The Smoke Easies

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

One of the most notable developments in the city in the past few weeks has been the spreading defiance of the prohibition on smoking in bars and restaurants. The law was passed with scant reference to any medical data, based on statements by the mayor that the mayor can only know are bogus. Since then a serious medical study has been published in Britain debunking the claim of the plaintiffs’ bar that second-hand smoke is a killer. New Yorkers, however, seem to have figured all this out long ago. One report came on Monday, when Bob Herbert, the columnist of the New York Times, related how one of the greatest of American drinking establishments, the Oak Bar at the Plaza, has emerged as a smoke easy. We don’t have a double-blind study. But our own staff has encountered unregulated smoking at more and more bars around town, right on through to the working-class establishments that are the seat of this rebellion.

At one SoHo drinking hole, those who light up find themselves facing down a stern warning from the wait staff: “We have to inform you that it is illegal to smoke in a bar in New York.” A few minutes later, if one fails to heed the warning, the same wait staff sets down a “saucer” that looks suspiciously like an ash tray. One can puff away for hours unmolested. The bartenders don’t seem to mind, and neither do the customers. We wouldn’t be surprised if many patrons are more loyal for the freedom.

This is a spreading mockery of “Mother Bloomberg” and the idea that New Yorkers maintain a city government to perform the function of public scold. New Yorkers understand that many people in the city don’t like smoke in restaurants and bars. So if there are proprietors who want to cater to such a clientele, it ought — in our view — to be perfectly legal for such proprietors to ban smoking in their establishments. Our impression is that this has always been permissible. But there is no logic or constitutional basis for the government to outlaw something that has been customary for centuries absent some sort of compelling case. At the moment, the city is trying to enforce a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants the logic of which is being undercut by a growing body of scientific study. New Yorkers are too independent to buckle, at which only a politician could be surprised.


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