Smoking debate heats up for businesses

BY BILL O'BRIEN
bobrien@record-eagle.com

Sat, May 17 2008

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TRAVERSE CITY -- Rod Langbo's popular downtown restaurant will re-open with a new look on Wednesday.

The menu isn't changing at Mackinaw Brewing Co. on East Front Street downtown, and the decor is the same. But there won't be clouds of cigarette smoke, much less an ash tray, anywhere in the place.

Langbo's place will join a growing number of eateries and bars in the Grand Traverse area to ban smoking. It's not because he's required to do so, since a proposed public smoking ban remains bottled up in the state Legislature. But Langbo said it's the right thing to do, both for his customers and employees.

"The way we're laid out, families have to walk through a smoke-filled bar when we're busy just to get to their seats," he said. "We just want to provide a healthy environment for our employees and our customers."

Langbo's employees are happy with the change. Bartender and manager Mark Oldenburg said he and other co-workers started pushing the idea more than a year ago, and more than 50 patrons signed a petition supporting the move to a smoke-free business.

"We're not the smokiest place in town by any means, but when you get three or four cigarettes lit up at once it's an intense environment to be in," Oldenburg said. "We've put the feelers out with our clients for a long time now, and we think they support it."

More and more bars and restaurants in the Grand Traverse area are snuffing out smoking, although a deep divide remains over whether it's just good for business or if a total smoking ban should be required for the health of employees and patrons.

There are more than 160 smoke-free restaurants in the Traverse City area, according to the Traverse Bay Area Tobacco Coalition. That's a three-fold increase since late 2005, and among the highest totals in Michigan, coalition coordinator Lisa Danto said.

"I think the biggest reason is that we're a tourist area, and the businesses know that being smoke-free is good for business," Danto said.

Russell Springsteen doesn't smoke, so it was easy to ban it from his new watering hole, Right Brain Brewery, in the city's emerging Warehouse District just northwest of downtown.

But Springsteen said it's a decision that should be left up to him, and he opposes any government-mandated smoking ban on bars and restaurants.

"Don't tell me how to run my business or who can come here or what they can do," said Springsteen, who opened the Garland Street brewery three months ago. "I don't smoke, I don't want to be around smoke, but I don't want to be told how to run my business."

He said the market is gravitating toward a ban on smoking on its own, which should indicate legislation isn't necessary.

Some of his patrons agree. Tim Pulliam of Traverse City prefers non-smoking establishments because of his 18-month-old daughter.

Now, he finds himself spending more time and money at places that accommodate non-smokers like himself.

"I definitely don't want to expose her to it," Pulliam said. "Even if they allow smoking, I hang out in the non-smoking areas."

But, he said, a mandated ban could be detrimental to some businesses that survive because they allow patrons to light up indoors.

"I know there's places that would lose a lot of money if they went non-smoking," Pulliam said.

But smoke-free advocates counter the debate isn't about personal choice.

"That's an argument that's way off-base," said Marx Cooper, head of the Michigan Citizens for SmokeFree Air. "It's been determined, indisputably, that second-hand smoke contains carcinogens ... it creates a very bad, toxic atmosphere."

Nancy Freund, whose family owns Lil' Bo's bar and restaurant on West Front Street, started experimenting with a "smoke-free Thursday" early this year. It's been successful so far, to the point where she may expand it to a second smoke-free day each week.

"I'm getting a very good response from about 90 percent of the people that come in," she said. "We do get the occasional regular that's not too happy about it."

But Freund, like Langbo, breaks with some of her fellow business owners and supports a statewide public smoking ban she believes would create a level playing field for all businesses.

"I hope they do pass it. The second they do, I'll put the (no-smoking) signs up," Freund said. "It's great to work in an environment without cigarette smoke."

Record-Eagle staff writer Lindsay VanHulle contributed to this report.

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