desh | (no subject)

(no subject)

After long delay, Philadelphia city council suddenly passes smoking ban legislation

I practically jumped out of bed when I heard the news. Finally! Assuming the mayor signs the bill (and smart money is that he will), then starting in 2007 I'll be able to go out with my friends without feeling sick for the rest of the day! Congrats to city council for doing the right thing, and congrats to Michael Nutter for finally getting this through, and probably earning a few thousand votes for mayor at the same time.

I know some of you disagree with this, or think it makes me a bad liberal or something. And you're probably right, but dammit, I just want to be able to go out at night without spending the whole time counting the minutes until I can jump in the shower. I don't think that's too much to ask.

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I saw this too, and at first was happy about it. But then I read about it some more and found this

"The partial ban allows for private clubs, sidewalk cafes and “neighborhood bars” to apply for exemptions that would give them the right to allow smoking. The bill defines neighborhood bars as those having less than 10 percent of the total revenue comes from the sale of food."

So band venues will probably still allow smoking. I'm also not clear on what defines a private club.

A private club is one you can't just walk into. You have to be invited or pay membership or something. I'm pretty sure that in practice, there are places that have a nominal membership just to get around other rules (having to close at 2am, for instance), but most places don't count as private clubs.

With regard to the "neighborhood bars" thing: "The exemptions are available for bars that make at least 90 percent of their revenue from the sale of alcohol. In 2005, according to the Liquor Control Board, about 1,500 of the city's 1,950 licensed establishments had Sunday-sales permits, which require bars to earn more than 30 percent of their income from selling food or nonalcoholic drinks. None of those, then, would be eligible for exemptions." So I really don't think this provision will have that big of an impact. It certainly shouldn't exempt venues that sell tickets to hear music, since they must make at least 10% on ticket sales alone.

Except the bill explicitly says
"less than 10 percent of the total revenue comes from the sale of food"
Nothing about non-alcoholic beverages or tickets. I guess we will have to wait and see

This provision applies to "[a]ny Food or Beverage Establishment whose on-site sales of food for consumption on the premises comprises no more than 10% of gross sales of both food, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages on an annual basis". [Philadelphia Code §10-602(2)(a) as amended by Bill 050063-A, Section 2.] So you're right. I guess we'll have to see how it's enforced.

I wonder how much of the TLA's revenue is from food. Or Tin Angel's.

Actually, if ticket sales don't count toward the total for purposes of calculating that 10%, then I bet most concert venues do sell enough food to be over the 10% mark. (The Tin Angel especially, if the restaurant downstairs counts.) Good.

Interesting, because I've heard it characterized both ways (90% alc v. 10% food) so I guess we'll see how this pans out in practice.

Oh and thanks for that "Sunday-sales" info. I was wondering just how many bars would be able to be exempt.

I guess the question is if you think it's plausible for a business to be subject to the Sunday Sales Law (30% of profits from food and non-alcoholic drinks) and also make less than 10% of their food/drink profits off food. Which would by necessity mean that their non-alcoholic drink sales would have to be 20% of their business. Somehow I don't see that as likely.

Even if you're not taking the Sunday Sales Law into account, it would seem likely that the sale of non-alcoholic drinks would be insignificantly small compared to food sales, no matter what, so leaving them out of the equation or putting them in doesn't seem to make much of a difference in my opinion.

From my reading, both the Sunday Sales Law and the new Smoking Law specifically talk about profits from food and drinks *only*. Ticket sales or non-consumable sales don't seem to get factored into the equation one way or the other.

Heh, some strip clubs in Ontario tried to pull that to get around a province-wide smoking ban everywhere but in private residences and private clubs. It went to court and I think the court decided that paying a nominal charge wasn't sufficient to consider it a "private club". *looks for links*

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