New York smoking ban - I wish other cities and states would follow suit.

[AKA]

New York City Ushers in Smoke-Free Era

By Timothy Williams
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - In a smoke-choked Manhattan tavern, Cynthia Candiotti asked a neighbor for a light and took a deep drag on her cigarette, savoring a last barstool puff before the city outlawed smoking in bars and nightclubs.

For Candiotti, 26, the ban is a double whammy: "I can't tell you how many dates with cute guys I've gotten by looking into his eyes while he lights me up. That's as good as smoking."

With fear, loathing and lament, the city of Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart and Philip Morris USA was ushering in the smoke-free age Sunday, one tick after midnight.

Goodbye to the cloying smell of cloves. The wispy white rings that settle into a layer of haze at bars, pubs and nightclubs. The smoker's hack and smelly clothes after a night out, whether you smoked or not. The phone number written on a matchbook cover.

"First they cleaned up Times Square, then they said you couldn't dance in bars or drink a beer in the park. Now you can't even smoke when you go out on the town," said Willie Martinez, 37, who sat, chain-smoking, in an East Village bar. "This is like no-fun city."

"There's one word for this: Ridiculous. Stalinesque. Brutal," interrupted Elliot Kovner, 48, as he added a few choice vulgarities.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former smoker himself, pushed through the ban with a zeal that angered smokers and even some nonsmokers. He stood firm even when an incensed smoker wearing a Superman suit showed up at City Hall carrying a 12-foot-long ersatz cigarette and a sign threatening him.

Health issues are a priority for Bloomberg, a billionaire who once donated $100 million to Johns Hopkins University.

"Fundamentally, people just don't want the guy next to them smoking," Bloomberg said. "People will adjust very quickly and a lot of lives will be saved."

The ban covers all workplaces, including bars, small restaurants, bingo parlors and other venues not covered by the city's previous smoking law. Owners of establishments could be fined $400 for allowing smoking and eventually could have their business licenses suspended.

A state anti-smoking law passed Wednesday is even tougher, closing a city loophole that granted an exemption for businesses that provide enclosed smoking rooms. That law takes effect this summer.

The bans have led to fears that bars will go out of business and rumors that secret "smoke-easies" will pop up — but of course, New Yorkers can be given to exaggeration.

Proprietors in California complained when a similar rule was enacted four years ago, but business did not drop significantly and polls showed most patrons backed the ban.

About 400 communities nationwide have adopted smoking bans in restaurants, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation.

But none has New York's history of smoking, from the smoke-filled back rooms of Tammany Hall and the old neon cigarette signs of Times Square to the "loosie" — a single cigarette sold in bodegas for as much as $1 to customers who can't afford a $7 pack. (City and state taxes have lifted cigarette prices to among the nation's highest.)

Until the 1920s, 30 percent of all cigarettes produced in North America were manufactured in the New York metropolitan area.

Philip Morris, long headquartered in midtown Manhattan, announced a few days after the city ban was approved that it would move to Virginia by 2004. Economic reasons, the company said.

Smoking, ban opponents say, is part of the city's in-your-face, adrenaline-fueled culture.

"A ban might work in California," said Eddie Dean, who owns a club called Discotheque and a bar called Tiki Lounge. "New Yorkers are defined as a different kind of person. It's a gruffer place. It's less healthy. People are a little more aggressive. I just can't see them tolerating it."

Back at the Orange Bear in the Tribeca section of Manhattan, Cynthia Candiotti's face was obscured behind a cloud of smoke.

"Smoking and boys have sort of always gone together," she said, considering her cigarette. "Smoking, I'll probably quit. Boys, that's a whole other matter."

[Mijada]

In Michigan smoking is not allowed in some of the malls. I think that's good. Smoking is a nasty disgusting habit. I'm glad I never picked it up. I hate sitting next to someone, whether it be at work or in a restaurant, and having them blow smoke in my face without even giving it a second thought. I'm the only one in my family who has never smoked.

[~Tropical Punch 19~]

ciggarettes bug me. Qhat gets me the most is when u see people at the hospital walk outside with their little ivy's attached to them go and smoke. That's just wrong.

[Czas na Zywiec]

Yea, we've had a smoking ban in effect for the past two years. The only place you can smoke anymore is in your own home or outside. Other than that, all public places, it's banned.

[Brian]

A few years back, California voters passed a law outlawing smoking in bars and restraunts.

[Chocoholic]

I can't stand smoking either. It's a disgusting habit and dangerous to the health of both smokers and non-smokers. I wish my college would ban smoking on campus.

[Chad22]

I Cant stand smoking either. My Mom used to do it in the house and it made me sick. She does it down cellar now.

[TJL]

Ah yes, the smoking ban.

It will be interesting to see just how it will affect the lives of many a bar patron here in The Big Apple.

Personally, I think the bar ban is wrong. Bars were the last place you could smoke, now that's being taken away too. I smoked for many years, and spent many a night lighting up in various watering holes around town, so I know how some of those folks feel.

If anything, maybe the remaining smokers will see this as a sign to finally give it up. Too much opposition. Time to call it quits.

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

Ugh, smoking is one of the nastiest things...how people can even START is beyond me. All my aunts and uncles on my dad's side smoke, a few on my mom's...but thank God my parents don't. It gives me headaches and makes you smell and blah. Anyone who does smoke should quit, sure it's hard, but it's way worth it. That ban's a good thing and I hope people actually realize that...

[Crimson and Clover]

Originally posted by Mijada
I hate sitting next to someone, whether it be at work or in a restaurant, and having them blow smoke in my face without even giving it a second thought.

oh i hate that

[*PinkLady*]

Cigarettes. Are. Sick. They killed both my grandfathers and they will kill my dad, too, not to mention countless other relatives and friends. I wish that ban would take effect EVERYWHERE.

[MandieR1980]

My mom has smoked she she was 11 she's now 48. I try to get her to stop but she keeps telling me to mind my own business. I believe it is my business because she's always smoking around me and I have a right to have clean lungs. Because of her smoking I have a bad barklike cough. Smoking is a big turn off for me if I ever go on a date and he pulls out a cigarette I'll walk out on him. It's pathetic some of the excuses smokers have for smoking like "it relaxes me" really? are you relaxed when you can't stop coughing or can't breathe?

[Tuesday Weld]

I think they should ban smoking completely.I hate it.My Grandfather's demise was caused by smoking.He started when he was 10 and quit at age 80 and then lived for 9 more years.He had terrible emphysema.

[Mysty Eyes]

We've had a smoking ban in my area for years and years and years. I love it!

Most of the smokers that I know have gotten used to going outside to smoke. They have no choice at work, etc.

[AKA]

I was watching the three "Roger Rabbit" shorts on the new DVD back to back to back. I think they were each produced two years apart (1989-1993), and I noticed Jessica Rabbit's voice getting deeper and deeper. Poor Kathleen Turner. How many cartons does she smoke a day, anyway?