Neighborhood Businesses Worry About Smoking Ban

Inside the Ding Dong Lounge on the night of Monday, March 31, bartender Adam Jentleson, CC '03, was reading through a draft of a friend's thesis, making notes on cocktail napkins. It was around 11 p.m. and a Merle Haggard record was playing quietly, but even in the back of the Columbus Avenue bar it was possible to make out every word of it--there were no conversations getting in the way. In fact, there were no patrons in the bar at all.

"The smoking ban started today," Jentleson said, looking out across the cavernous interior of the Ding Dong, which, even on a Monday night, is rarely so empty. "[The city] said it wasn't going to hurt small businesses," he added with a shrug.

The first week under the New York City Smoke-Free Air Act of 2002, legislation which bans smoking in bars, restaurants, and other businesses that went into effect on March 31, was an apprehensive one for bar owners and employees in Morningside Heights, where neighborhood drinking establishments like Amsterdam Avenue's 1020 were once largely defined by the impenetrable clouds of cigarette smoke that filled their interiors.

For bar patrons who see a pint glass and an ashtray as inseparable, the anti-smoking legislation is not merely a health regulation but a seismic cultural shift as well.

Jentleson saw the smoking ban as a potential threat to the financial well-being of bars like the Ding Dong, which is more a neighborhood bar than a Columbia student hangout and, accordingly, does not see the same volume of student business as campus fixtures like the West End. "The first night after the ban was in effect was the slowest night I've ever worked in my six months [at the Ding Dong]," he said, "including the blizzard night" on February 17.

For other owners and employees, the jury is still out. "It's hard to say after one week," 1020 owner Michael McKirnan said, noting that his receipts for the week matched those of the same period in previous years. "[The smoking ban] is both good and bad. I don't see much difference, except it's healthier in the bar, obviously."

"Do I like the law? Of course not," he said. "I don't think [New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg has the right. If he really wanted to address health concerns in New York, he'd ban sugar. But, on the other hand, maybe it'll bring in people who thought that 1020 was too smoky before, so I don't know."

Ding Dong Lounge owner Steve Naidich, CC '90, was equally unwilling to speculate on the financial repercussions of the smoking ban. "It's too early to tell," he said. "There are so many factors that could also be affecting business--the weather, the war, the economy."

"All I can say is that New York ain't what it used to be," he said. "We're trying really hard to do something really fun up here, we're trying to make things interesting, and stuff like this makes it really hard."

Testifying before the City Council's Health Committee in support of the smoking ban last October, Bloomberg argued that it was the city's responsibility to bar and restaurant employees to pass the legislation. "The question before us is straightforward," he said. "Does your desire to smoke anywhere, at any time, trump the right of others to breathe clean air in the workplace? Common sense and common decency demand the following answer: The need to breathe clean air is more important than the license to pollute it."

McKirnan saw things differently. "[Bloomberg] says he's doing it for the bar employees, but out of our bartenders you're not going to find one who would quit because of the second-hand smoke," he said.

Naidich and Jentleson also argued that the smoking ban places an unfair burden of enforcement on bar employees. "Do I have to hire somebody to go around and put out everyone's cigarettes or dump water over their heads or something?" Naidich said.

"In general I have a real problem with asking someone to put out a cigarette," Jentleson said.

The smoking ban has undoubtedly affected more than the physical atmosphere in drinking establishments, althoughthe subtler changes may be forgotten soon. The gatherings of patrons smoking in front of area bars are already beginning to seem normal, although McKirnan saw potential difficulties with this phenomenon as warm weather approaches and more customers venture outdoors.

"When spring is here and you get more people out in the street in front of bars smoking, there might be more complaints from the other buildings on the block," McKirnan said, although he added that he doesn't feel this will be an issue for 1020.

"We have a good rapport with our neighbors, so I don't think it'll be a problem," he said.

Naidich, for his part, has accepted the smoking ban, albeit reluctantly. "In a few years people will forget about it," he said. "It'll become the norm."