Mayor Slay on a St. Louis City Smoking Ban:

"A reader of this blog wrote in to ask that I repeat my position on smoke-free restaurants in the City. That’s fair enough. I do not smoke. I prefer dining in smoke-free restaurants. I wish every restaurant in the City were smoke-free by its own choice. With that said, I would support a national, statewide or City/county policy that restricted smoke in restaurants. I would not support a local ordinance that put restaurants in the 62 square mile area of the City at a financial disadvantage to their unrestricted competitors in St. Louis county by requiring that only City restaurants install expensive air-handling technologies or banning smoking."
http://www.mayorslay.com/desk/display.asp?deskID=1169

Mayor Slay's position is similar to the promise made by Lewis Reed to Keep St. Louis Free when Reed was running to replace Jim Shrewsbury for President of the Board of Aldermen, except Reed said "a ban would have to be in place everywhere else", not just St. Louis County.

President Reed also told me that St. Louis City will not automatically pass a smoking ban just because the County does.

I will invite Mayor Slay to Herbie's Vintage 72 tomorrow. I want him to see that St. Louis restaurants are clearing their air with filtration technology that is far from expensive.