Is Health Dept. Cracking Down on Backyard Bar Smoking?

Has anyone noticed that it's getting tougher for poor, ostracized smokers to feed their insidious monkey in the outdoor areas at bars? We're not just talking about sidewalk tables out front, but also the last frontier of state-sanctioned nicotine consumption: the bar backyard. Over the course of this summer, we've noticed increased smoking restrictions and even prohibitions in the backyards of several bars in Brooklyn, and some bar owners tell us the Health Department is cracking down. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of DOH reprisal, one proprietor told us how the smoked sausage gets made:

Our most recent inspection was in April and everything went really well inside. Then the inspector goes out back and says, "Do you know about the policy for backyards?" I played dumb and said, "No." But the rule is that It's supposed to be one quarter of your yard, and that part has to be sectioned off. What I didn't know is that if you do that and people are in that area smoking, they're not allowed to drink or eat anything, which is so preposterous. And the inspector was cool; he knew it was stupid. He told me, "Take all your ashtrays, dump them and hide them. I'm not going to write you up for the ashtrays, but I have to write you up for smoking out here." We were fined $250. His decision to look the other way on the ashtrays meant I wasn't encouraging smoking; if he'd fined me for the ashtrays it would have been a lot more.
A few weeks later a guy came in for a follow-up inspection specifically for the smoking. When they come in they always show you their badge, then they sit down and do a lot of paperwork before looking at anything. So while he was doing that, I ran out and took out all the ashtrays and told people to stop smoking. He came outside and said, "Well, you're supposed to have No Smoking signs out there." So he allowed me to hand write No Smoking signs and paste them up really quick. It was so dodgy

What's really funny is that when the second inspector came outside there was a dog in the yard. He basically stepped over that dog and didn't even say anything about that. But that's a big fine that we're so worried about all the time. In the past they never even really looked outside. It seems that they're cracking down on everything, I guess because they need money right now. My exterminator always says, "13 years ago it used to be so different. They would warn you so you'd have a chance to make some changes, and then come back. Now they just fine you right away."

A Health Department spokesperson tells us that according to section 17-503(c) of the Smoke Free Air Act [pdf], smoking is not permitted in the outdoor areas of restaurants unless: "1) the outdoor area has no roof or other ceiling enclosure; (2) the smoking area constitutes no more than 25% of the outdoor seating capacity; 3) the smoking area is at least 3 feet away from the non-smoking area; and 4) the smoking area is clearly designated with signage." When asked if the rule also applies to bars, we were told, "It applies to FSEs, so both." (FSE=Food Service Establishment) However, the spokesperson also told us that smoking and drinking is permitted in these outdoor smoking sections.

But it's not just smokers in bar backyards that are suffering; the Health Department is coming for the strippers too... in their dressing rooms:

The owner of a gentleman's club in Astoria tells us, "The Health Department came twice in five days and didn't find anyone smoking, so they went downstairs into the stripper's dressing room, and by the back door they found an ashtray. We got a $200 fine for that. Everything's about stats, everything's about numbers. I understand we need law and order, but they find an ashtray far from where any customer is going to be and they slap a fine on us?

"I can't believe that if I own a bar I can't have a cigarette in my office. If you're paying five fucking grand a month in rent you can't go into your private office and have a cigarette? At my other bar in Manhattan we pay a grand a year to use the sidewalk for outdoor tables, and we got $500 worth of fines last year because you can't smoke outside. Why am I paying $9,000 for an outdoor section with tables so people can smoke, and then getting fined when they do?" It's almost as if the city is making more and more laws so they can collect more fines!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on August 12, 2010 12:49 PM

Comments [rss]

spiritross

Damn Fascists

Leave us alone

If I want to drink and smoke and die when I'm 60 let me - worked for my grandfather.

Sidenote

Kid Rock hangs in brooklyn? Who would have thought.

John L

What happened to freedom?

Why am I less free today than I was a few years ago?

Why are bar owners not free to run a smoke friendly or nonsmoking environment?

We are customers not given the choice to pick from smoking or non-smoking establishments?

And the workplace argument is nonsense, it's not like bartending is a career and in the past if a person didn't like smoke or was allergic to it they simply picked another line of work or I guess they can wear a gas mask. But I'm not really trying to debate that issue.

My problem is that these nanny laws are getting out of hand and I'm against anything that infringes on my freedom.

I will say this though there was a time in America when people smoked in the office, in waiting areas, in theaters, supermarkets, people smoked practically everywhere and the cancer rate was actually lower than it is now. I don't propose that we go back to those days I think most of the non smoking laws in the beginning were sensible but it has gotten way out of hand and if the premise behind it is that implementing all these laws to save lives the data doesn't support it because more people are dying of cancer now than ever.

Believe it or not, there's more of a threat from the harmful and carcinogenic stuff in the food we eat than the danger of second hand smoke, which really hasn't even been fully proven.

jaycjay

"but they find an ashtray far from where any customer is going to be and they slap a fine on us?"

Yep. Because these laws were passed as being about workplace health. They affect every business with employees, not just bars... so it doesn't matter that customers won't be there, employees will be.

psquire

You do realize that your pathetic comments about what other people wear make you sound like a stupid teenagers, right? I mean, what the eff do you care if a bunch of kids have beards because it's their stupid style? It's really worth your time to kvetch about it online? Are you idiots for real?

Mr. Know-It-All

Oh yeah? And just who the fuck are you to tell me what to kvetch about? Go back to Huffington Post.

psquire

I can't read the Huff Post right now, your mother is using my laptop. Kvetch all you like, I'm merely pointing out that it makes you look like a fucking idiot.

Mordicai

Could be worse. They could be complaining about the complainers.

nicemarmot

This is Gothamist. Actual life-affecting issues are far less important than hipster infestation.

Mordicai

"It was so dodgy."

Yeah...in your favor. Are you complaining that they didn't give you the full suite of fines for encouraging smoking with your ashtrays, lack of signs, no roped off area, etc? 'cause in the non-dodgy version? Where the full force of the law is at work? That is what happens. Which sounds like what should have happened-- two inspectors went out of their way to give that bar owner a pass so he could get up to code (code he knew, but "played stupid" about) & instead he decided to complain about it.

Sigh.

Politburo

To be fair, though, it appears the inspectors are enforcing a requirement that doesn't exist. (Unless the bar in question does have a roof on the outdoor area)

jaycjay

Not sure which requirement you mean. The article mentions them erroneously saying that people can't drink in the smoking area (though not actually enforcing it), but a roof would mean there can't be any smoking at all.

kleinpeter

"Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of DOH reprisal..."

And then he proceeds to give a very detailed account of his experience. An experience, I would think, an inspector would remember fairly clearly and easily.

hotstepper

busting businesses brave enough to cater to a particularly reviled portion of consumers is a great way to support the economy here in NYC. it's not like those patrons were adding to your tax coffers...oh wait.

speaking of which, NYS tax-man, you fuckers still haven't got a single penny of cig taxes from me since the last horrific tax increase. morons.

i think i'll go out back of my apartment now for a little peace & quiet to enjoy a butt and a beer...

ides_of_march

I'm not a smoker but I'm long since tired of this anti-smoking jihad. Some sensible restrictions were implemented years ago but once somebody gets a taste of telling others what to do and how to live, they can't stop. Enough with the nanny state, this is supposed to be a free country.

jaems33

If smokers want to smoke off the premises: fine. But if they are smoking at a concert venue (even if it is outside), in the backyard of a restaurant/bar, then it infringing on other peoples freedoms to not be exposed to 2nd hand smoke.

hotstepper

are you actually talking about clean air or just that the act of smoking is offensive to your sensitive nature?

if we were to create a list of the producers of harmful poisons in the air, smoking cigarettes is undeniably low on the offending list -- far behind coal- and oil-burning power plants, factories, urban areas, and the millions of internal combustion engines spewing carbon monoxide.

Dogsbody

You're free to not go to such backyards or concerts.

I'm kind of theoretically opposed to smoking bans in general, although as a non-smoker I actually love the fact I can go to bars and not stink of smoke nowadays. But seriously, when you start complaining about people smoking outdoors, it seems a little ridiculous.

hashedz

+1

kazubes

Jesus christ look at that faux bohemian yupster.

fedora

plaid shirt

beard

jean shorts

ironic silly bands

Rocknrope

Seriously, could that guy be any more cliche? The silly bandz is the topper. "Oh, I'm going to wear these as an example of my child-like exuberance for life." GTFOH.