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The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 5, 2008
I Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - The Michigan Daily 5B
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By Trevor Calero Daily Staff Writer
The Michigan state legislature has gotten close to passing a ban of indoor
smoking. But how attached is Ann Arbor to its smoking sections?
"I think it will pass eventually," George
said. "I just can't tell you if it will be lame
duck, or next year or the year after."
In Ann Arbor, it's uncertain how a ban of
indoor smoking would be received. Many
smaller bars and diners like Rendez Vous Cafe
and Fleetwood Diner rely on a strong contin-
gent of smoking customers who might choose
to go elsewhere if comfortable indoor smok-
ing is no longer an incentive.
Lance Binoniemi, executive director for the
Michigan License Beverage Association, said
indoor smoking bans have hurt small business
in other states.
"We've seen in other states where bans have
been taken into place where the smaller mom
and pop restaurants have suffered greatly
from smoking bans," he said.
He said the loss in business would cause
small businesses to cut jobs or hours.
"In this economic time period people can't
afford to have their hours cut or lose their
jobs," Binoniemi said. "Why would we do any-
thing in the state that could create job loss?"
Rep. Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor)
believes a ban wouldn't have a significant
impact on local businesses.
"I think that most of the research is pretty
clear that the places that have had smoking
bans in place, it's almost pretty predictable,
they see a slight drop off when the bans are
put into place, but after a couple of months the
business actually increases," she said.
Smaller businesses could make up the loss
of revenue elsewhere, Warren said, by attract-
ing an entirely new demographic.
"There's a whole group of people, non-
smokers, who actually won't go to places if
there's smoking there," she said.
The Fleetwood Diner, located on the cor-
ner of Ashley Street and Liberty Street, in a
flimsy, tin-covered building that looks as if
it's been converted from a mobile home, is a
late-night haven. The diner is known for it's
fabled meal, hippie hash - which consists of
hash browns covered in feta, mushrooms and
broccoli - its 24-7 hours and, probably most
importantly, the fact that it's one of the only
all-night eateries in Ann Arbor that allows
indoor smoking.
Fleetwood manager Aviva Woodward said
it would be hard for the business to stay afloat
if she couldn't offer customers an ashtray.
"People come here every single day because
they can smoke," she said. "We had a couple
customers who flat out said we don't only
come here for the food."
Despite all of the health facts discouraging
smoking, and all of the ways that Ann Arbor
is a progressive place, it's clear that many
people here want to smoke. On their lunch
break, they grab some quick food and smoke.
Unwinding on the weekend, they purchase a
case of beer and a pack of cigarettes. Or after
the bars let out, they head over to Fleetwood
to chow down on greasy food and smoke. None
of these activities are particularly healthy, but
they're choices that are commonly made, and
as people like Woodward say, should be com-
pletely the individual's decision to make.
="A bar is not a health club," she said. "(The
government) needs to start, as far as I'm con-
cerned, in that case, policing people's drink-
ing habits, maybe their sex lives - that can be
unhealthy - they're staying up way too late,
so they should probably start closing bars ear-
lier. Hanging out in the Fleetwood in general
is bad. Maybe they should ban our food for
that matter. We have a lot of grease."
Opponents of the ban cite personal choice
as their main argument - patrons can choose
to eat somewhere else, employees can choose
to work somewhere else and businesses could
decide not to allow smoking. But while it is
true that customers have the choice to dine
at a particular bar or restaurant, employees
don't have the same range of freedom.
One of the main reasons Cohen hates to
allow smoking in the Black Pearl is because he
understands that in tough economic times his
employees might not have much of a choice to
work somewhere else. They take jobs where
they can get them, regardless of what that
means for their lungs.
Cohen has considered making his restau-
rant non-smoking even if the ban doesn't pass,
taking the risk of losing customers to look out
for the health of his patrons and employees.
"Give me a year, and if the law doesn't pass
we may just do it," Cohen said. "I would be
willingto take a hit, for sure, but not a hitsuch
that it would put me out of business."
Cohen said he would take a survey of his
customer base asking them how much they
would mind if he did away with indoor smok-
ing, and if he felt he could do it without sink-
ing his business, he would.
But until that day comes there are still
employees at his bar that don't have a choice.
"I don't like it, but it's where the money is,"
Black Pearl bartender Kiley Trupiano said.
Trupiano, an LSA junior from Livonia, Mich.,
has been working at bars since she was 15,
despite a history of smoking-related health
issues.
At the age of 16, Trupiano went to the hospi-
tal because she was having trouble breathing.
Her doctor asked if she smoked. Trupiano,
who has never smoked a cigarette in her life,
immediately called her mom, infuriated.
Trupiano's mother had been smoking Vir-
ginia Slims since before her daughter was
born, which was part of the reason that in
high school, without ever having had a ciga-
rette so much as touch her lips, Trupiano was
diagnosed with asthma.
"I was mad," she said,-the memory making
her emotional. "I was upset that she chose
to smoke and to hurt her body but I get the
effects of it."
Trupiano had no idea she could get asthma
from second-hand smoke, and, as a result, she
has always steered clear of cigarettes. But,
despite her personal experience with smok-
ing, her reasons for supporting the ban come
down to common courtesy rather than serious
health risks.
"You come out to have a good dinner and
enjoy your food, and if someone's smoking
next to you, you just get the taste of cigarette
smoke," she said. "So you're having the perfect
glass of wine with the perfect meal and some
asshole next to you is smoking a cigarette and
you can't enjoy it."
LSA senior Sky Lee is used to smoking
inside - at friends' houses, local bars and
restaurants - but he understands why people
would want it banished from public places
Lee said that the inconvenience a ban
would impose on him isn't enough pf a reason
to oppose it.
"I'm not a very political person myself
but I'm just speaking in the terms of, almost
a moral sense," Lee said, clicking his Zippo
lighter with a flick of his wrist. "If they can
respect the right for me to smoke outdoors, I
think it's my part to at least respect (them)."
Although he agreed with banning indoor
smoking in, Lee said he would not support a
law that extended the no-smoking zone to the
area outside public places.
"Indoors, they can (ban smoking), as long
as they don't get in the way of my smoking
outdoors," he said.
The smoking population on campus ranges
from once-in-a-blue-moon drunk puffers to
students who have to step outside just to get
through a three-hour class. But it's irrefutable
that smoking is still a part of college culture.
Students of all stripes can be seen puffing in
the Diag between classes or standing for a
few minutes outside Mason Hall before they
retreat back to the Fishbowl for hours of
studying.
Those who steal a drag off their friends
Marlboro Light outside Good Time Charley's,
the I-only-smoke-when-I-drink smokers
See SMOKING BAN, Page 8B
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When Henry Cohen opened the Black Pearl
on Main Street in September, he had to make a
decision about the identity of his martini bar.
As an ex-smoker who takes the damag-
ing effects of second-hand smoke seriously,
Cohen wanted to make his bar a non-smoking
establishment.
"I think (smoking) makes it unpleasant for
people who are nonsmokers," he said. "In fact
I know."
But because smoking is so deeply ingrained
in the Ann Arbor bar scene, Cohen didn't
think he had a choice.
"Here's the truth: I would love to make my
restaurant non-smoking; but because we're a
brand new restaurant that's just been estab-
lished, I can't take the economic risk of losing
the business," he said. "There are competitors
just down the street who (allow smoking)."
But with the legislation banning indoor
smoking gaining more and more steam in the
Michigan state legislature, Cohen might not
have to wait for long to banish smoking from
his business.
Rep. Brenda Clack (D-Flint) introduced a
bill to the Michigan House of Representatives
last year that would ban indoor smoking in all
public places with the exception of cigar bars,
bingo halls and casinos.
"We knew it was a battle from the begin-
ning, trying to convince the business commu-
nity that it definitely would not hurt business,"
Clack said.
The bill sat in the House for more than 10
months, going through a number of amend-
ments before it was finally passed by a 56 to
46 vote on Dec. 5.
On May 8, the Republican-majority state
Senate passed the bill -25 yays to 12 nays
- but not without making some significant
changes.
The Senate's version of the ban was a com-
plete ban on smoking in public places, no
exemptions for cigar bars, none for bingo halls
and certainly not for casinos.
"Why should we exempt the Detroit casi-
nos?" said Sen. Tom George (R-Kalamazoo).
"Detroit has huge health problems."
The city of Detroit is where a large portion
of the state's Medicaid dollars are spent, and
George, one of the only two physicians on the
Senate and the sponsor of the new bill, said a
smoking ban would lower those costs.
But the new draft didn't please many in the
House who believe that an outright ban would
diminish the casinos as revenue makers for
the city of Detroit and the state, and the bill
was stopped in the House, six votes short of
the 56 needed,
"I know there are economic issues that
many people feel are an issue, that we would
be losing jobs if the casinos and Detroit were
required to ban smoking," said Rep. Pam
Byrnes (D-Chelsea). "That's what the argu-
ment is, that many people will get laid off, we
will be losing jobs."
The bill still sits on the House docket, wait-
ing to be brought up again for a vote. It could
likely be brought up in the next few months
after the election, when lame-duck represen-
tatives no longer fear upsetting voters. But
no matter the result of the next House vote,
there is clearly momentum behind Michigan
joining the 35 states that have enacted anti-
smoking laws.