Slip Slidin' Away...

Bloomington OKs smoking ban:

The Bloomington City Council early today approved the Twin Cities area's first citywide smoking ban, a move some say could lead the way for other local ordinances.

Public comment on the ordinance went until about 11:30 p.m. Monday; the council's 6-1 vote came 75 minutes later.

The ordinance will take effect Sept. 1 in public places and workplaces. Smoking also would be prohibited within 25 feet of entrances, exits, open windows and ventilation intakes. The smoking ban will take effect March 31, 2005, at restaurants, bars and gambling venues. Outdoor patios can be split evenly between smoking and nonsmoking.

Bloomington is a large southwestern suburb of Minneapolis and is viewed by many as a leader among the various communities in the Twin Cities area. Now that they've passed a smoking ban, we can expect others to follow. Minneapolis and St. Paul have already been talking about enacting such freedom-limiting measures already; although the effort in St. Paul was stopped by Mayor Randy Kelly. He also says he will not recognize an absurd ban on smoking in public parks recently passed by the St. Paul Park Board. That attempt at coercive government control of peoples' lives for dubious public benefit was so egregious that even a big government liberal like Star Tribune columnist Doug Grow was moved to weigh in against it, as Mitch noted earlier today.

No word yet on the subject from Captain Red. He may be too busy celebrating the news out of Bloomington.

In related news the Northern Alliance, applying the same sort of logic that supports a smoking ban in bars and restaurants, is petitioning the Bloomington City Council to ban loud music in all bars and restaurants. The medical evidence that loud music is harmful to you health is indisputable (ask anyone who has spent any time at First Avenue about that-if they can hear you that is). People who work at bars and restaurants have no choice but to be subjected to this health risk. And the resulting medical costs are borne by all of us through higher insurance premiums and increased public spending to cover these costs. Besides shouldn't my wife and I be able to go out and enjoy a pleasant dinner without being subjected to someone else's "secondhand music"? If you want to listen to loud music, why not just do it in the privacy of your own home? That would still be allowed under our proposed ordinance. At least for now.