Put your cigarettes out

Leave your opinions at home 

After months of sometimes (OK, usually) heated discussion about the new ordinance banning smoking (and vaping) in nearly every bar in New Orleans, the law is set to take effect at midnight tonight, and the city has launched a web page to explain it all.

The group Smoke Free NOLA will celebrate and take a victory lap with a free "Smokefree Kickoff" free music show tomorrow night (April 23) at Le Bon Temps Roule with Paul Sanchez, Deacon John and other musicians.

Here's what you need to know before tomorrow

Read the rest of that Gambit post for those things you need to know.  I will mention a few of the items listed though.  First, although the ban goes into effect tonight, there is still a slim chance that it will be undone by a last minute lawsuit filed by Harrah's last week.  We'll know more about that after a month but don't expect much to happen.  The smoking ban is here and it's here to stay.

And, as we've said previously, that is a good thing. The core issue at hand here is basic workplace safety.  Employers should not be allowed to require their (already poorly compensated) workers to expose themselves to hazardous conditions.  Maybe the ban seems weird to you because it runs counter to the city's "notoriously freewheeling and fun-loving" reputation but you will just have to get over that.

On the other hand, the law does come with some potential negative externalities that bear attention in the future. The most serious is the way it might combine with the sound ordinance to create "nuissance bars" where previously there were none... and then shut those bars down.  The Snake and Jakes owners express such concerns here.

Snake and Jake's, however, is a different story.

"I have nowhere to tell people to go outside to smoke," Clements said. "People tell me, 'It's no big deal. They can just go outside.' My bar gets busy from 2 in the morning until 7 or 8 in the morning, and I'm in a residential neighborhood. Even in the backyard, there are houses that butt right up there. It might be fine for Carrollton Station, which has a back patio. For me, it's going to be a real  problem."

"The locals, they're going to respect our neighbors," Rogers said. "When we have tourists in town ... those locals are going to remind people, if they get a little bit loud, to keep it down. They'll police themselves quite a bit. If that doesn't happen, we'll take steps to make sure people are aware."

Bars labeled a "nuisance" are subject to heavy fines and penalties from the city's Alcohol Beverage Control Board, and the Landrieu administration has cracked down on them several times during the mayor's two terms in office. A 2012 press release from the city boasted that while only 32 violations had been prosecuted in 2009, "due to a successful commitment to better enforce nuisance establishments, 287 prosecutions have occurred since the beginning of 2011."

Will we trust the city enforcement agencies to be understanding of the difficult position they're putting neighborhood bars in? Not. One. Bit. But this is really a separate issue from whether or not the smoking ban is a good idea. It's just something we'll have to watch now.

Speaking of watching. There is also this.



Check the fine print on these signs.  They enlist you, citizen, in the state's network of informants.  It will be incumbent upon you, in your vigilance, to notify the authorities about the naughty behavior of your neighbors.  You are even encouraged to take pictures (!) and send them in to a city department via the 311 system.  

You might imagine this could lead to some bad things.

Anyway, enjoy your smoke-free future, New Orleans.  On balance, it's a good thing. Still, we might have difficulty.

Dear Judge Carville

Please receive the contents of this envelope I am faxing to you on behalf of Harrah's Casino Inc.

Harrah's Casino and many French Quarter bars and clubs have filed a suit against the City of New Orleans to halt the impending smoking ban set to take effect April 22. The suit was filed in Civil District Court, which has set a hearing date for the case on May 21. The court, however, denied Harrah's request for a restraining order that aimed to stop the ordinance before it was to take effect

Manufactured nuissances

The smoking ban, in and of itself, is fairly obviously the correct thing to do.  At least if you care about healthy working conditions for service employees, it is.  But the external problem it's going to cause is.. well, it's going to be a problem.

Snake and Jake's, however, is a different story.

"I have nowhere to tell people to go outside to smoke," Clements said. "People tell me, 'It's no big deal. They can just go outside.' My bar gets busy from 2 in the morning until 7 or 8 in the morning, and I'm in a residential neighborhood. Even in the backyard, there are houses that butt right up there. It might be fine for Carrollton Station, which has a back patio. For me, it's going to be a real  problem."

"The locals, they're going to respect our neighbors," Rogers said. "When we have tourists in town ... those locals are going to remind people, if they get a little bit loud, to keep it down. They'll police themselves quite a bit. If that doesn't happen, we'll take steps to make sure people are aware."

Bars labeled a "nuisance" are subject to heavy fines and penalties from the city's Alcohol Beverage Control Board, and the Landrieu administration has cracked down on them several times during the mayor's two terms in office. A 2012 press release from the city boasted that while only 32 violations had been prosecuted in 2009, "due to a successful commitment to better enforce nuisance establishments, 287 prosecutions have occurred since the beginning of 2011."

Unless we come to some reasonable solution to the ongoing sound ordinance debate... and unless the ABC board suddenly decides to stop its crusade against neighborhood bars, (don't hold your breath in either case) this is going to cause more trouble. 

Neighborhood Watch

Well now we know who will enforce the smoking ban. Guess what, it is you.

People can file complaints against businesses ignoring the new smoking ban by filling out a complaint form or calling the city's non-emergency 311 hotline.

After receiving a second complaint, the city's health department will conduct a site visit and "provide educational materials and encourage compliance."

The proposed regulations don't spell out what would happen after additional violations.

The city encourages people filing complaints to include date- and time-stamped photographs documenting illegal smoking.

MARGE SIMPSON: "You know, the courts may not be working any more, but as long as everyone is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done."

This past weekend, a friend on the Parallel Internet recounted a story about Sidney Torres's privatized app cops responding to noise complaints even though that wasn't supposed to be their purpose.

Admittedly: We were making a fair ruckus, dancing in the street on Bourbon. I get why folks might have preferred a bit more peaceful Sunday afternoon in the Quarter after a recently-departed parade. And I can understand why people might complain. But this response shocked me. The point of the app, as I understand it, is to help prevent crime. Within a week or two of launching, it seems like it's already evolved to a NIMBY-ish alert. We weren't asked to simply turn it down - we were ordered to turn it nearly off and to move on towards Esplanade and thus leave the area.

This happened while there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of people dispersing throughout the Quarter as afternoon turned to evening. The same Quarter that has seen the sickening rates of muggings, shootings, violent crime, vandalism, etc. that supposedly sparked the creation of Torres' force. One would hope / think / EXPECT that these Polaris cruisers would have a lot more important things to do, like trying to protect and serve all of the other people. Particularly if this is a program that the City might fund in a few months.

According to a report on WWL, Bob Simms, chairman of the French Quarter Management District Security Task Force, said "We are not having them do quality of life type things because you can tie yourself up with people urinating on the sidewalk and things like that," Simms said. "These are meant to be for real crimes."

The "real crime" is unsanctioned dancing on Bourbon Street after a parade, obviously. This is only the beginning.

You call that living?

City Council has a lot of terrible legislation pending before it in the next few weeks.  Council members Guidry and Head are sponsoring ordinances designed to regulate (they say).. but really.. authorize and sanction Uber and Airbnb in Orleans Parish. Not to mention, also, the noise ordinance is on the way back.  The city has already signaled they may want it to be back with teeth.   More on all of that later.. but I'm convinced this is by far the most right wing city government I've seen in operation during my adult life, at least. 

The good news is, it ain't all bad.

Yesterday District D Council member Jared Brossett introduced an ordinance that would require all contractors doing business with the city to pay a minimum wage of $10.10. 

Brossett, who introduced the ordinance last week, bills it as a "living wage" proposal similar to others approved in progressive cities around the country.

"I am a firm believer that economic opportunity is one the cornerstones of a thriving city," Brossett said Monday (Jan. 26). "Sadly, too many of our citizens don't have that opportunity. A job by itself is not the type of opportunity we need. A good-paying job is what our people need. And if your company wants to do business with the city, we want them to pay you a living wage."

Nevermind that $10.10 is hardly what we could call a "living wage." If you think people can or should be able to live on that, well, as President Obama said, last week, "You try it."

Nevermind, also, that Brossett's proposal conflicts with (an admittedly egregious) 1997 state law (sponsored by our friends David Vitter and Steve Scalise, btw) which specifically prohibits municipalities from passing this kind of ordinance.  Of course such a law deserves a good challenge every now and then.  The last attempt at this was rejected by the State Supreme Court, unfortunately.  Lamar has all of the details here.

My point, though, is that Brossett's proposal, while not exactly a bad idea, is kind of a waste of time and attention because 1) the proposed wage is insufficient to meet any reasonable definition of a "living wage," and 2) it effectively accomplishes nothing baring either a reversal of a Supreme Court decision or a new constitutional amendment.  It makes for a nice headline, of course, but carries little purpose else.

So, like I said, it ain't all bad.. but it ain't all great either.

Last week's very reasonable smoking ordinance is another interesting case. I know some people are.. um... put out by it.. but the law they ended up passing is going to do a lot of good for a lot of people working in service industry jobs.  (And, yes, I'm looking forward to never again coming home smelling like smoke.) Still, it's worth paying attention to the Machivellian  process by which the smoking ban made its way through passage.

The original draft of Council Member Cantrell's ordinance was intentionally bloated with draconian overreach. The ordinance, as written, would have pushed smokers, not only out of the bar, but at least 25 feet away from the front door of the building before they could light up.  This would have caused concerns about negative effect on the surrounding neighborhoods.

The ordinance, as written, would have banned the indoor use of electronic cigarettes.  This might actually be a good idea but it was pretty difficult to justify given what we currently know abut the effects of second-hand vape.

The vaping provision was so ridiculous, in fact, that it dominated much of the public debate on the ordinance. Of course, this was always going to be a bit of a circus. Bar owners and casino managers were certain to complain the moment the ban was conceived.  Interesting, though, that throwing the oddball vapists in with their lot caused their arguments to appear more risible than they otherwise might have. Sort of a subtraction by addition.  I can't help but wonder whether this was calculated.

The ordinance, as written, also included some absurdly severe enforcement provisions which, like all of the others above, had to be amended out.

Yesterday, at-large councilman Jason Williams introduced an amendment to remove NOPD as an enforcement agency. That amendment was approved. NOPD and the still-in-progress NOLA Patrol will not carry out enforcement of the ordinance. District E Councilman James Gray also objected to a community service requirement for people unable to pay the fine. That amendment also was approved. Rather than mandate seven hours of community service to anyone unable to pay the fine, it will now be left to a judge's discretion.

Enforcement of the ordinance is largely incumbent upon businesses to remind smokers to step outside. Bar owners and managers, under the ordinance, must ask smoking patrons to put out their cigarette.

Williams said removing the NOPD from the picture "makes sure we don’t overburden or add an additional burden on the NOPD for a smoke-free New Orleans."

"It would be poor judgement to take police officers off the street for even a minute (to address smoking)," he said."

"It’s not a great thing if it becomes a tool of oppression for some people in this city," Gray added, suggesting that the ordinance could become an excuse to "stop young black men in the street" simply for smoking.

Noble sentiments from Gray and from Williams, of course.  Isn't it neat the way they got to step in and be heroes at the last minute there? Gray, Williams, and Nadine Ramsey got to make a big show of cutting all the nasty parts out of Cantrell's ordinance.  The opposition got to shout into the void. And, of course, the ordinance passed. Everybody wins!

You'd almost think the whole process was a sham and everything was planned out well in advance... you know.. if you thought that's how this stuff worked, anyway.

I'm pretty much just here to push a button

I can't help it if sometimes I get confused about which button they want me to push.

Minutes after Ramsey had joined her colleagues last week in unanimously passing a new anti-smoking ordinance, she offered a new ordinance that would have given Harrah's a 50-percent exemption. Her proposal would also remove "places of employment" from the list of locales that banned smoking and added "tobacco retailers" to the list of places exempted from the ban.

Such changes likely would have gutted the new law by allowing any establishment selling tobacco products or operating as a legal casino to dodge the ban.

Johnson said Ramsey had thought Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration had asked her to offer the changes. The mayor, through his spokesman, disavowed any such request Monday and said he supported the ban that passed last week.

 

Leave your opinions at home, put your cigarettes out

City Council, this morning, is ready to go with the smoke-out.

A proposal that would make it illegal to smoke in most indoor public places, including bars and casinos, appears poised to win approval from the New Orleans City Council on Thursday as long as the measure does not require that the New Orleans Police Department act as an enforcement agency for the ban.

Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, who introduced the ordinance, said she believes at least four other members on the seven-person council will vote for it.

“I think we’re in good shape in taking a step toward protecting our residents, our employees, our musicians,” Cantrell said Wednesday

The last minute appeals of the vapists seem to have fallen on deaf ears. 

The ordinance may ultimately end up including other amendments — from council members and Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration — that would, for instance, allow smoking on certain patios and balconies.

Cantrell said, however, that she has no plan to remove a prohibition on smoking electronic cigarettes indoors despite pressure from e-cigarette lobbyists to exempt the devices.

“The data is not concrete as it relates to (the safety of) e-cigarettes,” Cantrell said. “Until they’ve been regulated, we have to just wait on that.”

I agree with Ms. Cantrell that vaping seems pretty gross and that inhaling large concentrated quantities of nicotine-spiked chemicals is, in all likelihood, not very good for you.   On the other hand, it has been decades since the dangers of second hand smoking have been widely understood and we're only just now confident enough in our legal standing to impose a ban on smoking.  Interesting that we can just plunge ahead and bad e-cigarettes as well with next to zero data available.

But plunging ahead is what this city government tends to do nowadays. And, even though the public is still treated to the spectacle of "public input," One gets the distinct impression that decisions are made far in advance and further from the public eye than they've ever been.

In this case, it's all in the cause of providing hospitality employees with a safer workplace so we can laugh it off a bit.   But it's something to keep in mind, particularly when this comes down.

"The Council will soon be considering an ordinance to permit and regulate transient vacation rentals" http://t.co/EElnAx6AXX
— Charles Maldonado (@CMaldonadoLens) January 22, 2015

We're pretty sure all of the relevant decision-makers there have already made up their minds as well.


Update: Looks like the vapists are getting their clause.  The word, "vape" will be an official legal term in the City of New Orleans.

Upperdate:  The ban passed.  Actually quite reasonable in its amended form.  In all likelihood the harsher provisions (25 feet from doorways, anti-vaping, mandatory sentencing) were in there for negotiating leverage in the first place.

A vape raised with the fume of sighs

This City Council hearing on the smoking ordinance made for some good TV last night.  I'm gonna reference the Gambit write-up a few times.

Before the New Orleans City Council votes on an ordinance that could ban smoking in bars and casinos citywide, the measure's authors held a "town hall"-style meeting to hear one last round of public comment. The City Council will likely hear from several speakers at the City Council meeting on Thursday, Jan. 22, but tonight's hearing made room for more than two hours of comments from all sides of the issue.

There were commenters there from all over Louisiana, some from as far away as Monroe, to tell us about how well similar smoking bans have succeeded where they are from. A lady from Alexandria said that, after a smoking ordinance passed, "bingo halls" continue to flourish there. More than one speaker talked about "bingo halls" for some reason.  I didn't realize they had such an active lobby.

That's nothing compared to the kind of rabble the vapers can rouse, though.

At the council's Jan. 7 Community Development Committee meeting, e-cig users and sellers suggested that if cigar and hookah bars are exempt from the ordinance, so should their stores, where customers can "taste" vape products.

"We don't have a problem with the regulation of electronic cigarettes," said Anthony Kolesa, who runs Smoke Cignals, adding that many e-cig supporters would back the measure if it removed them from the picture.

"We’re all fighting against Big Tobacco," Chad Rogers said. "(The smoke-free campaign) is with Big Pharmaceutical. We’re by ourselves."

Not too surprising that the vapists imagine themselves as defenders of the little guy against Big Pharma. They do give off that kind of vibe.  One vape guy was so passionate that he told us he was, "on fire," which seemed an inappropriate thing to be at this particular hearing. Another told us about his clubbed foot which, he, I guess, implied was caused by tobacco although it wasn't clear.  There was a point where I started to wonder what the overlap is between vapists and people who believe in chemtrails.

Some of the health professionals there tried to point out that, while there are no long term studies on vaping just yet, habitually inhaling a batch of nicotine spiked chemicals is probably.. you know.. not good for you. They were somewhat overshadowed by more hysterical speakers who seemed convinced that e-cigarettes were really just vessels for surreptitiously smoking weed.  One person seemed to think that people are vaping crack.  But she may have just had that confused with the "King Cake flavored e-juice."

I don't know what to say about the vape provision of the ordinance.  Vaping seems pretty gross. But I think it's only in the ordinance in the first place so as to have something to negotiate away before it passes.

A second interest group with significant representation was comprised of employees of Harrah's Casinos whose presence was.. probably not coerced, exactly... but certainly encouraged.  Of the various business owners, bar patrons, and concerned citizens arguing against the ordinance on the grounds that the "free market" was sorting the smoking issue out on its own, the Harrah's people were the least credible.

Sure, there are casinos where management is learning how to adjust to a non-smoking environment. But, in the great majority of cases, this is happening because state and local governments have required that it happen and not through the influence of some magical invisible hand of the market.

"The free market" wants casinos to allow smoking. The most efficient way to run this business depends on trapping people indoors and keeping them disoriented enough to remain in one place continuously emptying their pockets for as long as possible. Asking them to step outside, even for a cigarette is, anathema to the entire model. 

Such a model, naturally, requires casino floor employees to expose themselves to a hazardous smoke-filled environment shift after shift. This is a long-running issue in the industry playing out in labor negotiations and in the courts.

In September (2010), a former employee of the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City, N.J., settled a lawsuit against his ex-employer for $4.5 million. The plaintiff, Vince Rennich, claimed his lung cancer was caused by 25 years of exposure to secondhand smoke at work.

A few years ago, a similar suit was brought by the family of a Harrah's New Orleans employee

The mother of a former Harrah's dealer who died of cancer last year filed the federal suit Wednesday against the casino's owner, Nevada-based Caesars Entertainment Corp.

The suit claims Maceo Bevrotte Jr.'s cancer was "directly linked" to his prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke at the casino. The suit says Bevrotte worked at Harrah's for about 15 years.

That one was dismissed but only on technical grounds.  Which is one reason the appearance of Harrah's management at  City Hall last night came off as obnoxious as it did.  It did, however, allow an opportunity for Latoya Cantrell to fire off the evening's best zinger.

Cantrell asks casino rep. from administrative office who opposes ban: "So you can smoke in your office?" "No, ma'am."
— The_GambitLIVE (@The_GambitLIVE) January 15, 2015

In my mind, the only concern over the ordinance has to do with whether it will cause new noise complaints when smokers go outside. It was an issue raised in this Advocate article last weekend.

But the prospect of having people loitering outside late at night to smoke and perhaps drink worries owners of some bars tucked away in residential neighborhoods.

“It’s the city that’s putting this rule in place, and they’re putting more of these quality-of-life issues on the table without a real good solution to the problems that are going to arise out of them,” said Bill Walker, who has co-owned the Lost Love Lounge in the Marigny since 2010.

But even though this is a legitimate concern, it's really a separate issue from the smoking ban itself. And it's certainly no justification for requiring bartenders, food servers, casino floor workers, musicians, etc. to work in an unnecessarily hazardous environment night after night.   We love to get on TV and talk about how much "tourism matters" and how important all of these service industry jobs are.  Doesn't it follow that we should ensure those jobs are safe and healthy for the people who do them? 

The Green Room is (gonna be non) smoking

However will we burn the joints down now?

Tomorrow, the New Orleans City Council holds its first public meeting on a measure that could extend a smoking ban to bars and casinos. District B City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell's ordinance, as written, also bans all tobacco products and their use within 25 feet of all businesses. Cantrell and supporters, including many public health organizations and city officials, including Mayor Mitch Landrieu and health department director Charlotte Parent, say that an extended smoking ban is a public health measure meant to protect to all employees regardless of their workplace.

Opponents fear not only losing business by forcing smokers on the sidewalk, but creating a logistical problem in especially business-dense areas like the French Quarter, where many businesses are within 25 feet of one another. (District C Councilwoman Nadine Ramsey, whose district includes the French Quarter, already is trying to exempt cigar bars from the measure.)

I really really can't stand cigarette smoke.  And this gets worse as I get older, I'm finding. But even as much as I'd personally benefit from smoke-free bars, I'm still ambivalent about this ordinance.

Cigar bars, on the other hand, just shut that crap down entirely.