Read the fine print bar owners. Can you sell your bar as a smoking establishment after this passes? Bet not! Want to open another bar in the County that allows smoking? Can't do that!
Restaurants that have a late night bar scene independent of the restaurant such as Bar Napoli and Monarch Restaurant will really get unfaily hammered by this law. Monarch recently tried to go smoke-free but took too big of hit. So they installed air filtration and now allow smoking. Keep St. Louis Free will warn every restaurant in St. Louis County about this hurtful discrimination and hopefully stir up some protest. Monarch recently tried to go smoke-free but took too big of hit. So they installed air filtration and now allow smoking.
Are the smoking lounges at Lambert Field exempt? Darlene Green threatened a lawsuit last time Odenwald tried to ban smoking at Lambert Field.
Expect a legal challenge concerning the constitutionality of the casino exemption. An attorney who specializes in Missouri smoking ban litigation warned us that the casino exemption violates the Special Laws Clause of the Missouri Constituion since casinos in Missouri are a "closed-ended class" and there is no "substantial justification" for exempting them. http://moga.mo.gov/const/A03040.HTM
If secondhand smoke is really the issue, why not pass the same air filtration exemption Chicago passed: if a venue could allow smoking and still make its air cleaner than the air outdoors, it could continue to allow smoking.http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_ATTACH/MunicipalCode7-32_1.html#7_32_080
Why not wait to see what the City will next month? Economists have predicted that the City will get hit far harder by ban than the County. One economist predicts a City/County ban would cut City bar employment 19.7 percent. Another predicts that the Lyda Krewson ban would cut revenues of restaurants up to 54 percent and cut bar revenues up to 83 percent. Don't be surprised if the ban gets voted down in the City.
Why not just exempt the freestanding bars and bars in restaurants? Or any room that you have to be 21 to enter. According to the latest survey of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services only 30 percent of County residents favor banning smoking in bars and cocktail lounges.
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