City Bars To Go Smoke-Free Starting Today

Last Wednesday, smoke still filled the room at Whitney’s on JFK Street, and the regulars were enjoying their beers and cigarettes while they could.

Last June—after almost 20 years of back-and-forth and nearly a year of heavy debate—the Cambridge City Council passed a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars.

Today, the ban goes into effect.

The patrons at Whitney’s are not pleased with the development.

“If you don’t want to smoke, then go someplace that doesn’t,” Domenic Ladetto says, sipping his beer. “If you do not want to be around people who smoke in bars, go somewhere where they don’t.”

“It all comes down to the Benjamin,” he concludes.

Paul Romo, however, has the strongest criticism of the ban.

“I’m 47, I’ve been sold beer and cigarettes all my life,” Romo says. “I like both. But now as it has it, I can’t drink a beer on the sidewalk, and shortly I can’t smoke a cigarette in a bar. After a hard day’s work, I can’t have a beer and a cigarette in the same spot. Who doesn’t want to have a cigarette with their beer?”

Romo’s words evoke vocal agreement from his fellow smokers around the bar.

He has tapped into a feeling that many smokers cite, that their individual rights are continually being trampled on, that they can no longer enjoy the simple things in life.

But on the other side of the debate, supporters of the ban cite avoiding health risks, improving workplace safety, and increasing the general comfort of patrons as major reasons for the legislation. Many local backers hope that neighboring towns will follow Cambridge’s lead, and that eventually a statewide ban will be passed by the Massachusetts legislature.

The new ordinance has met strong opposition from local restaurant owners, who lobbied heavily to stop its passage. The owners charge that the ban will chase away their clientele and cause tension between bar neighbors and smokers banished to the sidewalk.

“For whatever reason, people smoke,” says John Clifford, the owner of the Green Street Grill in Central Square. “Most reports are that [the ban] hurts business, and it’s probably going to hurt working class places the most.… I forecast that there’s going to be trouble. The neighbors are going to complain. You have potentially two- to five-hundred people outside smoking.”

At Whitney’s, Tommy Lally, an off-duty bartender, listens to the patrons’ complaints as he smokes a cigarette at the far end of the bar.

“It’s ridiculous,” Lally says. “[Patrons] have to go outside and smoke.”

But on final approach, Lally concludes, patrons will be able to live with the ban.

“I’ve talked to most of them, and they said it’s not a big deal,” Lally says.

Business As Usual, For Some

“We’re anticipating a change,” says a manager at John Harvard’s who declined to be identified by name. “It comes with the territory. We’re concerned, not worried…. We may lose business, we may not.”

This attitude—part resigned, part ambivalent—is typical of many Cambridge restaurant managers and owners who say they are waiting to see what types of effects the ban will have on their business.

“We don’t have any choice,” says Claire Noonan, manager of Redline.

“To be honest, I’m kind of glad,” she adds, noting that the low ceilings in the bar cause heavy buildup of smoke.

Karen E. Lepri ’99, a bartender at the Green Street Grill, says she is generally in favor of the ban.

“I think it’s a good thing for workers’ health and for customers’ health, too,” Lepri says. “And it will probably be a good thing for my health.”

Lepri also says she disagrees with critics who predict a drop-off in business.

“I think ultimately the drop in business will not last long,” she says. “The initial descent in business that Boston experienced is mainly because people had another option.”

“I just moved here from San Francisco, where I’m used to there being no smoking in bars. I never witnessed an argument outside of a bar,” Lepri says. “At the same time, it depends on the street or neighborhood that your bar is in. There’s a lot of foot traffic [in Cambridge]. It is a pretty narrow sidewalk, it’s incredibly diverse. It’s likely there could be a conflict anywhere.”

While some smokers are clearly upset about the ban, others are less agitated.

The manager says the only complaints heard at John Harvard’s have been from employees.

Kelly Thompson Clark, President and CEO of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, echoes many of the opponents of the citywide ban in saying that she would prefer a statewide ban, so that Cambridge’s bars won’t have a competitive disadvantage relative to bars in more smoker-friendly towns nearby.

“If one is going to be included, everyone should be included,” she says.

Crimson Tide

On campus, the director of University Health Services (UHS) applauds the regulation, while some smokers in Quincy House courtyard are less than thrilled at the news.

Tatyana Bezuglova ’05, who just transferred to Harvard from Belarus, says she is surprised at the level of regulation smokers face in the United States.

“I’m very irritated,” Bezuglova says. “[In Europe] we had heard rumors that in New York you can’t smoke in bars. We were amazed by this.”

But Dr. David Rosenthal ’57, the director of UHS, sees the regulation as a necessary move to protect public health.

“No matter where you go, in restaurants or bars or wherever, there should be clean air,” he says. “Family, children, adults should not be exposed to environmental smoke.”

Rosenthal, a long-time supporter of the ban who also works with Tobacco-Free Mass., an anti-smoking coalition, testified before the Cambridge City Council several times during the course of deliberations over the ban.

Rosenthal also says that there is “early evidence” showing that restaurants and bars in communities with similar smoking bans have not lost business.

Like many supporters of the ban, Rosenthal believes that a statewide law is the best solution.

“It would be better if there were a statewide one, rather than each community having to fight its own battle,” he says.