More than 150 residents, health advocates and business owners squared off Monday on a proposed smoking ban for indoor public places throughout Evanston.
Aldermen on the city’s Human Services Committee heard more than three hours of public comment on the ordinance but did not take any action Monday. The committee will revisit the issue at its April 12 meeting, when they could recommend it to the full City Council for a vote.
After Skokie and Wilmette enacted similar bans last year, many residents said the effects of secondhand smoke caused them to rethink eating at certain restaurants.
“I spend my money where restaurants and businesses care about my health,” Evanston resident Leonard Lamkin said.
A number of health care professionals, including Dr. Donald Misch, Northwestern’s director of university health services, and Dr. Donald Zeigler, deputy director of the American Medical Association, spoke out at the meeting against the effects of secondhand smoke in public places. They cited it as the third leading cause of preventable disease in the nation.
“We need to make a stand about a carcinogen that has been proven over and over again to destroy lives,” said Evanston resident Meg McClaskey, an independent medical ethics consultant.
Other ban proponents doubted restaurant owners’ ability to effectively ventilate non-smoking sections.
“It’s like having a bunch of people pee in the deep end of the swimming pool and then say it’s not going to affect me in the shallow end,” Evanston resident Rob Anthony said.
But restaurant and business owners said if the smoking option is taken away, patrons of Evanston restaurants simply will flock to where smoking is allowed — and maybe even force some businesses to shut down.
“There are simply too many choices out there for them to waste their time,” said Scott Anderson, director of marketing for the Clean Plate Restaurant Group.
Clean Plate includes Merle’s Barbecue, 1727 Benson Ave., Pete Miller’s Steakhouse, 1557 Sherman Ave., and the Davis Street Fishmarket, 501 Davis St.
Other business owners said they rely completely on smoking customers for a successful business. Vartan Seferian, who owns Cafe Hookah, 726 Clark St., said he and his family would be severely affected if a law were passed.
“If there was a smoking ban I would be out of business overnight,” he said.
Bill Gilmore, owner of Bill’s Blues Club, 1029 Davis St., said if smoking were banned in his club, his customers would go to live music venues in Chicago instead.
Joel Fondell, general manager of Le Peep, 827 Church St., chose to close his restaurant’s smoking section last year. But Fondell joined with his fellow restaurateurs in opposing a citywide ban.
“In the incredibly competitive restaurant business, owners and managers have the ear of their customers,” Fondell said. “I see it as being a very risky experiment that could result in more of a tax burden being placed on the residents and businesses of Evanston.”
Proponents of the smoking ban also noted the effects secondhand smoke could have on employees — not just patrons — in restaurants throughout the city.
“All workers deserve a safe and healthy smoke-free workplace,” said Dr. Louis Rowitz, chairman of the Evanston Community Health Advisory Board, which first recommended the change last May.
But Evanston resident Nathaniel Fisher, who works as a waiter at Bill’s Blues Club, said he did not feel pressured into working in a smoke-filled environment.
“I’d like to say thanks for looking out for me, but I can look out for myself,” he said.
“This regulation of private business simply creates a new list of winners and losers,” said Jonathan Perman, executive director of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce. “It does not create new wealth.”
