Upstate Bar Wins Reversal of State's Smoking Ban
January 13, 2004
By MICHELLE YORK
CICERO, N.Y., Jan. 10 - Decades ago, David A. Damon Jr.
used to come to his father's bar and banquet hall to spin
records, the vinyl kind, for the regulars.
It was a place where people stopped after fishing on Oneida
Lake. Or for banquets celebrating another year of bowling
competition. For nine years, the Elks ran the hall, about
10 miles north of Syracuse, as their private club. But in
1996, when the club could no longer afford the mortgage
payments, the son took it back as his retirement venture.
Mr. Damon never meant to make much money. His business,
Damons, was just a place where the memories were as old as
the chairs (also the vinyl kind).
But he never meant to lose money, either. And he did after
the state's smoking law went into effect last July. "I got
killed," said Mr. Damon, 69, a retired engineer. "I didn't
just lose the smokers; I lost the friends of the smokers,
the nonsmokers, who didn't want to hang out without them."
"People used to come in after golfing," he added. "I
stopped seeing fishermen, too. I used to have bowling
banquets, but people decided they'd rather shake hands at
the last game and go home. They changed their lifestyles."
When the weather began to turn last fall, even the bar's
loyalists dropped off after growing tired of tramping out
to the gravel parking lot in the cold for a smoke. Mr.
Damon said his receipts were down by $1,000 a week. He laid
off his only employee, a part-time bartender, and was using
his retirement savings and Social Security checks to keep
the bar open.
"There used to be 15 to 20 cars in the parking lot, and now
you see two," said Michael Smith, a regular who gave up
smoking years ago.
Alarmed, Mr. Damon went to Onondaga County officials to
exercise a provision in the smoking law intended for just
such a predicament. After he proved his economic hardship,
and demonstrated that the bar had a separate room suitable
for a smoking lounge, the county granted a waiver. Scott
Wexler, executive director of the Empire State Restaurant
and Tavern Association, a trade group, said he thought the
waiver for Damons was the first in the state.
Apparently it will not be the last. "There's going to be a
few more that meet the criteria," said Gary R. Sauda, the
director of environmental health for the county, which is
considering 24 other applications.
The association believes that 10 percent of the state's
16,000 restaurants and bars that are licensed to sell
alcohol will ultimately find ways around the tobacco law.
How they do so will vary.
When smoking restrictions in the state Clean Indoor Air Act
were tightened last year, the state law superseded local
smoking laws. But it allows New York City and those
counties with full-service health departments to decide
whether they will grant waivers and under what conditions.
In rural counties without full-service health departments,
the state policy for exemptions takes over, said Claire
Pospisil, a State Health Department spokeswoman.
Some places, like New York City, and Westchester and
Suffolk Counties, do not offer waivers, health officials
said. Nassau County recently decided to offer them. "It's
happening as we speak," said Cynthia Brown, a spokeswoman
for the county's Health Department.
Other counties decided to offer waivers but did not
establish guidelines for applications, a situation that has
stalled the process.
Some counties may have been waiting for direction from the
state, which issued guidelines just in December suggesting
that bars that lose 15 percent of their business may be
eligible, said Mr. Sauda, the Onondaga environmental health
director. Onondaga decided to not require a certain
percentage, only a substantiated drop.
Two "economically depressed" counties in the state may try
to give waivers to any bars that ask for them, Mr. Wexler
said, though he declined to name the counties.
The delays and different rules have led to confusion,
frustration and perhaps action, Mr. Wexler said. "News that
a bar in Cicero is getting a waiver has stimulated the
effort for a level playing field," he said. "The smoking
ban will be a major topic in the Legislature this year. I
just don't think it's going away."
Since news of the waiver broke, Mr. Wexler said, his office
has been getting about a dozen calls a day from bar owners
who feel hopeful for the first time since the law was
passed.
Even in counties that have guidelines in place, like
Onondaga, bar owners face a lengthy approval process. Mr.
Damon said the paperwork took weeks, "not including
thinking time," he said, "because I guess thinking time
doesn't count." He turned over financial records comparing
receipts from August through October over a three-year
period, and they showed a 40 percent drop in business last
year, after the ban took effect. He escorted county
inspectors through Damons, showing them a separate banquet
room and ventilation system.
His application was approved and the waiver was
hand-delivered during the holidays. "Now I have to see if I
can get customers back," he said.
As reports of the waiver have spread, he has picked up some
new patrons. "I saw it on the news," said Shawn Prell of
North Syracuse, "and I said, `Good! We're going to this
place.' " Ms. Prell stopped in for a drink on a recent
afternoon with her husband, Ed. "We even called our
friends."
The Prells confirmed what Mr. Damon believed: that smokers
cut down on the number of times they went out to bars or
restaurants, but not on their cigarettes, after the ban
took effect. "We used to go out every week, but now we go
out once a month," Ms. Prell said. "We're saving money."
Mr. Damon clearly hopes to change that. He pointed the
Prells toward the smoking lounge and poured their first
drink.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/13/nyregion/13WAIV.html?ex=1075131228&ei=1&en=3211fc57ebcd4232
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Wake Up New York City!
While it is not the express purpose of this egroup to bombard it's members with political messages sometimes an issue comes up that I think needs to be shared with everyone on this group. While the main reason for this group is to keep members informed about events at Raven it is also important to keep members informed about issues that effect Raven and the whole bar industry as well.
I'm writing this because last year I flooded your inboxes about the smoking ban. That stopped when Sandee Wright of the Whiskey Ward and I started TUFFNYC(Taverners United For Fairness). Now there is a place for anyone involved in the bar or club industry to go to get all the latest on the ban and on the subject I'm about to introduce. If any of you are interested please feel free to join.
So what's all the hubbub? Plans are in the works at the Dept Of Consumer Affairs and at City Hall to close down all bars and clubs in NYC at 1 am. This is really going to happen unless we start fighting this NOW!
So if you thought the smoking ban sucked or even if you didn't mind the ban, try this one on for size.
The city is asking us to take a 21 hour cut. And at our busiest hours at that. That's when the party is just getting started. That's when the momentum of a great night just kicks in. That's what pays the bills and keeps places like your favorite bar open. Now the city would ask you to go home at 1am. Gosh, we all may as well move to Altus Arkansas.
The city will say that they've gotten too many complaint about noisy streets late at night and they've got to do something about. And they'll haul out every so called neighborhood activists who ever went before a community board with a complaint letter in hand. That's not say that people don't have legitimate grips about bars and clubs in their neighborhood. Lord knows our industry isn't exactly made up of saints.
But there are also many bars and clubs that do respond to their community. And bars like Raven are a safe haven on what was once a dark and dangerous corner.
What is most unfair about this whole thing is that if it weren't for the smoking ban the streets wouldn't be nearly as noisy. But the city won't hear that. They'd rather destroy NYC's nightlife rather than work out a solution that would make everyone happy. And believe me, there are solutions. But the people who run the city government don't care about that. They look at bars and clubs as havens for crime and drugs. "Buckets of Blood " is what the Guiliani administration used to call them. Buckets of Bucks is more like it, the way our industry is taxed and regulated.
We add billions of dollars to the city's and state's economy every year and we are treated like vermin. Did anyone ever think that we would miss old Rudy? He was no friend of NYC's nightlife and he put many clubs out of business. (Coney Island High is one that comes to mind. Man, that was a great club). But at least he realized that smoking bans would be no good for the city's quality of life or it's economy.
If you are a member of this group I would expect that you love to go out and enjoy the nightlife. So this is going to effect everyone of you. Are you gonna just go home at 1am and be good little New Yorkers or are you going to take a stand?
Our actions are only in the planning stages now so watch this space for more news.
This is how David Rabin, president of New York Nightlife Association explains it in a posting on the TUFF group:
"Harold is unfortunately right...the supposed "no more cabaret" law is nothing of the sort...where you can dance and not dance is solely determined by zoning and use group...Dept of Consumer Affairs isn't changing zoning...in fact, although they will no longer issue or enforce cabaret laws (if this law comes into play....hearings may be as soon as March/April), but...they will force over 1000 places to have to get a post-1 Am licensethat is very easily revoked via very subjective criteria and without due process...Dykstra used the dancing scam to get press for how great she is, but the actual proposal is the biggest threat to nightlife that we have ever faced
we will detail more in the near future
our first goal is actually NOT to attack this in the press yet b/c we don't want it to become a rallying call for crazy anti-nightlife neighborhood people
we are first going to try for the next month or two a sustained and broad based campaign to lobby the city council against this bill
but Harold is also right in that in order for us to convince potential liquor sponsors that we speak for the industry in NYC, we need as many
members as possible...so please do contact bob
also, if you still have smoking ban petitions...get them to NYNA or sponsors...
can the ban (and can the 1 AM license proposal)
to the address in Albany listed on front...this is also important to our
David Rabin"
For more information get in touch with NYNA's executive director Bob Zuckerman, bob@nyna.org .
Bartenders take note, NYNA is offering membership to individual bar and club workers at a deeply discounted rate.You don't have to be an owner to join anymore.
Joining NYNA will make them stronger and better able to fight this and other issues. It will also give you an opportunity to take an active part in your industry at a price you can afford.
