Restaurant Related News

After the Air Clears

As New York fumes over a proposed smoking ban, local bar patrons reflect on nearly five years of butting out

By: Cynthia Huber -- Bee Staff
Source: Sacramento Bee
Published: September 4, 2002

They have become as familiar as lawn ornaments around the Golden State, huddled in front of their favorite watering holes in all kinds of weather, pulling out their cigarettes, joining about the world's problems.

It has been nearly five years in smokers became officially unwelcome in California's bars, to anguished cries for many tavern owners and patrons. Now the Big Apple, of all places, is looking to ban butts, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan is causing a furor.

Memo to New Yorkers having a nicotine fit:

Life goes on.

"It was a tough thing," admitted Marge Kendrick, a longtime smoker and bartender at the Zebra Club in midtown Sacramento, where a cocktail and a smoke once went together like peanut butter and jelly. "People resisted at first. But not anymore. They realize that this is the way things are going to be. Now they just get up into outside."

When the ban, the nation's first statewide law prohibiting smoking in bars, took effect in January 1998, many dedicated smokers and tavern owners predicted doom. Bars would close, restaurant revenues would plummet, tourism and barroom camaraderie would suffer, they argued.

"It was a nightmare in the beginning," said Robert Berger, supervising environmental health specialist for Sacramento County, whose department is in charge of enforcing the band in unincorporated areas. "We had lots and lots of violations. Lots of angry phone calls. Now it's rare. I can't remember the last time I had a complaint."

The economic impact of the ban has been widely debated. While some individual tavern owners claimed business has dropped as much as 30 percent since the ban took effect, overall revenue for California bars and restaurants have grown every year since the laws enactment, according to figures from the State Board of Equalization. A spokeswoman for the California Restaurant Association said the ban has had no negative impact on the dining business, and in fact may be encouraging more families to go out more often. California remains the top draw in the country for tourism.

Meanwhile, surveys have shown that more than 80 percent of the state's residents prefer an environment free of cigarette smoke, and the University of California, San Francisco, study published in the prestigious journal of the American Medical Association found that smoking bans improve the health of bartenders.

Still, the ban, designed as a labor law to protect employees from secondhand smoke, has its detractors. Smokers' rights groups still decry the government intervention into personal habits. Liquor trade associations have registered their opposition to the New York plan, as they did to California's.

But day-to-day, pool halls and restaurants once clouded with tobacco smoke, even those most resistant to the ban have found ways to cope.

Outside the front door at Perkins Station, a haven for pool and dart players in the College Greens area, smokers amiably gather near a white plastic bucket that collects ashes and butts. Socal's, a venerable haunt in east Sacramento, offers a tiny and close to "smoking porch" off the bar. Owner Bill Ferrell said he spent about $13,000 to construct the porch as a matter of economic survival.

"I had to do it," Farrell said. "The first year was devastating. I never allowed smoking from Day One. I have some really special customers who are smokers, and telling them to stand outside in the rain was just unacceptable."

The smoking porch has proved immensely popular.

"It gets pretty crowded. Sometimes it just looks like a big can of sardines in there," said bartender Susan Terry.

After a couple of years, Farrell said, Socal's is hopping again.

"Really, I think the businesses that were hurt most by the smoking ban were the dry cleaners," he joked.

For some customers, shuffling out the door with their fellow pariahs has become something of a bonding experience.

"Someone will ask, 'Anybody ready for smoke?' and we'll just go," said Kerry Johnson, sitting on a stool at the Zebra Club, a pack of Camels in front of him.

"It's kind of nice, actually," added smoker Susan Schatz.

A few bar owners have found creative ways to get around the law, which applied only to taverns that have employees.

"All of a sudden, some of these places have no employees. They have 10 owners," said Anne Frey, Sacramento County's senior environmental health specialist and an enforcer of the smoking ban. Such arrangements have been legally challenged, she noted.

A small number of bar owners have simply opted to allow their patrons to light up, risking hefty fines. First offenses cost bar owners $281, and fines double and triple with repeat violations.

"My customers hate the law. I hate it," said one proprietor, declining to give her name. "Drinking and smoking go together for a lot of people, and now they have nowhere to go."

Business at her bar has dropped 20 to 30 percent since the ban, she estimated. So if customers insist on smoking, she allows them to do so for fear of losing them. Her bar has never been fined by the "smoke police", she said, but she is willing to take the chance.

After rabid resistance at first, officials now estimate that about 90 percent of businesses in the Sacramento area are complying with the smoking law. In the county, things are so good that enforcers have temporarily stopped conducting random "sweeps" for violators.

"Our jobs were fairly dangerous for a while," said Frey. "We felt physically threatened in some cases. Verbally, we were being abused terribly. That's not happening anymore.

"We still have faced a few stubborn cowboys out there, but in the past year compliance has been absolutely great. People have adjusted."

Besides California, Delaware, Utah, Vermont and South Dakota all have statewide laws prohibiting smoking in workplaces, including restaurants. Dozens of American cities have banned smoking in certain indoor areas.

Now comes Bloomberg's proposal, which has triggered widespread outrage in New York and effectively ended the mayor's political honeymoon.

Bloomberg, who has said he quit smoking 18 years ago, wants the City Council to widen cigarette smoking restrictions to outlaw lighting up in all bars and restaurants. Like California's law, his proposal is billed as a health initiative, and has its vocal supporters.

But it is proving hugely controversial, with many New Yorkers calling the plans sneaky, uncool and outrageous, among other things, and vowing defiance. Washington Post columnist Art Buchwald has even weighed in, warning that the measure could "chain the mating habits of the singles class as we know it."

In recent weeks, proponents of the New York plan have been consulting with Californians who were instrumental in passage of the Golden State's law.

Dian Kiser, spokeswoman for BREATH, the California Smokefree Bars, Workplaces and Communities Program, said she has armed Bloomber's people with plenty of information, statistics and advice.

"In California, we can hardly remember what it was like to not have a smoke-free workplace," she said.

"Mayor Bloomberg is giving the people of New York the greatest gift imaginable."

Some residents of the Big Apple clearly disagree.

"Nobody has bothered to ask us what we think," said Ciaran Hegarty as he mixed cocktails at Langan's in Time Square. "This is America. It's a democracy, isn't it?'"

Hegarty said he believes Bloomberg's plan is a scheme to make money on the backs of smokers.

"This is prohibition, and New Yorkers won't stand for it," he continued. "Drinking and smoking and talking, that's what it's all about in a bar. That will continue no matter what."

About the writer

The Bee's Cynthia Hubert can be reached at (916) 321-1082 or chubert@sacbee.com.