Residents react to ban on smoking

A resolution the Bloomington City Council passed Wednesday that will ban smoking in the city's bars and restaurants has sparked mixed reactions.\nOne of the many establishments affected by the ban is Nick's English Hut, 423 E. Kirkwood Ave., a hot spot for students and alumni. Robert Schultz, a 10-year veteran night shift manager at Nick's, said the bar is one of only 35 in Bloomington which permits smoking inside. For alternatives to a smoking atmosphere, he said someone could visit one of the many other non-smoking restaurants and bars around the town.\n"There are already 136 non-smoking establishments and only 35 smoking ones in Bloomington. If you want to go somewhere that is non-smoking you have plenty of opportunities," Schultz said. "I have patrons who come in here who don't smoke and are against it."\nThe right to smoke is not the only issue some community members are worried about. Some are worried about the complications that may arise after the ban takes effect. \nAs she sat inside Nick's sipping on her beer and smoking a cigarette, Amy Stewart wondered who will be responsible for cleaning the possible extra debris left by Nick's patrons who exit the establishment to smoke. Stewart is an IU alumna and the manager of Pitaya, a clothing store down the street from Nick's.\nAmong her responsibilities as manager, Stewart has to arrive early every Saturday and Sunday morning to clean up beer bottles, cigarettes and other assorted trash left outside of her store by Nick's weekend patrons.\n"There going to be a lot of people from bars and they're going to be outside," Stewart said. "They're like, 60 or 70 people out front and when you add up all of them who are going outside to smoke, who's going to be responsible for them? Who's going to clean up after them? Who's going to make sure they don't get a citation for public intoxication when they go outside?"\nStepping outside of Nick's to smoke could possibly add more hassles to Schultz's nightly duties.\n"People are going to get up, go outside to smoke, and 'forget' to come back in to pay their tab, or what if they come out to smoke and give their ID to their buddy?" Schultz said. "We're going to have to triple card people every time that they go in and out of this place. It's just going to be bad."\nNot all of Bloomington's establishments are upset over the ban. Dave Kubiak, general manager of the Bluebird, 216 N. Walnut Ave., does not think it is going to be too hard to enforce the ordinance, since establishments that do not serve minors, like Nick's and the Bird, have until Jan. 1, 2005 to become smoke-free.\n"I feel the trend across the nation is that smoking is starting to become not socially acceptable, particularly in restaurants, maybe not as much in bars. With the no-smoking ordinances in California, New York City and major metro areas, you're seeing more non-smoking establishments," Kubiak said. "For instance, when they didn't allow smoking on airplanes, people thought, 'oh I can't go without smoking for three or four hours, but they do now."\nKubiak also said the ordinance opens the door for non-smokers who dislike being in smoking establishments. In the past, the Bird has held non-smoking concerts with attendance rivaling shows allowing smoking.\n"We have no-smoking shows now," Kubiak said. "There are some really big shows that are no-smoking that happen and people just go outside to smoke. You'd be surprised. It's not as big a deal. Size-wise, we didn't lose any crowds because of the no-smoking shows"