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| Smoking snuffed out in Columbia, Richland |
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Oct 1, 2008 |
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Bar patrons accept new rules today ? whining and moaning
The STATE: By OTIS R. TAYLOR JR., otaylor@thestate.com
We no longer will have to hear this invasive query inside local bars: ?Can I bum a smoke??
That well-worn phrase has been effectively banished.
Same goes for that flinty-flick of Bic lighters and the sandpaper scratch of matches.
As of midnight today, all bars and restaurants in Richland County and the city of Columbia are smoke-free.
And Tuesday night, it wasn?t surprising to find that some people were lit up by the new law.
?I?m completely against it,? said Richard Hime, who spins as DJ Keane at iPop, Art Bar?s Friday night dance party. ?We?re all adults. We should make our own decisions.?
Hime, who was drinking Tuesday evening at Group Therapy in Five Points, was out simply because it was the last night he could smoke in a bar.
His friend, Stephen Kish, a nonsmoker, was much less engaged in the smoking debate.
?All of my best friends smoke,? he said. ?If you?re out on a Friday night, you have to make concessions.
?There?s going to be loud drunk girls, people are going to throw up in the bathroom. (Smoking) doesn?t make a difference.?
A few stools down, Homer Monts, sipping a Miller Lite and puffing on a Marlboro Ultra 100, wondered aloud about the ban?s consequences ? for patrons and bar owners.
?I?m a firm believer in the rights of the business owner and the clientele,? said Monts, 50, who has been drinking at Group since it opened 30 years ago. ?What happens when the nonsmokers complain about the smoke outside??
Philip Brown, who was having an early evening cocktail at Group with his girlfriend, Natale Carroll, knows a little more about smoking bans than the average bar customer: He owns The Venue on Broad, a Camden rock club.
Camden instituted its ban last weekend, and Brown will monitor how it affects business when The Carolina Downhome Blues Festival begins there Thursday.
?That?s the big test,? he said.
At Goatfeather?s, another Five Points bar, a man smoked a Calabash pipe as he pecked at his Apple laptop. He was sharing the bar?s monstrous round table with the owner, Jeff Helsley, who thinks the ban will hurt more than his business.
?Columbia is shooting themselves in the foot because they get two percent of my business for the hospitality tax,? said Helsley, who has owned the bar for 28 years. ?And this is a bad time for the city to be losing revenue.?
Helsley pointed out something every bar owner around Wall Street now knows: Bars do strong business when the economy gets battered.
But is the new rule really going to deter patrons from hanging out with their buds and Bud Lights?
David Dunn is a refined drinker and smoker. Flipping through an alternative weekly newspaper at Speakeasy in Five Points, Dunn held a billowing cigar in his hand.
?I came here because it?s the last night to do it in Columbia,? said Dunn, who owns VC3, a computer services firm. ?I now have to go to Charleston to find a good cigar bar.?
For some bars, the last night of smoking wasn?t a big deal.
Sure, Art Bar in the Vista is at times a scene of majestic late-night debauchery, but Tuesday, the staff didn?t bother to put out the ashtrays.
The Whig, the underground hipster hangout at Main and Gervais, was having its regular taco night. The bar?s smoke cloud was not unlike what one gets when opening the oven after cooking meat on broil.
Dino Pournaras, one of the bar?s owners, was resigned to the inevitable.
?There?s nothing we can do about it,? he said.
As a growing crowd clogged the hallway at Headliners, waiting to see Theory of a Deadman, owner Jay Beneventano said he didn?t know where he would put smokers for subsequent shows.
And the club is hosting a show Oct. 9 sponsored by Camel cigarettes.
Another well-worn phrase fits the smoking situation here: It is what is.
So if you?re out tonight, be prepared for a new invasive question from smokers: ?Can you watch my seat??
Smoking Ban
What you need to know about Columbia?s smoking ban, which goes into effect today:
The ban is for all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.
The fine is $25.
If a business has three citations within six months, it could lose its business license.
Enforcement will rely on customers complaining about bars or restaurants that allow smoking.
To complain about a bar or restaurant in Columbia, call the city?s business license office at (803) 545-3345.
The smoking ban also goes into effect in Richland County today, but it won?t be enforced until County Council updates its fines to reflect a Supreme Court ruling last month.
Reach Taylor at (803) 771-8362.
? 2008 TheState.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thestate.com |
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