Tobacco Documents Online

i AT A Gt1tNCE Curbs on Smoking Below are the major provisions of New York City's Smoke-Free Air Act, to take effect today. RFSTA(JRAJVTS Smoking will be prohibited in the dining areas of all restaurants seating more than 35 peopie, and then confined to the bar area (see below). As under current taw, restaurants with seating for 35 or fewer people are exempt. • t3AR5 1. In stand-alone bars, smoking will still be permitted. 2 In restaurant bars. smoking witt be permitted if: a. The bar area is at least six feet from the indoor dining area or the bar area is separated by a partition from the indoor dining area: b. The smoking lounge and bar do not exceed 25 percent of the combined area of the dining, beverage service and bxQe areas: c. The seating situated in the bar area where food service is offered is iimrted to no more than 15 percent of the first 100 seats where food service is offered and no more than 10 percent of any seats over 100 where food service is offered: d. The smoking lounge and bar are not the sole indoor waiting areas for dinner. THE TALIi OF THE TOVC/N THE NEW YORKEIi APft1L fT, 1995 SCOFFLAW SMOfiERS RYBODY lmows smoking is inde- fensible. However, some smokus will defend the indefensibk e:~tr.aitv. As a bowler smoking on a sctt:r at Lcsute Timc Bowling Center in the Port Au- thoriry Bus Termi.nai said cheeriulty, 'Smoking's good for me. It s sometivsg • to do. You know Noah. wito buiit the Ark' It's in the Book of Gcaesis. He was smoking when he built the Ark' Well... Tben, there is a populaaon for whom illidtness gives smoking a stiil greater putpose. As of April 10th, when New York Ciry's Smoke-Free Air Act goes into effcct and the mild thriil of linger- ing over legal after-dismer cigarettes in restautsnts is cctinguished, we wiIl witness the jolt of the taboo. Accord- ing to Lloyd Fdt, the chef-owner of the downtown bistro CafE Loup, where most of the.regulars smol¢,:whea smok• ing is allqwed only in t}te bar area or in a special lounge 'it s going to be a different kind of cigarette. Like sueldn' on it real hard" Fcit was putting words to what an informal stuvey of smoking New Yorkers suggests will be a highly prevalent, if subversive, re- sponse to the Smokr-Frre Air Act: 'I tttiaJc smoking in the bathroom is gonna be kuge. We're all going to be batk in school again, like little boys in thick smoke." A casual young woman wearing dark-red lipstick and black patent- lather pumps said, 'It s going to cvt into infidelity. Definitely. People tell themselves thry're just having a drink with a coIleaguc, and they light up a y knows that's just a metaahor for scr." She went on, 'Given thar I smoke infn:quently, and largely to look oool. smoking in a rrsnuranr makes me think I'm chic and adult, and I have no interest in seeming that way in the privacy of my own home.' She bersme a Iittie emphace "It's social intercourse. If you were sitting in a rataursnt and you really wanted a cigarette and didn't have any, you might tutn to the guy at the table ncuz to you and say5 'Can I bum a cigarette.)' Now if you finish your tn esl you woTt't turn to. the table n ext >jo you wiu say, 'Are you done with thit sandwich? Can I finish your sand- wich?' " On being asked if she would sneak into a rest room to have a few stolen pufFs, she replied, 'No. Never. I see no point in smoking unless men arc watching." Some srnok ers.wilI doubt- less avoid New York City en- titzly, and move to Paris. Be- cuse of the in- finite pleasure in the illicit, however, some will stay. At Leisure T'une, another bowler with a cigarette put it like this TII just go on smokin' anyway. 'I1ey'Il hzve tc caIl the cops on me"