Jump to full article: St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, 2008-04-12
Author: Georgina Gustin ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Intro: Kansas City voted this week to make its bars and restaurants smoke-free, joining Ballwin, Columbia and a handful of other Missouri cities that have done the same in recent years.
Illinois joined at least two dozen states when a statewide ban took effect in January.
With all this action on the smoking front, can St. Louis be far behind? . . .
But a smoke-free future in this smoke-friendly city could be a long way off. Aldermen here say they won't ban smoking in restaurants unless St. Louis County does the same. A proposed smoking ban there went down in flames in 2006.
"St. Louis has the most dedicated opposition to a smoking ban than any city in the country," said Bill Hannegan, head of Keep St. Louis Free, a group that formed in 2005 to help defeat the proposed St. Louis County ban.
Since the early 1990s, when city government buildings went smoke-free, little has happened to advance a smoke-free policy for restaurants and bars.
Opponents in St. Louis, like those in cities around the state and country, have long said that smoking bans would hurt businesses, particularly small neighborhood bars. Two city aldermen are themselves pub owners.
"Die-hard smokers want to smoke when they drink," said Mario Mazzola, manager of Famous Bar on Chippewa Street, which sells cigarettes and cigars behind the bar. "It would definitely hurt our business."
Opponents of a ban point to recent research showing that business at bars in Columbia, Mo., dropped 11 percent after a smoke-free policy took effect there.
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