Columbia Doesn't Have Smoking Sections

It's a Tuesday night at McNally's Irish Pub and Levi Herborn is ready for a cigarette. He and a few friends bundle up, step away from their drinks and head into the frigid outdoors. If they want to smoke Camel when they hit the town these days, that's what they have to do.

Columbia, Mo., doesn't have smoking sections anymore.

Four years ago this month, a smoking ban was enacted there that made it illegal to smoke in public places, including bars and restaurants. Now, the smoking has moved outdoors, where Her born and his friends say they have come to accept it, albeit a bit reluctantly.

"I'm a smoker, and I don't like cigarette smoke," Herborn said between drags. "I can't stand stale air, so I can understand going outside."

Then he adds: "I understand the reason behind the smoking ban, but I thought that's what smoking sections were for."

Smoking bans have become increasingly common across the country. According to one study, nearly half of U.S. residents, including the nation's 60 most populated cities, live in communities that regulate smoking in workplaces, bars and restaurants.

Columbia, Mo., and Carbondale, Ill., have been living with smoking bans the past few years and both hit milestones this month: Columbia's city council enacted a ban Jan. 9, 2007, and Illinois enacted a statewide ban went into effect Jan. 1, 2008.

On April 5, Cape Girardeau voters will decide whether to join them. As the debate continues here leading up to election day, Columbia and Carbondale officials and residents offered their perspective about how their smoking bans were put into place and what life has been like since.

Much like in Cape Girardeau, there was heated debate on both sides when a smoking ban was proposed in Columbia in 2006. Darwin Hindman, who was mayor of Columbia at the time, said it was one of the most controversial issues he presided over. The city council meeting there lasted more than four hours as both sides laid out arguments for and against. Even then, the council adopted the smoking ban on a 4-3 vote.

But in the years since, Hindman said, he believes the smoking ban has worked out well.

"There was fear on the part of a certain element, and there was anger on the part of a certain element," said Hindman, who was Columbia's mayor for 15 years until he retired last April.

The fears will sound familiar: Some restaurant and bar owners worried that they would lose business. Council members who voted against the ban said it wasn't government's place to tell the private sector how to run their businesses. But Hindman said he believes the fears were unjustified.

"The businesses here are doing just fine," he said. "We did have one or two restaurants close and blame it on the smoking ban, but there were a lot of variables. Some hadn't paid their bills, and we were in a recession."

Hindman believes the ban has been an outstanding success, but not everyone there agrees.

In 2008, some argued that Columbia's smoking ban adversely affected the revenue of bars and restaurants that serve alcohol more than those that serve exclusively serve food. One economist said sales tax revenue collected from bars that sell only alcohol decreased by 11 percent in the first year after the smoking ban took effect.

Enforcement was an issue for a time. Some residents simply ignored the ban and smoked anyway. Columbia, with the support of its mayor, performed undercover sting operations to catch smokers. They sent in inspectors in plainclothes who would contact awaiting police officers to write a summons if they saw someone smoking inside a bar.

Some restaurant owners wanted to repeal the ordinance with an initiative petition but couldn't gather enough signatures of support to put it on the ballot.

But two council members voted against the smoking ban in Columbia, including Jim Loveless, who was on the council at the time. While he enjoys smoke-free restaurants, Loveless said he doesn't think government should tell private businesses how to operate.

"I did not perceive it as a public health crisis, which is what it was being touted as," Loveless said Friday. "I'm delighted to see Columbia smoke-free, but that does not, to me, override what I see as a government being intrusive into a business' right to allow people to use a legal product on their private property if they want to."

Council member Laura Nauser, who is stepping down in April, also voted against a smoking ban in Columbia. Nauser describes herself as a responsibility advocate.

"I did not like the idea of city government stepping on the rights of personal property owners," she said. "It's a legal activity. The community as a whole has gotten used to it, but there are still people who are angry over it.

In Carbondale, the story is slightly different. Illinois, as a state, went smoke-free in bars and restaurants in January two years ago. Carbondale's mayor, Brad Cole, said the Carbondale council was already looking at offering an incentive to encourage bars and restaurants to go smoke-free, such as free liquor licenses. But the state's ban went into effect before that could happen.

Cole said he has a problem with forcing businesses to restrict legal activities.

"I believe in the free market, and if people don't want to go to someplace because of smoking, they won't go there," he said. "If a business owner wants to disallow it, that's their business. I think it's a good idea to have a smoke-free environment. I just don't think it's my place as mayor to force that on them."

Cole said it's hard to quantify whether businesses have seen a decrease because of the ban. But he said the proponents of a smoking ban who promised to go to places more frequently if they went smoke-free haven't done so either.

At the Jackson County, Ill., Health Department, however, administrator Miriam Link-Mullison said the smoking ban has been widely accepted and that there are only a few compliance issues. She's a strong believer in smoking bans.

"I personally think that the smoking ban is the most important public health action that has occurred in my public health career," she said.

Back at McNally's in downtown Columbia, the first smokers have gone back inside and have been replaced by Dan Claxton and Bobby Black. They seem conflicted on the ban.

"I guess it's kind of nice not to be in a completely smoke-filled room," Black said. "But they should be able to do more to have a designated area for smokers."