Uber Alles New York, New York Uber Alles
By The Good Reverend James Gielow Title inspired by the Dead Kennedys July 28, 2003
Well New Yorkers, its finally happened. Following suit with regulations in Delaware and California, New York has now delivered a critical and unjust blow to smokers. As if emphysema and lung cancer wasnt punishment enough, now innocent smokers go the way of the leper. Effective July 23, 2003 at midnight you gentle smokers were forced out into the cold from your favorite drinking establishments. Im used to the ban that they have here in California, but there is a huge difference when I go outside for a smoke in 70o weather all year round. You poor bastards will soon be up to your ass in sleet and snow huddling together for warmth as those health conscious non-smoking alcoholics gloat and laugh while their liver turns into a viscous porridge.
I wonder if its any coincidence that this ban has passed in this new age of complete and utter control from the Republican Party. Republicans that are hiding under a weird liberal veil while sticking it to the middle and lower classes. Is it any surprise that this ban affects mostly smaller Mom-N-Pop businesses? People who need as many customers as they can get are losing customers whenever these Gestapo regulations are imposed.
The NYS Restaurant Association has been pushing for this ban in order to level the playing field. Due to the fact that their membership consists of mainly larger restaurants they feel that its unfair for smaller businesses to benefit from the previous ban. Its a microcosm of what the Republican establishment is doing to the entire country. Plus, the very fact that the NYS Restaurant Association is complaining only shows that NO ONE wants a smoking ban; its bad for business.
We asked some local Buffalo bars their thoughts on the ban and how it has affected business. We received some mixed responses, but just about everyone noticed a drastic drop in business since last Wednesday.
Val, a bartender from the west side bar Essex Street Pub had only two people in the bar Tuesday night, with three outside smoking. Last Friday the Essex was slow as hell she said. And when asked if the ban has hurt business, Big time! To our regulars, the Essex is a little cage. People stay in here and love to drink and smoke. When the smoking ban hit, they seem to step outside, realize how much their last drink hit them, and head home.
Will from the Chippewa bar Big Shots also had only two patrons Tuesday night. When asked about last Friday he said, We have a porch where people can smoke, but we only had about a quarter of our usual crowd on Friday. When asked if it has hurt business, I have mixed feelings on this, being a non-smoker. When I closed the bar I could actually smell hot garbage on Chippewa instead of cigarette smoke. Sure, its hurt us. Smoking and drinking go hand in hand. How pleasant it must to be able to enjoy the finer smells of downtown! Will never mentioned anything about his own health from being around second hand smoke.
If you look at the effects on businesses in California when our ban took place starting in 1995 for restaurants and then 1998 for bars, taverns and casinos; you can see a possible future for NYS businesses. Californias Restaurant Association said last year that spending by smokers in bars and restaurants declined 30 percent due to the fact that many smokers dont linger in an establishment that they cant smoke in. Also, the growth of new bars has declined. The annual growth in bars has been about 5 percent nationwide, but only 2 percent in California.
But fear not, unlike Californias many failed attempts to repeal our smoking ban, you may still have a chance. The organization NYC CLASH (Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment) has hired a Rockland County attorney to file a lawsuit against the state of New York. The claim of NYC CLASH is that the statewide ban is unconstitutional and has retained the services of Kevin Mulhearn of Orangeburg to represent its members. I have been retained by the organization to analyze the issues, to mount a constitutional challenge to the efficacy and enforcement of the law, which I am doing, he said. I hope to file a lawsuit in the next couple of months and our goal is to have the law invalidated. For more info on NYC CLASH check out their website at www.nycclash.com or call 917-888-9317.
Heres a good example of the brains behind the ban; Russell Sciandra of the Center for a Tobacco-Free New York recently said, Its now within sight where the standard will be that non-smokers can have every right to expect that when they are in public, they wont be exposed to smoking. That sounds great, genius, but bars and restaurants arent public places, theyre PRIVATE establishments that ALLOW the public to enter.
Furthermore, the belief that second hand smoke is actually harmful to people is debatable. Consider the following statement, which was released from the British Medical Journal on May 17, 2003:
Environmental tobacco smoke does not affect mortality Environmental tobacco smoke was not associated with mortality from coronary heart disease or lung cancer at any level of exposure in a large study of Californians followed for 40 years. Based on an analysis tracking 35,561 adults who had never smoked and their smoker spouses between the periods of 1960 and 1998, Enstrom and Kabat suggest that the effects of environmental tobacco smoke, particularly for coronary heart disease, are considerably smaller than generally believed.
As for me, when I first got to San Diego four years ago, the first thing I did was head to a bar. After putting a healthy dent into the first of many pitchers, I went up to the bar with a cigarette dangling out of my mouth and asked the bartender for an ashtray. She stared at me like I was a lunatic and all the folk around me at the bar snickered. "There is no smoking in bars in San Diego sir, you'll have to go to the designated smoking area outside!" she said cruelly.
Ever since then, I, and the rest of the SoCal smokers, have been forced into ridiculous and demoralizing smoking sections consisting of 30-50 people packed into a space no bigger than an elevator car.
When I go back to Buffalo for visits, smoking in the bars is the one thing I dream about whilst on the plane traveling east. Now, I have precious little to look forward to on my next visit. In the past I was able to laugh it off as the usual smug, pretentious and faux-environmentalism bullshit that runs rampant in California. Now what? How can I boast about my hometown to these listless hippies and silicon junkies? If people are so health conscious, what the bloody fucking hell are they doing in a bar?
The very notion of being in the Old Pink or The Continental at 3:00am without a cigarette in my mouth and a thick fog of smoke rolling throughout the bar, masking the ugliness that dwells in those wonderful establishments, fills me with such a FEAR that I can't help but vomit and shit my pants at the same time.
I can't express my disappointment strongly enough, and now, my only smoking safe haven is a shitty little tavern in the heart of the Grand Teton mountains in Wyoming called The Virginian. Its a hell of a commute, and they don't take kindly to strangers!
Power to the heathens!
Published in the BEAST in October of 2003
Published in the BEAST in June of 2003
I also wrote the article that accompanies this illustration. It has been posted on the next page.
Published in the BEAST in July of 2003
By The Good Reverend James Gielow
inspired by the Dead Kennedys
July 28, 2003
Well New Yorkers, its finally happened. Following suit with regulations in Delaware and California, New York has now delivered a critical and unjust blow to smokers. As if emphysema and lung cancer wasnt punishment enough, now innocent smokers go the way of the leper. Effective July 23, 2003 at midnight you gentle smokers were forced out into the cold from your favorite drinking establishments. Im used to the ban that they have here in California, but there is a huge difference when I go outside for a smoke in 70o weather all year round. You poor bastards will soon be up to your ass in sleet and snow huddling together for warmth as those "health conscious" non-smoking alcoholics gloat and laugh while their liver turns into a viscous porridge.
The NYS Restaurant Association has been pushing for this ban in order to "level the playing field". Due to the fact that their membership consists of mainly larger restaurants they feel that its unfair for smaller businesses to benefit from the previous ban. Its a microcosm of what the Republican establishment is doing to the entire country. Plus, the very fact that the NYS Restaurant Association is complaining only shows that NO ONE wants a smoking ban; its bad for business.
Val, a bartender from the west side bar Essex Street Pub had only two people in the bar Tuesday night, with three outside smoking. Last Friday the Essex was "slow as hell" she said. And when asked if the ban has hurt business, "Big time! To our regulars, the Essex is a little cage. People stay in here and love to drink and smoke. When the smoking ban hit, they seem to step outside, realize how much their last drink hit them, and head home."
Continued...
Will from the Chippewa bar Big Shots also had only two patrons Tuesday night. When asked about last Friday he said, "We have a porch where people can smoke, but we only had about a quarter of our usual crowd on Friday." When asked if it has hurt business, "I have mixed feelings on this, being a non-smoker. When I closed the bar I could actually smell hot garbage on Chippewa instead of cigarette smoke. Sure, its hurt us. Smoking and drinking go hand in hand. " How pleasant it must to be able to enjoy the finer smells of downtown! Will never mentioned anything about his own health from being around second hand smoke.
If you look at the effects on businesses in California when our ban took place starting in 1995 for restaurants and then 1998 for bars, taverns and casinos; you can see a possible future for NYS businesses. Californias Restaurant Association said last year that spending by smokers in bars and restaurants declined 30 percent due to the fact that many smokers dont linger in an establishment that they cant smoke in. Also, the growth of new bars has declined. The annual growth in bars has been about 5 percent nationwide, but only 2 percent in California
But fear not, unlike Californias many failed attempts to repeal our smoking ban, you may still have a chance. The organization NYC CLASH (Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment) has hired a Rockland County attorney to file a lawsuit against the state of New York. The claim of NYC CLASH is that the statewide ban is unconstitutional and has retained the services of Kevin Mulhearn of Orangeburg to represent its members. I have been retained by the organization to analyze the issues, to mount a constitutional challenge to the efficacy and enforcement of the law, which I am doing, he said. "I hope to file a lawsuit in the next couple of months and our goal is to have the law invalidated. " For more info on NYC CLASH check out their website at www.nycclash.com or call 917-888-9317.
Heres a good example of the brains behind the ban; Russell Sciandra of the Center for a Tobacco-Free New York recently said, "Its now within sight where the standard will be that non-smokers can have every right to expect that when they are in public, they wont be exposed to smoking. " That sounds great, genius, but bars and restaurants arent public places, theyre PRIVATE establishments that ALLOW the public to enter.
"Environmental tobacco smoke does not affect mortality Environmental tobacco smoke was not associated with mortality from coronary heart disease or lung cancer at any level of exposure in a large study of Californians followed for 40 years. Based on an analysis tracking 35,561 adults who had never smoked and their smoker spouses between the periods of 1960 and 1998, Enstrom and Kabat suggest that the effects of environmental tobacco smoke, particularly for coronary heart disease, are considerably smaller than generally believed."
I can't express my disappointment strongly enough, and now, my only smoking safe haven is a shitty little tavern in the heart of the Grand Teton mountains in Wyoming called The Virginian. It's a hell of a commute, and they don't take kindly to strangers!
The Espresso
Fahrenheit
Unpublished
No Images can be reproduced without express permission from the artist.
