Mayor Bloomberg wants New York to go cold Turkey – and he’s already got the city twitching. His proposal would ban smoking in all workplaces, bars and restaurants included. No more hazy clubs in Harlem – no more sophisticates’ stogies in midtown – no more smog-choked cafes in SoHo.
Some say that’s like pulling Vermeer out of the Frick Collection… “this is New York City – we breathe danger every day.” Public health experts are cheering the mayor’s resolve, but many in the bar business argue that second-hand concerns are luxuries in tough economic times.
While smokers hold their breath – the national anti-smoking lobby and big tobacco companies are watching carefully – realizing that a ban in Manhattan will stand as an example across the nation. Smoke signals from Gotham.
Guests:
David Saltonstall City Hall bureau chief for the New York Daily News
Diane Stover, Chief of pulmonary medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Art Spiegelman, artist, author, and consulting editor of the New Yorker
Kelly Carona, a bartender at “Big Bar” at the Lower East Side
Steven Sherman, a bartender at Houston’s Restaurant, Park Ave New York City.