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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Stewart Mason <flamingo@theworld.com> |
| Subject | Re: Got A Light ? Not Anymore... |
| Date | Sat, 07 Jun 2003 01:30:57 -0400 |
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At 03:41 PM 6/6/2003 -0500, Jennifer Leduc wrote:
>Austin Texas has now joined the ranks of New York City in passing a smoking
>ban ordinance. It is scheduled to take effect on September 1st. As a
>nonsmoker, I guess I should be happy about it. But I'm worried that some of
>the clubs I regularly go to are going to lose a lot of business. The
>ordinance was first proposed by the mayor who is leaving office. The mayor
>who was elected last month opposes the ban. This week the city council voted
>for the ban 4-3. With the strong business opposition and clubs struggling to
>begin with, I thought there was a good chance that this ordinance would not
>pass. Are all the nonsmoking music lovers going to come out in droves all of
>a sudden ? I'm skeptical despite talking to others who say that they would
>go out more often if clubs were smoke free.
>Any insight on the effect the ban has had in NYC ?
Boston's ban went in effect the first of last month. I haven't witnessed
any effects first-hand, as most of the gigs I go to are across the river in
Cambridge, where you can still smoke in clubs. (Tomorrow night with the
Polyphonic Spree will be my first Boston club gig since the ban went in
effect.) There was a fair amount of gnashing of teeth in the papers for
the first few days -- interestingly, there was more grousing in the pages
of the mildly-liberal-leaning Globe than in the head-up-the-GOP's-ass
Herald -- but it looks to me like people learned to suck it up and deal
without pissing and moaning about it. I think people just have learned to
go outside if they're having a nic fit; I walk our dog every night and one
of our favored routes takes us right in front of the Paradise, which almost
always has about half a dozen people slouching on the sidewalk smoking
anyway. I'm sure that if I still smoked, that's what I'd do too.
I certainly haven't heard of any failing clubs because of it. The only
major bar that's closed in my neighborhood -- and I live in Allston, which
thanks to BU is college bar central -- is the Sports Depot, just down the
street from my house. They didn't mention the smoking ban; according to
them, they closed because everyone has cable now and nobody needs to go
hang out in a bar to see a baseball game anymore, so they're renovating and
reopening next month as a family seafood restaurant called Fishy
McSquidpants or something retarded like that.
S
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