A third hearing on city smoking ban bill will be held
UPDATED: St. Louis Alderman Greg Carter, chairman of the committee hearing testimony on a proposed smoking ban for most public places in the city, will hold a third hearing next week. It is set for 1 p.m. July 9 at City Hall.
Alderman Lyda Krewson, sponsor of the bill, had hoped Carter would call for a vote after yesterday’s hearing was over. If the committee supports it, the bill moves to the full Board of Aldermen for consideration. Those who testified for Krewson’s bill on Wednesday included Mayor Francis Slay, St. Louis Rams linebacker Chris Draft and state Reps. Jeanette Mott Oxford and Jamilah Nasheed, both St. Louis Democrats.
At this rate, there is no way the full Board of Aldermen would be able to pass (or kill) the bill before the legislators go on summer break July 10 (returning Sept. 18). While she is anxious for its passage, Krewson said she wants to make sure that everyone who wants to speak out for and against the ban gets a chance to do so.
The bill would ban smoking in restaurants and bars, although patios and other outside areas wouuld be exempt. The city’s two casinos would also be allowed to let customers continue smoking on the gaming floors, but the restaurant and bars in those facilities would be smoke-free.
The caveat of the bill is one of the most controversial aspects of the legislation: The smoking ban would not go into effect unless St. Louis County passes a similar bill, and there seems to be little interest in doing so considering failed efforts in the county in 2005 and 2006. St. Louis County Executive Charles Dooley favors a statewide ban. Many of the opponents and supporters who spoke Tuesday and Wednesday regarding the city smoking ban bill also favor a statewide ban to assure that a ban in one place doesn’t drive business to a nearby city or county.
Doug Moore has been a reporter with the Post-Dispatch since February 2000. For the last two years, he has covered diversity and demographics. 
Obesity is a health problem. Let’s ban fried foods!
Maybe the Alderman should be concerned with that polluted River Des Peres before they waste time and 3 hearings on a smoking ban that’s not really a ban anyway.
I mean, that thang just Stanks!!!
Mrworkout, go ahead and tell us how my eating makes YOU fatter. Go ahead and tell us how my drinking does damage to YOUR liver. That is an illogical and useless argument. But YOUR smoking damages my heart, lungs, eyes, nose, etc. Your bad habit directly affects my health every time you do it. Good luck finding that connection with eating, drinking, rock climbing, pole vaulting, or watching a Cards game on TV.
As for the health argument, I actually agree with you. I could care less what a smoker does to themselves. A ban on indoor smoking should not be a way to make others healthy. That is no one’s business. I don’t want smoking eliminated. I just want it eliminated in indoor places where even the best designed ventilation systems cannot remove the carcinogen-laden crap from the air before I inhale it (and, yes, I know something about ventilation systems). I have the right to bowl too, or to play slots, and to do it with heathy air.
“When in the history of society has a goverment relied on another goverment’s passage of a law to invoke their own.”
(1) Kansas City, which now enforces a smoke-free ban similar to the one being discussed in St. Louis, made it conditional on 85 percent of its metro area doing the same thing.
(2) The Treaty of Ghent
How is the general air quality in St. Louis??? What is being done about it?
Do you really think this will cure the problem ?
Kind of like the hot dog story…Lets ban hot dogs while commercial property owners continue to dump into the Mississippi…….
Keep it up St. Louis your vision on how to promote the city continues to get more ludircrous daily.
You can argue it all you want, BUT, it’s eventually going to happen. Missouri will probably be last to pass the ban…but it will happen. Like it, or not, it’s where the country is headed. I will be a happy mofo when it passes.
I’m in total agreement with Dustin. Yes the smoking ban WILL HAPPEN some day, maybe not this month or this year, but it will. Remember in the not so distant past when you had to walk through the smoking section in the back of an airplane to get to the restroom? Remember attending office meetings and sitting captive until the meeting ended while someone smoked up the entire room? Remember when smoking was allowed in hospitals? All business establishments that now don’t allow smoking, Mr Workout. Why can’t the smokers just accept the facts and resign themselves to keeping their smoke outside or in their own homes? If they can refrain from smoking while they fly, go to school, work, or worship, why can’t they refrain while they are eating out?
Last time I checked I thought we lived in a country that promoted freedom. Everyday our freedoms are taken away. Now I have to wear a seat belt or I can get a ticket. What happened to choice. You all have the choice of which establishment you go into whether it be smoker friendly or smokeless. If your going to ban smoking they should go to Marlboro, Philip Morris, and Benson & Hedges and tell them they can no longer make the product.
Non-smoking zealots and martyrs need a hobby. There are greater causes of death than smoking that these bored housewives can champion. They just are locked into their holier than thou attitude and are blind to reason.
That being said, I am growing weary of their motto:
At first you do not succeed, try, try, again (by any means necessary, even if they are illegal, unethical, and/or immoral).
Seriously non-smoking fanatics. There are more than 200 restaurants and bars in the area that are non-smoking. Go to them. Lack of business will case more bars to go non-smoking.
Another thought for you. If it is so bad for you, outlaw or regulate it. Seriously treat it like alcohol, have smoking bars and allow businesses to get smoking licenses.
Frankly, I would like to smack some sibilance of intelligence into these smug, I will save you from yourself whack jobs. They should go home and sleep with their wives/husbands and take care of their own issues.
jim63129 wrote, Obesity is a health problem. Let’s ban fried foods!
Agreed, stupidity is a problem here as well. We should also ban stupid people or at minimum, ban them from public office.