Tobacco Documents Online

-11- F B B~ 1 0 199~ Los Angeles Sdntinel Proposed Smoking Ban Has Black Restauranteurs Fuming By MARSHA MITCHELL sarome+ Staff wrirer. Councilman Marvin Braude is again lobbying to have a controver- sial non-smoking ban put into ef- fect, and he has Los Angeles' Black restauranteurs smoking mad. Last year, Braude failed to gain one cru- cially needed council member'ss vote in order to pass his proposal which caused a six-to-six locked vote. But now that the council has three new members, Braude is pitching the proposal once more. Braude's motion states that be- cause medical researchers have con- firmed that second-hand smoke is a leading cause of preventable death in this country, reforms that protect non-smokers need to be put inn place. He asserts that only 20 per- cent of the residents in the state of California are smokers, which means the indoor quality of air is adversely affected for the remaining 80 percent. With statistics like this, Braude says that greater public health protection has to be acceler- ated and that Los Angeles should be at the vanguard of this social change. "The time has come," Braude told the three-member Arts, Health and Humanities Committee. "Los Angeles should be up front in set- ting the tone for a country heading toward a smoke-free society by the year 2000." In conclusion, the motion calls for the city council to instruct the city attorney to prepare and present an amendment to the city ordinance which will prohibi4 smoking in all restaurants within city limits and also prohibit smoking in any build- ing in which city business is trans- acted. If approved, Los Angeles would become the first major city in the country to outlaw smoking in restaurants. African-American restaurant owners are upset because they be- lieve that the smoking ban will severely impact the earning capac-y ity of their establishments. They theorize that because restaurants in neighboring areas such as Ingle- wood, Culver City and Beverly Hills will be unaffected, patrons may opt to drive the extra miles in order to be able to dine where smoking is not an infraction of the law. Additionally, Black bistro owners maintain that the ban will discourage new businesses from opening in areas where re-develop- ment is desperately needed. As a basis for their arguments, community restaurant owners, and their White counterparts, cite the disastrous bans instituted in Beverly Hills and Beliflower. The bans in these cities ended the livelihood of several restaurant owners before be- ing repealed. Celebrated chef Wolf- gang Puck, who owns three posh eateries in Beverly Hills, spoke of that experience last week when meeting with 60 other disgruntled Los Angeles restauranteurs who nibbled on duck sausage pizza while they quibbled over the initia- tive. "All we're going to have with this is more people on the street. I'm a tennis player-I'm not a smoker. But I really feel we have enough government telling us what to do, in the kitchen and out of the kitchen," Puck told reporters and his culinary colleagues. There is no doubt that the con- troversia6 proposal was the hottest topic at the Los Angeles City Council's Tuesday meeting. Expect- ing that to be the case, Black restauranteurs coalesced to make sure that Mark Ridley-Thomas and Rita Walters, two of the three new council members, as well as Nate Holden and Ruth Galanter, knew where the Black Restaurant Owners Association (BROA) stood on the matter. ~ Thursday, January 30, 199~1 They circulated petitions which stated that the undersigned opposed the proposed smoking ban in its to- tality. They also had pre-paid postage postcards, addressed to the four city council members, made so that patrons of their establishments could voice their opinions on the is- sue. According to Randy Dale, who organized the BROA, the.restau- rants that have been at the forefront of the battle against Braude's pro- posal include several establish- ments that have historic signifi- cance in our community. Murray's and Jacobs have been in South Central Los AnReles for decades, but eateries such as Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, Red's, Marla's Memory Lane.and , Aunt Kizzy's Back Porch also geared up for the fight. "A message must be given to the council members that they need to support their Black constituents. It's about economics and it's about jobs, said Dale. "One real problem that we are facing is that 90 percent of the Black restaurants in Los Ange- les are in Ruth Galanter's district, and last year she voted for the ban." At press time, the city council's decision had not been made public, but Dale assured this reporter that no matter the outcome, the BROA would continue its efforts until they were victorious. NEW YORK POST,, SA7111tDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1992 Ban on cig vendng Restaurant and store owners, beware. Thm city's ban on cigarette vending machines in virtually all public places except bars is now in effect. The ban is aimed at keep- ing cigarettes out of chii- drens' reach. Fines range trom i300 to $1.00. dP

-14- A, e )Vasybtgtoic ~'cmeg * FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7,1992 METROP'OLITAN Schaefer pushes to add 25 cents to cigarette tax By Todd Sp'angler THE /WS/+rqtoM TOM ANNAPOLIS - Gov. William Donald Schaefer yesterday squared off against some strong and well- financed interests but vowed to push ahead with his plans for a 25-cent- per-pack increase in the cigarette tax Mr. Schaefer continues to push his proposed tsx, arguing it is meant more to discourage smoking than to pump money into the state's strapped coffers. "It will save money and it will save lives,- he said Raising the exdse tax Lo 41 cents per pack arould generate about $100 million a year for the state's troubled general fund Mr. Schaefer says he wants at least 20 percent of tkiat amount ear- marked for cancer prevention ef- forts in Maryland. - But Bruce Bereano, a lobbyist for the Tbbaceo Iostituoe, said cigarette smokers were already hit with their fair share of the budget problem last year, In 1991, the legislature agreed to raise about S3S millian by extending the 5 percent sales tax tD cigarettes - which had previously been exempt - and another $12 mt7lian by increasing the excise tax from 13 cents to 16 cxnts per pack. "If you want to raiae taxes Qor eq- uity isaues, there are many other areas that have not yet been cFp 1 0 'f992 bb~ touched;" said Mr. Bereano. "It's too high;' said Senate Pres- ident Mike Miller. Mr. Miller, a Prince George's County Democrat, this week spon- sored a bill to limit smoking re- strictions by local governments. The Senate president, a non- smoloer, said he is only concerned with statewide uniformity. "If I go to Montgomery County or the Eastern Shore, I think there should be non-smoking sections in the restaurants," he said. Mr. Miller said his former F5- nance Committee chairman, Cathy RileX persuaded him to introduce the legislation. She now lobbies for cigarette manufacturer Phillip Morris. At a news conference yesterday; Mr. Schaefer assured reporters that he would veto the Mr. Miller's bill if it succeeded in passing. He said lo- cal governments should have flex- ibility in adopting their own smok- ing regulations.