Just in case you forgot, its T-Minus 3 days and counting to the Oregon Smoking Ban. As of midnight on New Year’s Eve, the smokers from local bars will get the boot to ten feet from the nearest open door, window or ventilation duct.
I went to the Ash Street Saloon tonight, and I was the only person other than the bartender who wasn’t smoking, and she took two breaks to smoke herself.
A trip to my neighborhood bar, The Hutch on NE Glisan, found a lonely bartender bemoaning the smoking ban they underwent early. But will people come back when no bars allow smoking? That’s the question, I suppose.
My clothes, however, are on the still front porch airing out from my foray to Ash Street Saloon. As much as I hate smoky bars, somehow, I don’t mind that they exist. Sure, it’ll be nice not to come home smelling like an ashtray, but I accept the consequences when I go. I don’t, however, have to work there.
Image courtesy of freefoto.com
One thing, however, is different, or at least worth noting. As Abraham Hyatt points out in Oregon Business Magazine, the state is addicted to its lottery profits, which will most certainly take a dive right along with cigarette taxes raked in by bars. According to Hyatt in his story State of Addition, Oregon ranked 7th in the country for percentage of state revenue from lottery dollars in 2007 and it’s expected top $1.2 billion this year.
And yet it’s important to remember that we all benefit from the profits made from those lottery machines. Will the public still come and play when they can’t hold a cigarette in one hand and drink in another? Probably. As much? Probably not.
So, Oregonian’s, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em for the next few days, and start that nasty habit if you don’t for the sake of nostalgia. If you have to be ten feet away from a door and that happens to be in the street, try not to get hit by a car, please.
Some of you had a lot to say when Motor posted something about this in October. Now that it’s a few days away, how do you feel about it?
{ 18 comments }
the Illinois ban went into effect last New Years Eve. We had no “Smoking Gestao” raids after midnight. The local cops are usually busy with DUIs. Any police department would look pretty stupid raiding parties for smokers while many drunks are on the highways at that time. Here in Illinois, now that the fanfare has worn off and the lobbyists have moved on to other states, many small neighborhood bars ignore the ban to stay in business. As happened here, smokers will return during the warm weather as being able to congregate outside with non customers will be a new experience, although the neighbors and cops will not like it. It’s funny that the ban lobbyist supervisors JUST RECENTLY found that New Years isn’t a good time to start a ban. Here’s their instruction book.
http://www.no-smoke.org/pdf/CIA_Fundamentals.pdf
The lottery issue is definitely a huge factor here, although, I wonder if OR will see a drop in lottery revenue in 2008, as other states have started to report, given the overall U.S. economic slump.
I may be stating the obvious, but Oregon isn’t Illinois (or NYC or DC, for that matter). It doesn’t seem that much extrapolation can be done based on the smoking bans that have been passed in other states…yet.
Each has their own set of circumstances, so while one could perhaps find some common ground between how the ban went over out of state, the rest would involve too much speculation at this point. The first year of having the ban in effect probably isn’t an accurate measure of how things will be in the future, either, as many places will literally have to air out for a few months to truly be smoke-free.
That said, if are to be any lessons learned in the first year, it would make more sense to look at places like Eugene, a city that banned smoking in bars in 2001.
Part of me is glad for the smoking ban. I agree, it would be nice to come home after a show and not smell bad. Thought, California has had a smoking ban for years now and I don’t see to many bars down there closed. Then again, I’m not keeping up to date on small local bars who may be suffering the most.
I heard the Horse Brass is going to do a smoke out on Jan 1 to essentially defy the ban. Not sure if it is true.
Washington enacted a similar ban a couple years ago. At the time, I worked across the street from a bar that had some fun. The Washington legislation specifies no smoking within 25 feet of the entrance… so at the time that the law went into effect, the bar went 25 feet outside its front door and setup a canopy/tent with a table and chairs for those who wanted to smoke.
25 feet in front of their door was the middle of Main Street. After having the road shut down for about 20 minutes, they’d made their point and pulled down the tent.
Any State that is relying so much on lottery money and video poker at bars for basic general funds rather than dealing with their imbalanced tax structure needs to get their sh*t together. That’s no way to run government. Yeah, I’m talking about Oregon.
As far as the smoking ban. Well, I was in Spain when they implemented the restaurant/cafe smoking ban and in France when they did the same. There was a lot of hemming and hawing and meek protests and uproar that it would shut businesses down, etc etc, but a after many months people just adapted. The cafes (which really function like bars in France anyway) were PACKED the last time I was in Paris and the smokers were just hanging outside. Califonia, Canada and a whole bunch of other places seem to be doing just fine with a ban.
Although I really don’t feel passionate about the ban one way or another, I certainly won’t miss coming home from a night of imbibing smelling like an ashtray.
I see both sides. I don’t want cigarrettes in the bars anymore really, but I also don’t agree with how the state thinks they have a right to tell business owners how to run their business. Everyone from the bartenders to the customers makes a choice to be in a bar that allows smoking. Essentially this is the nanny state telling you you aren’t responsible enough with yourself to stay out of a smokey bar because it’s the healthy thing to do.
Well … I had to stop karaoke singing about ten years ago because I couldn’t sing anymore with the smoke. So there are a couple of bars that are probably going to have one more patron in a couple of weeks. Now … I suppose I need to start warming up “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh”, don’t I?
Ed, I’d say it’s time to warm up the vocal chords. I just came back from the Barfly’s annual Christmas Party at O’Malleys (fun!), then to Tik Tok, then Clyde’s Prime Rib (the only non-smoking place in the three). My asthma is acting up, my eyes are killng me and I just added more to the dry cleaning pile.
Interesting, though, the patrons at Tik Tok were shocked, amazed and in disbelief that there was a smoking ban coming. No idea that in very short order, there would be no more smoking there. I think I ruined their night, unintentionally. Oops.
On our frozen trip back through Portland last weekend I was a bit surprised to walk into a sub-shop for a much needed driving break and realize that it was full of smoke. I guess I have been a little sheltered having lived in WA for the past few years, and it never occurred to me that OR hadn’t jumped on the wagon yet. I guess I should have known by the video poker signs I saw on the window.I have mixed feelings about the ban, but where I live it hasn’t seemed to affect the bar patronage much if at all. I think that like most things people just adapt. If you still want to go out and party, you still go out and party, albeit with a little more inconvenience than before.
I’m not in Oregon, I’m in Massachusetts, but I can tell you I’m extremely grateful for smoking bans here. As an asthmatic who’d long ago given up on any semblance of nightlife — pubs, dancing, concerts, musical events, comedy clubs, many restaurants — I am THRILLED that I can now go out on date nights and BREATHE.
Why is everybody acting like all the bars were so smoky before now? Portland has been full of smoke free bars and restaurants for years now.
There are many bars that don’t allow smoking. There are many bars that do allow smoking. The “fun” will come in when the many people who don’t smoke walk past the many people that do smoke on the sidewalks of Portland and then complain that their pretty pink lungs are still being destroyed.
As pointed out, the bigger concern really should be the potential for lost lottery revenue. Granted that the state should have made better choices and not relied so heavily on lottery income but it didn’t and it does.
Perhaps the solution is to then raise taxes exponentially. To ban a thing seems nanny-state-ish… but to tax the crap out of it… well now somehow that sounds more beneficial for everyone. It is after all a completely voluntary and pointless hobby.
Ah, the wonders of prohibition. Really thoughtful of the government to ban smoking. Wouldn’t want to let citizens who own businesses decide if they wanted to allow it or not.
What would we do without the self-righteous having control over our lives?
Once again self-righteous government and others control what I do
Look at the past seat belts, transfat
What’s next sugar, salt, caffiene etc.
It’s my life and I should control it
Not everyone that smokes or breathes second hand smoke gets some form of lung disease and not everyone with lung disease got it from cigarettes
I don’t agree with a policy of establishments separating smoking and nonsmoking areas most don’t have proper ventilation for that
So go one way or the other and let the owner decide which way
People who whine about going into a bar or resturaunt where they allow smoking are pretty sad
If you don’t like it or you have a medical condition then go where it’s non-smoking
That is like buying a house next to an airport then complaining about the noise
LEAVE US ALONE WE ARE NOT BOTHERING YOU, YOU DO IT TO YOURSELF!!!!
Your freedom to swing your fist stops an inch away from my face. And your freedom to exhale an addictive liquid carcinogen stops at my nose and mouth. Before the ban, I did the only thing I could, which was exactly what you recommend — avoid places where smokers are. Now I am looking forward to evenings out with my non-smoking friends and karaoke singing again, for the first time in ten years. So there are a couple of places that are going to *gain* business as a result of the ban.
I am confused. I read the Senate bill and it said no smoking within 25 ft of doors/windows. This says 10 ft. Can anyone clarify that for me?
I got that distance from the sticker placed on a business – and I did a quick google search and everything says 10 feet for the Oregon law. My guess is you may be reading an early version of the bill, and it got changed later, but I don’t know. I believe Washington’s was or is 25 feet, and that it was difficult at best.
I’m a smoker living in Portland, I smoke in my house during the winter and outside during the summer, never around kids! I was in one of my favorite bars a few nights ago and their partonage is typical of small hole in the wall bars… there are a dozen or so regulars and all the poker machines are busy. Well when I went in there the other night I spent some 4 hours there and there were NEVER ANYMORE THAN 6 PEOPLE COUNTING THE BARTENDER IN THERE. The regulars in there are smoker… so are the bartenders… So I will not be going back in there I’ll save money at the liquor store, and buy my own pool table. I read a posting several months ago on the Camel web site from a musician who doesn’t smoke who doesn’t agree with the smoking bans. He said “since the smoking bans have come into effect we don’t get the gigs like we used to. Less people go into the bars now, which means less money the bars make, which in turn means less money the bars spend on hiring a band.” Where is the good in that when we already have a shot economy. So a few smokers might save a little money at the bars, but they are still going to spend it, and it’s still going to effect others no matter if it’s work smoke or something else.
I was born into a country 27 years ago that was proud of it’s ‘freedom’ but as I get older I learn that no only is my country not free, but IT NEVER HAS BEEN.
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