Since I started blogging, I have gotten more comments about the smoking ban that about any other topic. Here is what I have heard so far. Take a look through the comments or cast your vote here!
Comments Received
1. Hi Steve - I think it is great that you are doing a poll regarding the smoking question. However, your poll only has the options of Total Yes or Total NO ...... I do not know what is going to be recommended, but it would be interesting to see how responses would be with options, such as 1) No smoking in indoor public places and restaurants, and taverns without a segregated smoking section with a filtration system meeting X air exchange per hour requirements 2) No smoking as detailed in number one above, but also no smoking outdoors in spectator sections of sporting and entertainment events, except in special designated areas 3) No smoking in any public indoor or outdoor area 4) Smoking allowed in all areas without restriction. Please note that I am a former cigarette smoker who quit some twenty years ago, and I have left more than one commercial venue due to too much smoke. However, I am personally reluctant to outlaw vices in a Big Brother manner and I believe that people should be able to use tobacco products, as long as there are segregated areas with adequate filtration systems, to keep the smoke away from others.
- Dave Tatarowicz, Shorewood Village Trustee Candidate
2. Steve - Speaking for myself, I would NOT say the board is "getting impatient" - advocates for the ban certainly are though. This will eventually come up for an up or down vote before the board, and there are going to be unhappy constituents on both sides of the issue regardless of the outcome, but to characterize that as "divisive politics" is just not fair. The issue is what has the potential to be divisive, not the process by which the board is considering it. The Community and Business Relations Committee and the board as a whole has, I believe, shown a committment to coming to a decision based on a fair and deliberative process. Please join us at the Dec. 4 Board Meeting when we will discuss the next steps in this process. We can't talk this issue to death - action is going to have to be taken sooner or later. Thanks.
- Dawn Anderson, Shorewood Village Trustee
3. An all-out ban in all establishments, only in Shorewood, most definitely will hurt businesses. Our best course is to take the NY approach of pushing to raise state taxes on cigarettes, making the cost so high ($7-8 a pack) that smokers quit in large numbers (and teenage smokers become extraordinarily rare). Then it will be much easier to get through smoking ban everywhere. After that, if we do decide to go it alone as a village in order to present ourselves as cutting edge, we need to make an exception for bars, or give tax relief to the restaurants in the changeover from smoking to all nonsmoking AND put money and effort into promoting Shorewood as the one place you can go for a meal at a restaurant and know for sure that you won't be breathing in carcinogens. Eventually, nonsmokers will make their way to Shorewood restaurants over smoking restaurants, but we must protect the restaurants' profits in the changeover. After all, these businesses are taxpayers. Let's show business owners that we care about our businesses here--we don't beat them up in the name of political correctness. (By the way, I go out of my way to patronize nonsmoking establishments and avoid smoking ones because I despise secondhand smoke in my breathing space--which is a major reason why I've become a regular at Benjamin's Deli.)
- Nancy Peske, Shorewood Resident
4. I believe in a ban in restaurants, but I do not believe in a total ban in taverns/bars. At the very least, smokers should have a designated area in drinking establishments where they can light up.
- Anonymous
5. Wauwatosa went smoke free five months ago
