Brooklyn Councilman Wants to Halt Hookah Bar Proliferation!

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The sacred hookah bar—one of the few remaining establishments where New Yorkers can legally smoke indoors—would become even more of a rarity in NYC if City Council Member Vincent Gentile has his way. Gentile, who represents Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, and Bensonhurst, will introduce a bill this week that would ban new hookah bars starting in 2012. Existing hookah bars would be exempt, but the Daily News reports that they would would have to register with the Health Department, and would be barred from expanding or changing locations.

Gentile insists hookah smoke is just as bad as cigarette smoke, and tells the News, "There are some people going there thinking that as long as it's not tobacco, that it's not harmful. It's been established that it is harmful." But hookah smokers reacted scornfully to Gentile's proposed prohibition. "It’s ridiculous," Mamua Jeme, a hookah smoker at El Khayam Cafe in Astoria, tells Thaindian News. "Cigarettes are more of a vice. Hookah is a tradition." And another hookah enthusiast in Astoria points out that while it may be harmful, "everyone I know knows what they’re doing."

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By John Del Signore in News on October 25, 2010 10:35 AM

Comments [rss]

Cannibal

People still go to hookah bars?

PKMKII

Translation: Gentile is trying to make a cheap appeal to islamophobes in south Brooklyn that are all scared of the muslims moving in.

Courtney

This is a horrible idea. I do not smoke. I hate the smell of tobacco, and love that we don't have it indoors in NYC bars and restaurants, but to reiterate what everyone else has said: WTF? People go to hookah bars to smoke hookah- they know what they're getting into. It IS a cultural tradition for some people and for others it's something that is pleasant and social (an adopted tradition)-- and while that argument might not work for something like opium, I think it does apply for a little herbal tabacco. I might understand if hookah bars were a public nuisance, stinking up neighborhoods with foul odors-- but who doesn't like a good mango scented breeze? I'm with Aleksey-- emailing Dilbner now... dlibner@council.nyc.gov

Aleksey

Fortunately, you’ll still be able to smoke hookah outside of bars or lounges that let you and in the privacy of your own home; the law, if and when passed, would only make the city’s 2002 law on smoking pertain to all smoking instead of just tobacco. We think all secondhand smoke should be treated the same, but are happy to hear any ideas you might have.

Best,

Dena

Which I responded to with:

Are you suggesting that people attending hookah bars are not aware of second hand smoke? It's like going into a pool and expect not to get wet.

Maybe you should ban liquor and suggest that people can drink at privacy of their own home and see how fast you will get kicked out of the office because

of all the money behind it. Forget that it kills way more people then second hand smoke, just ignore that. Let's focus on some hookah bars instead; because

we have nothing else to do!

Send her/him e-mail and complain on their facebook page:

dlibner@council.nyc.gov

RevWaldo

Won't someone please think of the adult children!?

chuzzlewit

you know what else is harmful? minding other people's business - it causes a great deal of stress. stress makes you sick. also second-hand stress makes the innocent people around you sick.

Guest

but some people only know how to suck energy from other people. without soul-sucking, they'd die.

chuzzlewit

haha - too true. one sure way to slay a vampire is to get it to mind its own fucking business.

starstruck13

This is stupid. It's one thing in restaurants/bars where not everyone smokes.

But if you're going to a hookah bar, you're going there to smoke hookah.

I thought this was supposed to be a free country? I'm sick and tired of people telling me what I can and cannot consume.