Secrets of the City

Bob, came across this smoking product. I don’t feel like reading it; will you just tell me what the ALA thinks? Thanks for enabling my laziness.

You bet, Jane. I actually had a good interview with the local Foxies on this one. I did it from the patio area of the 331 bar in NE Mpls.

Thanks Bob for this awesome tool! Unfortunately, there is only one property listed in Rochester and I would have to wait about thirty years to move in – seniors only. Any suggestions for convincing landlords to go smokefree?

If it’s like condos, a smoke free apartment building could be phased in as smokers move out.

Here you go, med city girl (I would have gone for Little Miss Mayo, but what the hey).

Our organization also has some resources available online for people looking for smokefree housing..

Yes, that’s often the way it works, Rat.

Just saw this. It looks like smoking is making some news in Wisconsin as well.

if smoke rooms users are there knowingly and by choice, and the rooms are completely sealed and employees need not enter them to provide service of any kind…I say why not.

That would require opponents to give ground that they don’t have to give.

I don’t see any compelling reason to alter a law that effectively protects public health, and is popular and well accepted, g_rote.

Smoking inside restaurants, bars and clubs is a thing of the past in Minnesota now. People — smokers and nonsmokers alike — have moved on.

Ramsey County firted with this idea before the statewide law took effect, but it was never very successful. Only a few places were willing to alter their floor plans to accomodate indoor smoking rooms — Ol Mexico in Roseville and Fabulous Ferns in Saint Paul come to mind as two places that did.

Both these places are open today as smokefree businesses. Fern’s closed-off bar makes it quieter for diners to enjoy their meals, Ol Mexico now has a big space to host parties and banquets.

I just think bob’s people at ALA are weakening the overall herd by limiting natural selection.

I was over by MOA on Monday and can’t help but think that if there is a single case of a smoking ban killing business, it’s the top floor of that place. I’m not proposing an exception for the building, but I do think the area is viable if the management could see its way to somehow make an open-air space for tenants that doesn’t require leaving the bar and walking half a mile to a designated smoking area.

Top floor of MOA as a bar space died off long before the smoking ban.

Champs, we have covered the “smoking ban killed the MOA bars” thing here before, but here’s the condensed version.

First, David is right that the business at the MOA bars never quite generated the volume needed to cover the high rent charged by the mall management. Although they had different names/looks, most of those places where owned by the same out-of-state company, which went into bankrupcy and were bought out by Dave & Busters. D & B looked at the books, realized the MOA locations were never going to make it, then abruptly closed them. The recent passage of a city and county smoking ban gave them somthing (other than themselves) to pin the blame on.

D & B later returned to the Twin Cities, opening a large complex in smokefree Maple Grove.

You gotta get with company line, here, Champs. From horse racing, to casinos, to bars to restaurants, any business that claims it has lost so much as 10 cents because of the smoking ban is lying.

Don’t forget “chariable gambling,” aka “pulltabs,” Rat. I guess I really am to blame for their losses — I won $100 today at a Coon Rapids bar today.

Yes, there has been some lying about smoking ban losses. We check the tax records.

Gonna buy us a new DVD player with my winnings. Our old one is a piece of junk.

No, you can absolve yourself of responsibility. Anyone who really had to shut down was just too inept or stubborn to change with the times. They’re like collateral damage in this neo-Puritan purge. Adopt to the new prevailing attitudes. If you don’t, we’re not responsible for what happens to you.

Sigh.

Where, or where was the Rat when the buggy whip manufacturers needed his help?

He was busy protesting for the Empire Zinc Company.

Whatever, you don’t hear crack addicts complaining about not being able to smoke inside OR outside. You tobacco smokers need to just suck it up and STFU – it’s not like you’re chasing the dragon.

The Rat is a fan of “Cancer” on Facebook so there ya go…

I’m the good-looking one.

Heh.