Smokin'

What you can do in Austin, Texas

Show up at City Council mettings and express your views on the smoking ordinance, which is a "sleeper" issue that may sneak though without much citizen input unless you show up.  More details later on exactly where to go this evening to express your views.  At present this page is a work in progress which will include input from concerned citizens as they are sent to us via email at smoke@austinmayor.com , keep in mind that we'll be publishing these on this web page.

You can also post your views directly on the Spring, an Austin discussion forum website.

The debate and votes on the smoking ordinance will probably be this Thursday at 1:30 pm.

Austinmayor.com is making it easy for you to express your views to the city council.  Send an email to council@austinmayor.com and it will be forwarded to all the members of the City Council. 

As far as we can tell, Gus Garcia, Danny Thomas, Darryl Slusher and Raoul Alvarez are the Council members who will probably vote for the ordinance.

Will Wynn, Jackie Goodman and Betty Dunkerly are probably voting against the new ordinance.

That's the line up.  Darryl Slusher may be the swing vote if he decides to vote no or to abstain (more likely).

Smoking Ordinance in the News:

Smoking Ordinance Proposed - A new, tougher smoking ordinance is proposed and is supported by an organization called Smoke-Free Austin Coalition, the details on the ordinance are on their web site.

Smoke-Free Austin Coalition

SMOKING BAN ORDINANCE, AUSTIN, TEXAS Resources Activated • PM and
RJR Smokers Call City Council Members Prior to the Hearing and Testify at the ...

http://www.smokefreeaustin.org

April 28, 2003
Poll Finds
62 Percent of
Austin Residents
Support Smoke-Free
Restaurants, Bars
and Music Venues

Why is a 100% smoke-free ordinance a good idea?

http://smokefreeaustin.org links

Citizen Response

MIKE CLARK-MADISON of the Austin Chronicle

April 11, 2003: Let me confess that I've been a smoker for most of my adult life. (People are surprised by this, just as they're surprised that I follow sports and go to church.) I am suitably ashamed -- the proper attitude with which to approach Austin's proposed smoking ban, up for public hearing (but not a vote) at the City Council tonight. I think it's a dumb idea, a stance many will expect from a lowly and despicable tobacco addict. Even if I were (still) a proud ex-smoker, I'd think this was a dumb idea. But I also think it's a done deal. The times are propitious for ban proponents, flush from their success in newly smoke-free New York City, and the Tobacco-Free Austin Coalition is pouring it on to get Austin's 1994 Smoking in Public Places Ordinance (the "SIPPO") tightened up to create a "100% Smoke-Free Austin." They even have yard signs, and they'll be out in numbers at the council tonight. As, no doubt, will be the club owners and potentates of the Live Music Capital, who surmise -- accurately -- that the proposed ordinance is specifically targeted at bars. There is no middle ground here; if you support a tougher SIPPO, you're a Nazi, and if you oppose it, you're a barbarian who doesn't care if people die. Actually, there is a middle ground -- the existing smoking ordinance, which in my humble opinion has done a pretty good job of making Austin the Clean Air City that the guy on the airport voice-over talks about with such pride. You have to break a sweat in Austin to find a public place where you can smoke, as we notice when in other locales with looser laws. I was recently in a diner outside Tampa that even at 8am looked and smelled like the Continental Club at last call, and I'm quite glad this is not allowed under current law in Austin. Proponents of a complete ban decry the SIPPO's 18 exemptions, as if a double-digit number proves it's a worthless sieve of a law. But most of those exemptions are different ways of saying "bar" -- other than drinking houses, you'll encounter secondhand smoke in Austin in bingo parlors and bowling alleys, neither of which are thick on the ground here. (And, of course, in the state Capitol.) The most obvious loophole in the SIPPO -- for restaurants with less than 50 seats -- is almost never used; the only restaurant I can think of where nonsmokers have to suck up exhaust is the Star Seeds Cafe. That is, if there are any nonsmokers at Star Seeds. I can't verify this fact.

Monique "Mee" Davila, Sam and Bob listener

I sent this to the council this morning and heard you on KVET and thought I share. I didn't want to over bore them with detail, just my simple opinion.

I am for this ordinance, having asthma and an over sensitive nose I look forward to the day I can go to a pool hall or bowling alley and be able to breath and not be medicated the next day.

People keep saying there will be a loss of business, maybe, in the beginning. But as with all change Austinites will get tired of being home and be out in enjoying Austin. And maybe all those non-smokers who hated being around the smokers will take their places when smokers boycott public places. I know I be glad to be out in public without the smoke. Remember the restaurant smoking ordinance, that did not stop people from eating and if you look around there are many more restaurants in Austin.

I just pray that the Austin City Council will vote for the smoking ordinance and realize people have always been skeptics to change.

Since this effects people's health, think of all the positive rewards, think of the money saved public assistant health care.

Thank you for your time.

V. Monique Davila

Carl Speed, Sam and Bob listener

I don't live in Austin, so I can't vote in Austin. Consequently, my opinion doesn't mean much to the people who aren't concerned with whether I will support them, since they already know they can't count on my vote. Which really stinks because I spend most of my waking life in Austin each day, so I'm more affected by what they do here than by what the city fathers of Dripping Springs do.

1. I am not a smoker.

2. I have never been a smoker.

3. I would prefer to be where there isn't smoke. I expect a smoke-free office, but entertainment--eating/drinking/dancing--is a different story.

4. I believe the world would be much safer if people didn't smoke, but that's the choice of those who smoke.

5. I believe the private property rights of the people who own restaurants and bars take precedence over all of the above.

6. I believe freedom of choice and competition in a free market economy should be the determining factors in whether a proprietor decides to allow or prohibit smoking in his place of business.

If I'm with friends who want to smoke and a restaurant doesn't allow it, we'll go elsewhere. If I want a smoke-free meal and the restaurant can't keep the smoke out of my face, I'll go elsewhere. Ultimately, the owner of the business has to be accountable to his customers and potential customers or he'll go out of business. The risk is entirely his to bear; the government doesn't stand to lose any investment. Unless the government wants to ensure businesses against lost revenue when they can't even balance their own budget, they need to stick to doing those things we need government for and let businesses do what they already know how to do.

If I had a say in the matter, I'd vote against the smoking ordinance. On the other hand, it might be preferable for them to pass it so that the affected businesses would have a cause of action for a class action suit against the city. It would be more expensive, but in the long run, if they prevailed (I'm assuming they'd have to get at least as far as the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals), it might prevent more such infringements on private property rights in the future.

Carl Speed

Dripping Springs

Beerland sez:

Friends of Beerland,

Right now, the Austin City Council is considering an out and out ban on smoking in all public places, including bars, restaurants, live music venues, coffee shops, and even bingo halls and bus stops.

Patios and most places currently considered "smoking areas" will not be exempt. (The outside of Emo's and Casino el Camino will be non-smoking. The patios at Sacred Cup Coffeehouse and Spiderhouse--hell, every public patio--will be non-smoking.) Beerland, Room 710, Flamingo Cantina, Emo's, Casino el Camino, Little City, The Parlor, La Cucaracha, Sacred Cup, Red-Eyed Fly, Elysium, Stubb's, and many more of your favorite local businesses will be completely non-smoking. You will not even be able to smoke outside the clubs either, not within twenty-five feet. That means no one can smoke anywhere on Sixth Street or Red River.

You might know about similar smoking ordinances in other parts of the country, like Dallas and California and New York. Most of these ordinances have special allowances for bars. Austin's will not. Austin's proposed ordinance is based on the Helena, Montana ordinance which was repealed as unconstitutional six months after it passed. But please don't think your favorite hang-outs can last six months with even fewer customers during an already depressed economy. Twenty-five percent of bars went out of business shortly after the smoking ordinance was passed in Tempe, Arizona, a city demographically similar to Austin.

Even if you don't smoke, look around you next time you're out. Most people in bars do smoke. While only 20% of Austinites smoke, it is estimated that 50-90% of clubgoers smoke. If they can't smoke in bars, they'll simply quit coming. Acoustic Cafe was a non-smoking bar on Sixth Street. You probably don't remember it because it didn't last long. Bars and live music venues depend on the business of people who happen to smoke. Look again, musicians tend to also be smokers. Without smokers, live music venues don't stand a chance.

Please take the time to tell Mayor Gus Garcia and the members of the City Coucil to not change the smoking ordinance we already have. Check out keepaustinfree.com for more information and a form letter you can send. Or write your own. Or call their offices. Do something.

Thanks for your valuable time and priceless help,
Randall Stockton

Mayor Gus Garcia
Phone: (512) 974-2250
Gus.Garcia@ci.austin.tx.us
P. O. Box 1088
Austin, Texas 78767


Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman
Phone: (512) 974-2255
Jackie.Goodman@ci.austin.tx.us
P. O. Box 1088
Austin, Texas 78767


Raul Alvarez
Council Member Place 2
Raul.Alvarez@ci.austin.tx.us
Phone: (512) 974-2264
P. O. Box 1088
Austin, Texas 78767


Betty Dunkerley
Council Member Place 4
Betty.Dunkerley@ci.austin.tx.us
Phone: (512) 974-2258
P. O. Box 1088
Austin, Texas 78767


Daryl Slusher
Council Member Place 1
Daryl.Slusher@ci.austin.tx.us
Phone: (512) 974-2260
P. O. Box 1088
Austin, Texas 78767


Danny Thomas
Council Member Place 6
Danny.Thomas@ci.austin.tx.us
Phone: (512) 974-2266
P. O. Box 1088
Austin, Texas 78767


Will Wynn
Council Member Place 5
Will.Wynn@ci.austin.tx.us
Phone: (512) 974-2256
P. O. Box 1088
Austin, Texas 78767

Keep Austin Free organization:

Links to the New York City Smoking Ordinance