Fans of city smoking ban to gather tonight (UPDATE: It’s been canceled)
UPDATE: Nevermind. The event has been delayed due to the weather.
Supporters of keeping cigarette smoke out of St. Louis bars and restaurants smoke will gather tonight to talk strategy.
The group, Smoke Free St. Louis, will host a happy hour - smoke free, we imagine - at the rBar on Chouteau at 5:30 p.m.
A move to snuff out smoking in St. Louis has been lingering for several years, but lost some momentum when St. Louis County Councilman Kurt Odenwald - the standard barrier for the local effort - lost re-election.
City Hall had been poised to consider a similar ban had the county done it first, but when Odenwald left, the momentum tapered off.
A statewide ban just went into effect in Illinois, and already casinos and bar owners are irked about the new rules. Supporters of a smoking ban in the city - home to a ritzy new casino and the world’s largest brewer - may find themselves wrestling with the same complaints that have been registered across the river.
Good Luck!
Hmmmm… let’s see.
About 20% of people here is the US smoke.
There is about 15% of the population that is Black
About 2% of the population is (self identifies) as being gay.
Same for atheists and transsexuals, about 2% each.
Now of course being Black is not something that one can ‘help’ or control. I show it only to demonstrate size of population.
Now we, being enlightened, have laws that protect all those minority populations… but smokers.
Why is that? Well you might say smoking is a behavior. Yes it is… but so is being gay, or transsexual, or atheist.
If we this ‘enlightened people’ can make one behavior, smoking, might we make other behavior illegal?
Passing laws allowing discrimination… really a good idea?
tsquare—you are delusional.
Being gay is not a behaviour. However, being simply and utterly ignorant (as displayed in the above drivel) is.
Go ahead, pass a smoking ban in the city. I’ll bet we could get a lot of county bar owners to kick in a few bucks to THAT campaign.
Let’s follow Illinois…and BAN that smoke…which contributes to lung cancer via 2nd hand smoke..which is infringing upon my rights now…I don’t want to breath someone else’s strong smoke…do it outside…50 feet away….it’s a habit among lower-class people that needs to be broken.
Smoking outside to avoid having non-smokers being exposed to secondhand smoke is just common sense. That’s the law in most areas of the country today. It should be the law here in Missouri too.
The ban needs to be state-wide.
Yes it would have been a smoke-free event because there is NO SMOKING at rBar. The owners made a choice to be a no-smoking establishment and consumers have a choice to go there or elsewhere.
Don’t want to breathe my smoke? Go to a no smoking bar ( like the Cowboy ).
I’ll choose no-self-righteous prattle bar. No chance I’ll run across any of the members of Smoke Free St. Louis there.
Travis #5, I couldn’t agree with you more!!!
Lewis Reed has promised Keep St. Louis Free! that he would not put a smoking ban on St. Louis bars and restaurants “unless a smoking ban was in place everywhere else.” I trust Lewis Reed to keep that promise.
Instead of a ban, a compromise public smoking law based on signage and air filtration could work for St. Louis. I believe St. Louis bars and the Missouri Restaurant Association could support the 3 part law I proposed on my blog a while back:
Warning signs shall be put up within and at the entrances of any building when smoking is allowed in that building.
No minor shall be allowed access to any building when smoking is allowed in that building.
15 air changes per hour of air filtration and air cleaning, or some equivalent air purification process, shall be ongoing in any building when smoking is allowed.
http://keepstlouisfree.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-louis-public-smoking-compromise.html