Monday, January 22, 2007

On the Butt Beat

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First, let me say I think it’s funny the SJ-R sent a reporter out to investigate cigarette butts. The smoking ban story really can be milked endlessly I guess.
The ban forces patrons of bars and restaurants to step outside to enjoy smokes, and many simply toss their cigarette butts onto the sidewalks near the front doors of drinking establishments.

A check of some downtown bars last week showed unsightly trails of cigarette butts outside many bars in the mornings. By lunchtime, most of the messes had been cleaned up.
So the reporter when out looking for cigarette butts in front of bars. And she found some! Okaaaaaay.

Anyway, we are once again treated to the childishness of the anti-ban crowd and it’s that that makes the story worth reading. This time we have Tom Kelty Jr., owner of Sammy's Sports Bar downtown doing his part for the resistance:
But at least one downtown bar owner, still disgruntled about the smoking ban, said he has his employees just sweep the butts into the gutters.

"We don't put any ashtrays out," said Tom Kelty Jr., owner of Sammy's Sports Bar, 217 S. Fifth St. "As far as I'm concerned, it's the city's responsibility. They're the ones who forced smokers outside.
Wow is he really sticking it to The Man or what? Civil disobedience I guess. And if that doesn’t work, try bogus scare tactics:

Along with the litter is an unanticipated problem: the people who gather outside to smoke often become the targets of panhandlers.

"It's a smorgasbord," Kelty said. "People try to stand outside to smoke, and (the panhandlers) bounce from bar to bar, so there's a safety issue. It's an eyesore for the city for visitors to town to be accosted. They've been dealing with the problem for years, but it's more of a problem with everyone standing outside."
Oh yes, the “safety” issue of panhandlers. Just like the dangerous homeless folk at the library. Man, I guess a lot of people are going to be giving up smoking now rather that face the dangers of panhandlers. Right?

I think I can cross Sammy’s off my list of places I might ever patronize. Someone this petty can’t be running an establishment I’d enjoy.

2 comments:

JeromeProphet said...

Now wait a moment Dave.

Just think about it for a moment. We have hordes of drug addicts, and pan handlers. Now that really is a pathetic sight.

Also Sammy's owner is so concerned, he really is, about the lives of those forces to park their butts outside his establishment. He really is, you see twenty, or thirty years from now when they start coming down with Lung Cancer he plans to present them with their very own Sammy's Butt Canisters so they can spew their rotting cancer infested lung chunks into.

He's really a very considerate man.

JP

Anonymous said...

I was also struck by Sammy's owner saying that his customers were emptying their pockets of garbage out onto the street as well. I would love to see some citations for littering.

The owner of Floyd's seems to have some perspective and I'm guessing there's a corrolation between that and his continued business success.