{"id":2933,"date":"2010-01-14T08:03:59","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T15:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bismancafe.com\/blogs\/?p=2933"},"modified":"2010-02-01T13:24:54","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T20:24:54","slug":"smoking-ban-debate-heating-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/2933\/smoking-ban-debate-heating-up","title":{"rendered":"Smoking Ban Debate Heating Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NoThere has been a lot of push recently to make all establishments in Bismarck smoke-free. Currently, smoking is still allowed in most bars, hotels, and truck stops; however, local health advocacy groups are trying to extend the ban.<\/p>\n

I have never been a smoker, and honestly don’t understand why people do it, but<\/em> I still think it will be a mistake to implement a full smoking ban in Bismarck.<\/p>\n

When I lived in Minneapolis,\u00a0they implemented a smoke-free ban. The resulting effect was dwindling revenue for most bars, some of which ultimately closed up shop.<\/p>\n

Bismarck bars will especially become negatively impacted if neighboring cities like Mandan or Lincoln do not follow suit with implementing a ban.<\/p>\n

I do firmly believe that bars connected to restaurants (Applebees, Paradiso, etc.) should be smoke free, but actual stand-alone bars (like Bucks, Lonesome Dove, etc.) should be up to the establishment whether to allow smoking. This way, if you want to visit and\/or work somewhere that’s smoke free, you have choices.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also believe that smoking should be banned at all other work places, within reason. A designated smoking area, away from any main entrances, should be required. Smoking in hotels, again, should be open to management discretion. Many hotels in Bismarck already are 100% smoke-free, by choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do it find interesting that there is all this push to ban smoking at hotels, but not apartments, where people really\u00a0don’t have a lot of choices. Having worked in the apartment industry, I can tell you that this was a common complaint made by our residents. Not\u00a0withstanding, I think it should again be up to management\u00a0discretion.<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn’t all that long ago that people were allowed to smoke inside Kirkwood Mall. I can still remember ashtrays lining the walls of the shopping center. We’ve\u00a0already come a long way since then by banning smoking in such open, public places as shopping centers, but\u00a0let’s keep the freedom of choice open to all for privately-owned bars and hotels; at business types where people do already have a choice.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a lot of push recently to make all establishments in Bismarck smoke-free. Currently, smoking is still allowed in most bars, hotels, and truck stops; however, local health advocacy groups are trying to extend the ban. I have never been a smoker, and honestly don’t understand why people do it, but I still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[278,148,277],"class_list":["post-2933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-ban","tag-law","tag-smoking"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bismarckcafe.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}