No more smoking in Baltimore bars and restaurants as of 2008. Wow, it's something I did't expect, and I couldn't be happier. It sure will be nice to sit at a bar and not breathe smoke, or go to the 8X10 or the Waterfront and see great live music without breathing someone else's lifestyle choice.
Ironically, this will make me go to bars more, which probably won't help my health any. But at least it will my own choice and not someone else's choice not to be healthy.
I bet none of those ridiculous "It will hurt the businesses" and "Please save my job" rhetoric comes to pass, just like it hasn't come to pass in other cities and states that have enacted the ban. There was actually a man on the incredibly biased Fox 45 news reporting on it tonight who said that, "corner bars are the cornerstone of our city." With a straight face.
Being Master Of Your Own Domain, Ctd
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4 comments:
That's great news! I've heard a lot of people whining about it lately, saying it's "Big Brother" cracking down on us, but I really don't feel like the rest of us should have to suffer because of smokers' rights. Last time I went to CVP I was getting smoke blown in my face all night, and it's not like the ventilation is all that great in there in the first place. After one drink I walked outside because I couldn't take it anymore and promptly puked my guts out on the curb because the smoke made sick. I'm glad I won't have to go through that again!
The Harvard School of Business Health study failed to distinguish bars from restaurant/bars in their study, and also just looked at overall tax receipts for the area of study for food receipts and alcohol receipts separately. The study did show that the smoking ban had no negative effect on the restaurant industry as a whole, and possibly contributed to the 9 percent increase in food tax revenue, the effect of the smoking ban in boston on individual “corner” bars in was ignored altogether, which I think is odd, given that has always been the concern of smoking ban detractors. Interestingly, according to the Mass. Restaurant Association (whose findings I trust more) showed that there was a slight negative effect on bar revenue before the ban went statewide. Once the ban went statewide, the negative effects stabilized.
Personally, I’ve accepted the ban. It was pretty much unavoidable. But I hope the state hurries up and makes the ban statewide before it can possibly hurt business to corner bars in peripheral city neighborhoods (and help those effing county bars ;-)).
I heard the report this morning and was thrilled that the ban will actually go through -- I honestly thought that Bmore would be the last city on the planet to go smoke-free!
On a separate note, I enjoy your blog. I am a former teacher and current pharmacist, and your classroom "stories" are fun to read.
Here's hoping that I'll see you at a smoke-free bar in the future1 ;)
Congratulations! I would've thought Baltimore would've caught up to the trend a little sooner, but it's great news no matter when it arrives. My hometown (Columbus, Ohio) and most of its suburbs have been smoke-free for about two years now, and it's made such a difference in my entertainment and dining choices. It's still a little weird not to have to walk into a restaurant and request a non-smoking section, though. You'll probably have detractors for a while to come; our city recently failed a proposal to allow smoking in bars and certain restaurants. The people opposed to the smoking ban threw up the same rhetoric, that it was doing more harm than good to the business owners. Fortunately, the non-smoking majority saw through all this BS and made sure the issue never passed.
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