices while a performance is under way. The mayor's office has said the bill appears unenforceable, and that there is a chance Bloomberg will veto it.
NEW YORK CITY:
I hope so. Mayor BloomingIdiot needs his city to go broke. Maybe then someone will knock him from his throne.
I hear ya, ken. Pretty pitiful. I hope Miller and BloomingIdiot sleep well tonight. They should feel pretty good being the controlling fat cats, eh?
Going behind their closed doors, toasting each other and lighting up a stoogie. 
Who knows! Most of them are sneaky liars.
The 42-7 vote with two abstentions came after spirited opposition from smokers and bar owners, who said tightening the city's existing smoking law would diminish their rights, hurt tourism and cut into the business of bars and nightclubs.
But Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the majority of the council maintained that the city's priority is to protect people, including bartenders and waitresses, from secondhand smoke.
''Ultimately, this bill is about protecting the health of employees in the city of New York,'' said City Council Speaker Gifford Miller. ''People shouldn't have to choose between their health and their jobs.''
The bill would be among the strictest in the nation.
While the legislation will prohibit smoking in almost all workplaces, there are several exceptions, including portions of outdoor cafes; bars that build enclosed, specially ventilated smoking rooms where employees would not enter; private clubs such as American Legion halls; nursing homes and other residential facilities that have smoking rooms; and existing cigar bars.
The bill, which Bloomberg is expected to sign within two weeks, would go into effect in March or April.
He just returned from Turkey, and the newspeople said the Turks were sitting all around him, smoking. You think he minded? Hell no! He just wants to control the New Yorkers.
The "Big Apple" has been neutered.
but, wait till you see what john nie baldacci does to you guys in Maine.
Bloomberg is a dick, and all New Yorkers are his SUBJECTS, not citizens.
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