Dallas has more restaurants per capita than just about any other city in the country, so dining out is a hobby for many. And, one of the best parts—there’s no smoking allowed. Or, at least, there’s not supposed to be. I can’t count the number of times I’ve entered a Dallas restaurant through a door with a no-smoking sign only to find lit cigarettes, wafting smoke, and complacent restaurant managers. The door sign, my protests, and a clear violation of city ordinance go ignored.
It’s time for an overhaul of Dallas’ five-year-old smoking ban. In 2003, then-members of the Dallas City Council made a forward-thinking decision to ban smoking in all restaurants in the city. “At that time, Dallas was the leader of the pack,” says Douglas Dunsavage, public advocacy director for the American Heart Association in North Texas.
Most U.S. cities then only mandated that restaurants have separate smoking and non-smoking sections, or at most required separate (not to mention expensive and ineffective) ventilation systems for each seating area. But Dallas set the trend for North Texas—now Arlington, Fort Worth, Richardson, Plano, Southlake, and McKinney all have some kind of a smoking ban.
The arguments against a smoking ban aren’t relevant anymore. In 2006, the United States Surgeon General issued a report that declared, “The debate is over. The science is clear. Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance, but a serious health hazard. … There’s no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.”
I have nothing personal against smokers. I respect their freedom to make that choice. I’m most certainly a fan of small-business owners who risk their livelihood to pursue a dream of entrepreneurship. But indoor smoking is an issue that goes beyond personal freedoms and into the public-health arena. Just as health inspectors ensure that restaurant food and facilities are safe, so must no-smoking regulations. Moreover, the old argument that restaurant smoking bans are bad for business has been disproved by sales tax receipts.
But Dallas’ ordinance doesn’t go far enough for three big reasons. First, it exempts stand-alone taverns and bars, creating an unfair playing field for restaurants with an attached bar. Second, it uses a “percentage rule” to define the two—a “restaurant” earns 75 percent or more of its revenues from the sale of food, but if more than 25 percent of its sales come from alcohol, then it’s a “bar.” These gray areas allow the less than honest to play with the math. And finally, and most importantly, there’s no enforcement. “The onus is on the patron,” says Dunsavage. “The restaurants don’t have to enforce it.”
If patrons are caught smoking, they can be cited and fined $200. But, that’s a big “if.” Since the ban went into effect, according to the City of Dallas’ Environmental & Health Services Department, which is charged with enforcement of the ordinance, only 282 citations had been written as of May. It seems nothing happens to the restaurant. Of course, there are good-guy standouts who do the right thing. Javier’s Gourmet Mexicano built a separate entrance to its cigar bar, and I’ve seen Joey Terilli of Terilli’s Dallas on Lower Greenville ask patrons to extinguish their cigarettes at the restaurant bar. Generally speaking, there’s no legal incentive to do so.
The Dallas City Council will return from its July recess to a renewed effort by the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Dallas, a local group comprised of the American Heart, Lung, and Cancer Associations, among others, to tighten Dallas’ smoking ordinance. Their proposal would make workplaces smoke free, ban smoking in all restaurants and stand-alone bars, and beef up enforcement. A similar organization, Smoke-Free Texas, has set a goal to get municipalities around the state to institute a comprehensive smoking ban to pave the way for the Texas Legislature to consider a statewide ban during its 2009 session. “As Dallas goes, so goes the state,” says Dunsavage, who helped lobby for a similar statewide measure last year.
The Greater Dallas Restaurant Association generally agrees and advocated for the statewide ban during the 2007 legislative session in Austin. According to Executive Director Jamee Green, the goal is to level the playing field. “We understand the health concerns, but we also know that when you have different cities that are adjacent to each other that each have a different standard, then it does negatively impact the restaurants from city to city.”
In other words, inconsistent ordinances among North Texas cities make for a confusing, uneven, and sometimes expensive playing field. “For example,” Green says, “first some cities mandated smoking ventilation systems. Some allowed smoking on patios, then later banned patio smoking. … We need one blanket policy that everyone adheres to.”
Dallas once again has the chance to step up and set the pace. Now, the Dallas City Council has the choice and, in the meantime, so do we consumers. We can vote with our feet and our business and support restaurants that support the law. As Dallas goes, so goes Texas.
