NO SMOKING IN VIRTUALLY EVERY PUBLIC LOCATION EFFECTIVE TUESDAY, JANUARY 1
Being a confirmed non-smoker himself, Buddy Holly Moss applauds the coming smoking ban throughout Illinois and all across Chicago. He told us, in an exclusive interview, he is tired coming home smelling like an ashtray after a heavy night of entertaining our clients out in the bars. (He's pictured here counting his Christmas Money - getting set, once again, for a night on the town with our A clients!)
Illinois is the 23rd state in the U.S. to ban smoking, so the concept is not new. However, Smoke Free Illinois is far more stringent than many other state laws, and replaces all local and county-wide laws now in effect (unless these laws are even more restrictive). See our post on BlogChicagoHomes.com for more detail, as well as yesterday's article and accompanying video in the Chicago Tribune by reporter Steve Schmadeke.
Effective New Year's Day, 2008, there will be no smoking in all bars, restaurants, public buildings and state vehicles, lobbies and hallways, banquet facilities, arenas, bowling centers, and more. Smoking will still be allowed in private houses, of courses, nursing homes with private rooms, a small number of hotel rooms (no more than 25% of rooms in a given hotel can be designated smoking, and these rooms must all be on the same floor).
There will also be an exemption for businesses who generate 80% of their revenue from sales of tobacco and tobacco-related products (pipes, hookahs, etc.), but these retailers cannot also hold a food or liquor license for the same establishment. A few businesses here in Chicago, previously non-tobacco sellers, are re-configuring their stores to take advantage of this small loophole.
Smoking will be prohibited within 15 feet of the entrance or windows of affected locations. No ashtrays can be placed on tables, counters, or desks where smoking is prohibited. Fines will be stiff - up to $2,500 for repeat offending businesses, $250 for offending smokers.
Smoke Free Illinois comes after much wrangling here in the state, for many years. Groups representing health concerns, especially the American Lung Association, pressed hard for the ban, while bar and restaurant owners group, including the Illinois Restaurant Association, vehemently opposed it. In the end, the retailers put their support behind a statewide ban, rather than the patchwork of local ordinances and restrictions now in place.
The City of Chicago, in 2005, passed its own anti-smoking ordinance, prohibiting smoking in most businesses January, 2006. Bars were to fall under the law next July, but the more stringent Illinois law will control locally.
As Realtors, we know how difficult it is to sell homes in which those who smoke live, Now, all over Illinois and across Chicago and the suburbs, it will be a little easier to breathe virtually everywhere.
HAVE A COUGH-FREE, PROSPEROUS 2008, FOLKS - HAPPY NEW YEAR!
DEAN, BUDDY HOLLY MOSS, & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
Dean
Good for the State of Illinoise
Sincerely
Tom Braatz
My brother-in-law lives in Chicago and smokes, so maybe this will give him an added incentive to quit. It's much easier to quit if everybody around you isn't smoking. I am lucky that California went smoke-free years ago. Even smokers don't like to be around smoke, you know.
Elizabeth -
Thanks for the comments - three good points here!
I really feel there is a big social element in smoking. If your friends are smoking right in front of you, you feel it is appropriate to do so. Take that expectation away in bars, where people socialize, and some might actually light up less.
Also, many may see an added "incentive" to quit with the new law - that may save a life or two along the way, or even extend one, possibly. You think?
Even smokers hate to hang around smoke filled rooms, despite the fact some won't admit it.
And, the last I heard, there have been no mass closing of taverns and bars in CA, NY, MA, or the entire country of Canada, where the whole country follows such a ban.
Happy New Year, Elizabeth!
You'll always be welcome here in smoke-free (but snowy and cold) Chicago!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
Gayle from TN -
Thanks for your comment!
We love you up here - have a Happy New Year, and, of course, a healthy one.
Here in Illinois, people won't have a choice of patronizing bars that do, versus those that don't, allow smoking. That's one of the things bar and restaurant owners wanted - a "level playing field". Before, if one town had a no-smoking ordinance, a smoker could travel a couple of miles and patronize someone else.
Unless they want to travel to neighboring Indiana, Missouri, or Wisconsin, they can't do that anymore here, effective Tuesday.
Hoping everyone will adjust, without getting too crazy!
Check in anytime - take good care of your doggies!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
I think you will see a positive response to this overall. Washington state has had similar law for a while now. But 25 feet from all windows or doors instead of 15.
There are some places not adhering strictly to this 25 foot rule, but most people are ok with abiding by it.
Good for Illinois. Although I think allowing smoking in Nursing Homes is ridiculous, private rooms or not. The smoke seeps put form under the door.. Its a gas... How dumb!
I used to volunteer in NH. so I know... I understand that some patients get very cantankerous without their smokes... but there should be an alternative...