SlowpokeBlog

I received an interesting e-mail from a New Yorker about the smoking and noise bans, in response to my earlier post supporting these measures. Peter Bernard writes:

I love your comics and writing but as a New Yorker I felt I should let you know that you're way off-base about Bloomberg. The smoking law was Giuliani's work, Bloomberg just took over after him and put it into play. It's killed bar and club business and destroyed the band scene, as it was intended to do. People who are working can't pay their bills because they're not making tips, then they have to go outside their own establishments to smoke, so the idea of it being a health improvement is ridiculous. THEN Bloomberg pulled a typically Republican move by falsifying the statistics to show that it hasn't affected business. They ONLY INCLUDED STATS FOR RESTAURANTS AND NOT BARS OR ROCK CLUBS. Of course restaurants weren't going to be hit as hard by this new wave of fascism disguised as liberalism. As for the noise law (which won't pass because it's so loony) he wants to silence Mr. Softee trucks and cover jackhammers with blankets.

Both of these plans stem from the Manhattan Institute's "thinking." Giuliani was famous for saying that he didn't see the function or need for nightlife in New York City! Another of the measures they've been trying to sneak through would force bars to close two hours earlier. They tried to get that by us by first trumpeting it as the end of the cabaret laws (the old racist laws to keep black people from dancing with whites, revived by Giuliani to cripple the rock club scene by literally closing down establishments where people wiggled their behinds). The deal was Bloomberg would kill those laws if he could close all clubs at 2 am instead of 4. People come to New York FOR the nightlife, you know. You can have quiet nights out in the country, people here want the nightlife.

The Republicans want to give knockout gas to the City That Never Sleeps.

Just thought you should know--I HATE tobacco smoke and choke on it badly, but I'm telling you this is a horrible law that needs to be gotten rid of.

I concede that I may have been naive in thinking Bloomberg was acting out of a genuine concern for public health. It does seem more likely that this is part of the larger Disneyfication of New York. And if that is the case -- that the ban is driven by a neo-puritanical crackdown on nightlife -- then it's a shame.

I guess I'm coming from a more general perspective, that the dangers of secondhand smoke are sorely underestimated, and that one must weigh the "freedom" to smoke anywhere against the "freedom" from carcinogenic air. Studies have shown a dramatic decrease in heart attacks in cities where smoking in restaurants and bars has been banned. If secondhand smoke just smelled bad, I wouldn't care so much. But it harms people around you, people who just want to see their favorite band without contracting blacklung.

I don't know the ideal solution to the problem. But a good first step would be for lefties to realize they're supporting a staunchly pro-Bush industry with every pack of smokes they buy.