You can't smoke, but really, you can.....

Well, it looks as though the City Council will consider an ordinance to ban smoking in any enclosed public place EXCEPT for bars and restaurants. It will probably pass since it left the Council Committee of the Whole with something like a 6-5 or 7-4 vote. Prairie Village Restaurants and Bars will become no smoking essentially when every city that shares a border with PV goes no smoking in their restaurants.

I agreed with the restaurant owners – who thought that any unilateral move by PV would damage their businesses AND the public health people – who thought the ordinance didn’t go far enough. The ordinance that is being recommended by the task force and Committee of the Whole is worthless.

I don’t believe in passing toothless laws in order to “make a statement.” And that’s all this measure will do. PV already has a ban on smoking in common areas of indoor public spaces – lobbies, waiting rooms, etc. And most office properties in the cities are non-smoking by rule of the property owner. So, how many business properties are there that are not restaurants and not owned or managed by someone who already bans smoking? After that, how many of those properties have a smoker that is burdening a non-smoking subordinate? What’s that gonna be, like, three people???.

In general, I have to say that I don’t really favor a ban on smoking in restaurants. I think people ought to influence the issue with their wallets. If restaurant and bar owners started to lose business because people were heading for completely non-smoking establishments, then they would go completely non-smoking too.