Deadline for the Austin Smoking Ordinance

Austin-American Statesman: It's last call for smokers

At 12:01 a.m. Thursday, city's ban will embrace almost all establishments.

Across Austin this week - and just outside it - restaurants and bars, bowling alleys and pool halls are bracing for the impact of the smoking ban that voters narrowly approved in May. Ashtrays will go the way of spittoons. Nonprofits are bolstering their quit-smoking resources. And a handful of area joints that are exempt from the ban are opening their doors a little wider to draw in smokers.

A fine of up to two thousand dollars for smoking in a "public place." I get so gawddamn angry every time I visit this subject.

Full text here, but the Amlegal.com website never consistently works, so either be patient if you want to read the details of this particular invasion of freedom or download the ordinance text here. The Health and Human Services Department has two PDFs to read: a FAQ and the results of a Q&A community meeting. The bloody details are in there.

Everything I've written relating to the Austin smoking bans, in reverse order:

1. Yeah, We'll Just All Talk It Over
   
2. The Additional Tyranny - The New Austin Smoking Ban Passes
   
3. Austin Smoking Ban Hits the News
   
4. "This is beginning to feel like persecution."
   
5. Fight the Austin Smoking Ban
   
6. Austin Smoking Ban in Effect Today
   
7. The People vs. The Tobacco Industry
   
8. Austin's Smoking Ban, Revisited
   
9. Austin Smoking Ban Update
   
10. Why Society Must Change First III
    
11. Individual Rights & Collective Rights: Smoking
    
12. Austin Smoking Ban Passes
    
13. Austin Smoking Ban Considered Today
    
14. Austin Smoking Ban Finale
    
15. Austin Smoking Ban Passes, Kinda
    
16. Chirac to Smoking Frogs: No More!
    
17. Austin Considers a Smoking Ban

No matter what political inclination I've had over the years, I have always opposed smoking bans. I've always thought if you don't like the atmosphere in a building, it is your duty to decide if staying there is worth it. You cannot convince me you have "no choice" in this matter. You willingly entered, did you not? This goes just as strongly for those who work at pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, and anywhere else that allows smoking inside.

These are your values, people. It's your duty to rank and weigh them against each other.

Each time I walk into Beerland, I acknowledge and understand I'm entering an enclosed environment with lots of smokers inside. But because I value the entertainment and culture inside more than the short-term exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke, I choose to endure the drawbacks. This process is absolutely no different from:

• picking a route to drive to work (distance vs speed vs traffic vs food on the way vs etc.)
  
• choosing a car (fuel efficiency vs looks vs cost vs fun vs etc.)
  
• deciding on your investments (short-term gains vs long-term stability vs liquidity vs tax advantages vs etc.)

These are your values and those 34,197 sonsofbitches that voted for the ordinance have decided they have the authority and the right to impose their values on you. This cartoon does as good a job as any other in explaining the vast disconnect at play here.

And if you're allergic to smoke, you might want to avoid City Hall. Some opponents of the ban - especially some bar owners who fret that the onus is on them, not smokers, to keep up a smoke-free atmosphere - are planning to light up on the steps and leave Mayor Will Wynn or City Manager Toby Futrell - "the proprietors" - facing a smoking complaint.

The commercial property owners are right to worry about getting saddled with the bulk of the problems. They have fixed assets that have been thoroughly licensed, regulated, and inspected by the local government. The City of Austin may, under this ordinance, "suspend or revoke a permit or license issued to the operator of a public place or workplace where a violation of this chapter occurs." That puts the bars and clubs over the barrel. It's much easier to nail them for violating the ban than individuals.

"We're not going to be patrolling the streets," [David Lurie, director of the Austin-Travis County Health and Human Services Department] said. The process will be "complaint-driven" by calls to the environmental and consumer health services line, 972-5600. He said people should not call 911 to report smoking violations.

"As we get complaints we'll be reviewing those," Lurie said. "If we have patterns of noncompliance, we'll take further action."

He said establishments and proprietors are more likely to be the subject of enforcement action than individual smokers.

This is deliberately targeting the things we value in order to hold is hostage to that fabulous arbiter of everything good: the Community...the Consensus...the Collective. I am not kidding when I say the first and most important step towards tyranny is when you discard the individual in favor of the group.

Most studies point out little, if any, negative impact to business from smoking bans.

This is absolutely irrelevant. The Keep Austin Free advocates and supporters should have abandoned this argument, should have never used it. It turns a debate on right and wrong into a debate on who has the best supporting study. They are correct in saying there will be bad consequences from the regulation, but their opponents can simply counter with, "but what's more important than our health!" It's a wasted effort.

Focusing on their right to use their property as they see fit would have been the better choice. Explain that it is wrong to initiate force or to threaten it against those who have not aggressed against another. Point out the guiding philosophy of the ordinance: the government decides in which aspects you own yourself and you own your property.

About the only places left for smokers are bingo halls and fraternal organizations, which were left off the ballot, and a handful of restaurants whose permits were grandfathered in because of their special filtration systems.

This is a clear-cut example of the fucking hypocrisy at work here. The power of the voters who frequent bingo halls and fraternal organizations got them an exemption, while everyone else gets screwed.

The business with the grandfathered exemptions are:

• IHOP No. 1421, 707 E. Cesar Chavez St.
  
• Trudy's, 8820 Burnet Road
  
• Trudy's, 4141 Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360)
  
• Bennigan's, 13995 U.S. 183 North
  
• Cool River, 4001 West Parmer Lane
  
• Hooters, 13701 U.S. 183 North
  
• Shoal Creek Saloon, 909 N. Lamar Blvd.
  
• Iron Cactus, 10001 Stonelake Blvd.

Here's a bit at the end of the Statesman article that just infuriates me:

On Thursday, the mayor declared September to be Support Austin's Nightlife Month.

Copyright 2001-2005 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved.

Gee, THANKS! Now that the blessings of the Mayor of Austin have been bestowed upon an industry he has utterly no responsibility in creating and maintaining, perhaps it might overcome the multiple roadblocks he and his government have thrown in the nightlife industry's path.

Motherfucker.

Posted by Drizzten at August 30, 2005 01:13 PM