Smoking inside bars has been illegal in California since 1998. Now, the smoker’s outdoor refuge in San Francisco could also go up in smoke.
“I know there will be some regulars who will be like, ‘what the fuck, you can’t smoke out there anymore?’” said Ryan McGrath, a bartender at the Inner Sunset Temple Bar, where plenty of ash trays sit in the patio’s designated smoking section.
“But I don’t think it’ll make the craziest difference.”
Others see it differently. Supervisor Myrna Melgar called her ordinance to prohibit smoking on outdoor patios at bars an effort to “clean up” the city’s code by bringing it into compliance with more recent updates to state law, and to “close the loophole” currently provided to outdoor patios.
The benefits will likely be debated on many a patio over the next few weeks as the Board of Supervisors considers the change, first introduced April 7.
“It will be detrimental to the bar business,” said Corey Grosklos, a bartender at the Blarney Stone on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond, which hosted a handful of regular smokers one recent weeknight.
“I understand there are health concerns,” Grosklos said, “but having a patio — that helps your bar.”
Melgar’s amendment would also ban smoking from certain indoor spaces like some hotel rooms to reflect changes made at the state level. While there is no statewide prohibition on smoking on outdoor patios in California, Oakland and over 100 other municipalities have enacted such a ban.
The Oakland law, as well as Melgar’s ordinance, references research done by local advocacy group LGBTQ Minus Tobacco.
The study the group conducted for San Francisco, in partnership with UCSF researchers, found that six of nine bar patios visited in the city had unhealthy air quality levels. The study has not been formally published, but is also noted on its website.
“San Francisco has historically been a leader in tobacco prevention legislation, but has fallen behind others when it comes to protecting bar workers and patrons from exposure to deadly second hand smoke,” said Brian Davis, who served as project director for LGBTQ Minus Tobacco and now continues to work as a volunteer.
Another volunteer, Joseph Andrew Hayden, said he’s lost family members to smoking. He said he goes to gay bars with patios like the Lone Star and the Eagle, and festivals like Bearisson and Folsom, where smoking is commonplace.
“I just will not subscribe to the school of thought that this is part of gay culture,” Hayden said. He said he’s surveyed people including friends who said “that it would be easier for them to quit if they themselves were not surrounded by it.”
As for Hayden: “I know that I would be much more likely and much more comfortable if I could go out to these places and actually inhale.”
Dr. Sarita Satpathy, President of the San Francisco Marin Medical Society, also spoke in support of the ordinance. Referring to research by the Centers for Disease Control, Satpathy said, “There is no safe level of exposure to second hand smoke.”
Some bars already have a no-smoking policy for their patios.
Casements bar and restaurant in the Mission has never allowed smoking in its spacious patio — “because you can’t have smoking and food together,” said bar manager Mo Huynh.
Huynh also spoke with Davis in support of the ordinance, and told Mission Local later that the smoke-free outdoor patio has been good for business.
“It would just distract from the great smell of our French onion soup and our fish and chips,” Huynh said. “We want everyone to feel welcome and not feel like it’s a dive bar.”
Bars like the Blarney Stone, however, appear firmly in the divey camp. As with smoking indoors, the local business owners there would bear the responsibility of enforcing the restriction, subject to the same penalties.
Patrons smoking outside at the Blarney Stone also came to the patio’s defense. One regular, who comes from a few neighborhoods away, said he’d likely come to the bar less if he couldn’t enjoy a smoke on the patio. Another said she prefers the privacy of the backyard to the sidewalk. The pair declined to give their names.
Richmond resident Dominic Tomasini was also out smoking on the bar’s patio, looking after a dog. Tomasini had apparently had a couple of cold ones before offering his opinion.
“I think it’s a despicable nanny state overreach into private business affairs,” Tomasini said bluntly. He went on, and at some point, the dog at his feet began to heave.
“People are gonna smoke regardless. You take away this spot and everybody’s just gonna go out on Geary.”
The dog then threw up, right there on the patio.
In a time when many bars are struggling, I don’t see how this is beneficial. Bars are not inherently “healthy” places, and having a dedicated area where people can smoke should not be banned outright at the city level. This should be the bar’s decision, not the city’s. Let people have their vices within reason. Adding more rules and restrictions will do more harm than good to business, and SF overall.
Hey, Nicholas,
You should toss a Kudos to former Board of Supe’s prez, Angela Alioto who wrote the original SF law and took some serious heat for her actions.
h.
Tomasini fellow makes a clear, cogent, and ultimately persuasive case. I for one, agree with him. This article makes me sad for both people and the world. Stop the smoking patio ban!