Smoking Inside, Er, Outside the Beltway

Posted by Baylen on Dec. 9, 2008

skitched-20081209-142142.jpgI have a piece up today at Culture 11 on how businesses can (and cannot) get around DC & Maryland smoking bans.

Speaking of DC & Maryland, did anyone else notice that NBC kept referring to Sunday night’s NFL game between the Redskins and Ravens as the “Battle of the Beltway”?

And which beltway would that be? 695?

I digress. A snip:

Perhaps the most egregious and subjective requirement of the waiver form is that a filer ordain whether “any like business opened or changed operations in” a waiver seeker’s “general vicinity” since January 1, 2005. (If yes, the applicant must provide an explanation.) For good measure, the application elsewhere describes a “change in operations” as “including, but not limited to a change in chef, manager, wait or other staff.”

In other words, in order to provide a complete response, a waiver applicant must ostensibly survey every nearby competitor to learn the intimacies of their staffing for the previous several years. Of course, a business owner has neither the obligation nor the incentive to aid his competitor.

More here.

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  • There has been a great deal of "back and forth" on this issue, with never-before Libertarians coming out of the woodwork to denounce the new laws (odd what gets people riled up). I was at a friendly card game recently when the issue arose and nearly precipitated a war of words which I quickly averted by changing the subject - partly because I don't like to see such trouble and partly because I wasn't interested in listening to the inarticulate points and counterpoints that were about to ensue.
  • Jessica Lee
    The smoking bans are an example of how our government has gone way beyond its mandate and now regulates the freedom of people to associate as they feel fit and choose their own relationships. Roommates.com is under government seige under a HUD lawsuit as they allow people to select their roommates based on whether they are gay or straight or want roommates with kids or not, or smokers or not. The suit argues that this choice of preference and their entire business model violates the Fair Housing Act.
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