Through the haze, I see the dawning of a Smoke-Free St. Louis

Is it possible that St. Louis will go smoke-free in public places? Can it be true? It's going to take joint leadership and political courage, but I smell it coming (pun intended).

Efforts to enact a public smoking ban have failed in the past, so the battle is nothing new. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported today on the renewed attempt.

Whether the new effort succeeds might depend on whether the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County could enact a ban simultaneously. None of their leaders wants to go it alone and put their bars and restaurants at a disadvantage against competitors in a neighboring jurisdiction.

Not wanting to wait for government action on the issue, many establishments have decided to (gasp!) voluntarily go smoke-free, and kudos to them. St. Louis City has good representation of smoke-free places: the Royale, Erato, the Gelateria, Bailey's Chocolate Bar, the Gramophone (Y!- I know you're all over that one), the ChurchKey, etc, etc.

There are community efforts surfacing to make this happen. Check out Smoke-Free St. Louis City on Facebook or on their website. You can voice your opinion on KSDK's poll about a smoke free ban.

I think it goes without saying that smoking is unhealthy and poses a public health threat, so I'll leave it at that. Wouldn't it be great if this ban goes through and St. Louis does something moderately forward-thinking? Already 34 states have either full or partial smoking bans, and in those states without one, countless cities and counties have enacted their own. We definitely wouldn't be the first city, but we won't be last either!
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A Smoke Free St. Louis

For New Years, I really wanted world peace, seeing as how that didn't really work out, I would settle for a Smoke Free St. Louis

Ever since St. Louis had the wisdom to shut down 64-40 for improvements (instead of investing in public transportation), I have been seeing a billboard on 44 for a smoke free St. Louis.
The ad basically says, "look at all of these other top tier cities that went smoke free, we can do it too," in a play towards St. Louis' inferiority complex.

I would love to see St. Louis go smoke free. It is always noticeable when I come am traveling in DC, NYC, Chicago, or (even) Cincinnati, when I can leave a bar and not smell like ash.

Businesses have always been skeptical of banning smoking because they see it as a threat to their business, people who drink smoke, people who smoke drink, if you take away the ability to smoke, they think, fewer people will drink, and we'll lose money.

The results, however, seem to be just the opposite. When Chicago (and all of Illinois) when smoke free, bar owners in Chicago shivered (in fear or declining revenues). But the data has come back and actually shows in increase in money spent at bars.

It seems like there are two main reasons that bars didn't lose out.

The first is that they attracted new people who wouldn't venture to bars before out of concerns about smoke. The second is that people can actually spend more than an hour or two in a smoke free bar, because they aren't being choked, their eyes aren't getting irritated, and they aren't worrying about having to dry clean their clothes to get the smell out.

Read more about the effort to make a Smoke Free St. Louis here.

Sign the petition here.

Read all about the results in Chicago here.
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