KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
The Chart House restaurant's general manager favors Honolulu's year-old no-smoking ordinance. Here, Chart House patrons April Vaudrey, Paul Yoshida and Geraldine Jordan come outside for a smoke.
Smoking ban divides
Oahu restaurateursMany but not all managers say
the year-old prohibition
has proved beneficial
One year after a groundbreaking ordinance that snuffed out smoking in restaurants on Oahu, the new law is getting mixed though mostly positive reviews.
"The workers are happier. Our hair and clothes don't smell like smoke anymore," said Scott Okamoto, general manager of Chart House Honolulu.
"I can breathe better. It's a better environment, better for everybody," said Mimi Choe, manager of Akasaka on Kona Street.
Other business owners say the smoking ordinance is an unwelcome government intrusion.
Honolulu was the first county in the state to pass a restaurant smoking ban, which went into effect last July 1. Since then, Kauai and Maui have followed, and the Big Island is considering an ordinance that would ban smoking in bars as well as restaurants.
"It hasn't cause any revenue loss for us," Okamoto said. Chairs were set up outside the restaurant to accommodate smokers.
"It's a little social event out there," he said.
But Side Street Inn owner Colin Nishida, who spent $5,000 to build a wall to have a separate area for nonsmokers, says sales have dropped between 10 and 15 percent since the ban took effect. Nishida speculated the decrease is also a result of Hawaii's sluggish tourism industry and the Iraq war.
Business owners, not the government, should make the decision on whether smoking is allowed in their establishments, Nishida said.
"It's all about choice. The customer has a choice of whether they want to come in or not. They can't put it on the employer."
Michele Van Hessen, president of the Hawaii Restaurant Association, contends that the counties' actions of banning smoking in restaurants "will add additional loss of revenue to individual corporations and businesses."
"During these difficult economic times, such an act is damaging the welfare of your community and our state," Van Hessen said.
However, City Council Chairman Gary Okino said, "Businesses are doing even better."
In fact, according to the National Restaurant Association, eating-place sales are projected to increase 3 percent statewide this year.
Clifford Chang, director of the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, said the organization plans to do a study on how the smoking ban has affected Oahu's restaurants.
"We have never seen that these type of ordinances hurt businesses," said Chang. "It's been extraordinarily successful from our point of view."
Enforcement has been mostly voluntary. So far there have not been any major problems.
Michelle Yu, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department, said no arrests or citations have been issued since the smoking ban took effect last year.
D.K. Kodama, owner of Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar at Restaurant Row, says the smoking ban actually improves his bottom line.
"It helps businesses. Now, I don't have to have ashtrays. Now, I don't have to fix any burns or damages from the cigarettes," he said. "Everybody can taste our food and smell our food without the smoke."
Smoking ban time line
Smoking ban ordinances among the counties:Oahu: On July 1, 2002, smoking was prohibited in restaurants. Starting tomorrow, only stand-alone bars and outdoor areas of restaurants will be exempt from the ban.
Maui: On Jan. 1, smoking was prohibited in restaurants and bars in restaurants. Smoking is allowed in stand-alone bars.
Kauai: On Jan. 1, smoking was prohibited in restaurants. Smoking is allowed in outdoor dining areas, stand-alone bars and businesses that have a bar and a restaurant during limited hours.
Big Island: On Wednesday the Hawaii County Council will take a final vote on a smoking ban that includes bars.
BACK TO TOP |
No-smoking vote
nears on Big IslandSome owners of bars and
restaurants fear a ban
will hurt business
Sharky's has survived the economic and tourism downturn caused by a terrorist attack, the war in Iraq and the SARS virus.
Now, owner Bill Moore is facing what he calls the most dangerous threat yet to his Big Island restaurant and bar: a countywide ban on smoking in public places.
"It's going to cut business in half, if not more," he said. "If I'm selling half, that means tips are in half, hours are in half; and I'm sure it will cause me to lay off people."
The anti-smoking legislation is set for a final vote by the Hawaii County Council on Wednesday.
In its current form, the smoking ban would be the most restrictive in the state and among the toughest in the nation.
It would make smoking illegal not only in restaurants, bars and nightclubs, but also in taxicabs, commercial buildings and common places in residential buildings. Smokers would also have to stay 15 feet from doors and open windows of buildings.
"It'll hurt, and it already hasn't been easy," said Moore, who moved his business from Kailua-Kona to Waikoloa because of struggling sales. "It's a stupid law. It's just one more nail in the coffin."
Moore said most of his customers smoke, especially at the bar of his 189-seat establishment. Making it illegal to light up would be disastrous for business, he said.
Councilwoman Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd, who introduced the sweeping measure, said some businesses may experience a temporary drop in sales but will eventually rebound and may become more profitable.
"I'm going to cross my fingers and pray it won't hurt businesses," she said. "I think initially it will, but I'm hoping that as people adjust to it, that they would then come back to bars."
Michele Van Hessen, president of the 8,000-member Hawaii Restaurant Association, has no doubt the ban would hurt Big Island establishments.
"It's really sad. I feel sorry for them because it will affect their business," she said. "They're trying to regulate these people out of business."
Clifford Chang, director of the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, said about 90 municipalities and several states -- California, Massachusetts and Delaware -- are already smoke-free. New York's statewide smoking ban is set to take effect July 23.
"Across the country, not a single one of those ordinances has ever been repealed on the basis of people losing money," Chang said.
Van Hessen said she is outraged that government -- which regulates and profits from tobacco taxes -- is trying to dictate where people can smoke.
"We feel it's an act of tyranny because political powers are mandating personal behavior and establishing a fascist government," Van Hessen said.
Leithead-Todd, who announced this month she is resigning from the Council, said businesses, including bars and restaurants, already operate under heavy government regulations.
Government has an important role in protecting the health and safety of employees, especially from secondhand smoke, she said.
When drafting the measure, Leithead-Todd said she struggled to decide whether to include bars. "I made a decision that we would go with no exemptions because I went with what I thought was right," she said. "If the rationale, which has been advocated, was a workplace and employee safety issue, then it didn't make sense to ban it in restaurants and not ban it in bars."
