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reprint or license thisCoble wants to snuff smoking
Mayor hopes City Council will ban it in restaurants, bars in vote next month
By GINA SMITH
gnsmith@thestate.com
Columbia smokers, prepare to stub out your cigarettes.
Mayor Bob Coble said he is confident he can get a ban passed on smoking in the city’s public indoor areas — including restaurants and bars.
The ban is expected to come up for a vote before the seven members of City Council in early September. If it passes, Columbia will become the second South Carolina city to enact a ban.
Spurred on by a June 27 surgeon general’s report that the hazards of secondhand smoke are worse than thought, Coble said now is the time to act.
“The opinion has really changed the issue. It clearly demonstrates that secondhand smoke is harmful,” Coble said. “It’s a quality-of-life issue for our residents.”
Smoking also has been in the headlines in recent weeks as USC decided to ban smoking in all university-owned and -occupiedbuildings and within 25 feet of those buildings.
Coble said a few weeks ago that he was considering a smoking ban. He now says he’s sure it is the right step to take and that he is outlining specifics on how the ban would work.
The city likely would model its ordinance, at least in part, on one that the town of Sullivan’s Island enacted in May.
The ordinance allows for smoking in private residences, hotel and motel rooms designated as smoking rooms, retail tobacco stores and at religious ceremonies in which smoking is part of the ritual.
Those caught illegally puffing are subject to fines of up to $100 for the first offense, while restaurant and bar owners risk losing their permits and licenses.
But there’s one large remaining hurdle — whether Columbia and other local municipalities can legally enact such ordinances or whether state law pre-empts.it.
A January 2006 opinion of the state attorney general states that provisions of South Carolina’s Clean Indoor Air Act “have statewide applicability and that local political subdivisions would be prohibited, at least implicitly, from further regulation of smoking in public indoor places.”
The act, adopted in 1990, bans smoking in schools, health-care facilities, government buildings, elevators and most public transportation vehicles.
“The Clean Indoor Air Act was not contemplating the implications of secondhand smoke that we now know,” said Coble, who suspects a court ruling will be needed.
Sullivan’s Island banned smoking in workplaces in May. Hilton Head is considering a ban in all indoor restaurants and workplaces. Charleston has had several heated debates about a ban but hasn’t adopted anything.
So far, Coble said he has received mainly positive feedback from residents and businesses about the proposed ban.
“If every restaurant and bar does it, it won’t have an impact on business,” said Jeff Witt, owner of three Five Points bars, The Saloon, Speakeasy and Delaney’s Pub. “People who want to smoke will go outside. We hope they’re going to bars and pubs to drink alcohol, not to smoke.”
Speakeasy patrons purchase and light up cigars in the bar. But Witt said cigar sales account for only about 1.5 percent of his business.
If the ban passes, he hopes to set up tables outside where patrons can puff away.
“We have options,” he said.
Bill Dukes, owner of three downtown restaurants, said he is considering making his Blue Marlin in the Vista smoke-free whether the ban passes or fails.
A recent vacation to parts of California where indoor smoking is prohibited has reinforced his idea.
“It’s really nice to go into the restaurants out here and not have to worry about the smoke,” Dukes said in San Francisco. “It doesn’t hurt the business and is a much more comfortable dining environment. People go outside to smoke. They adapt to it. It would be good for Columbia.”
Smokers like Jason Wilson of Columbia aren’t so sure.
As a DJ who spends lots of time in the area’s bars, Wilson suspects smokers will rail against the proposal.
“I bet they’ll be outraged,” he said. “In addition to (regular) smokers, you have those people who only smoke when they drink. That’s like 75 percent of the people in some of these clubs. These clubs aren’t going to have enough room outside for all of them.”
As for himself, Wilson doesn’t like the idea of running outside between spinning records.
“I’ll have to buy some stock in some bubble gum,” he said.
Reach Smith at (803) 771-8462.
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