The future of enjoying an ice-cold beer and a late-night cigarette in San Francisco could go up in smoke just before Memorial Day, as Supervisor Myrna Melgar's proposal to ban the habit from inside restaurant patios heads to a vote.
'I don’t think tobacco smoke is essential to building community,' Melgar told The San Francisco Chronicle of her April 7 proposal. 'In San Francisco, we are often permissive, but it’s different when making choices for yourself versus exposing people to others’ choices.' She reminded residents that banning smoking indoors was controversial at the time, and that this will more than likely be no different.
A vote is scheduled on the matter with the city's board of supervisors on May 18. The change would bring San Francisco in line with state and local law, KTVU reported.
However, local businesses are frustrated by the proposal, saying it puts their establishments at risk of closing. 'One of the reasons we have a parklet is so people can come out and have a cigarette with their beer,' Neil Holbrook, co-owner of O'Reilly's Pub, told the outlet.
In a 6-0 vote, the San Francisco Office of Small Business voted robustly against the measure, saying it would shift customers onto sidewalks, which could 'create new tensions' with residents nearby. They requested the city share data about smoking complaints involving outdoor patios, a letter said.
More than a dozen bars have signed onto a Change.org petition opposing Melgar's ordinance. It has garnered nearly 1,500 signatures so far. The petition said the proposal threatened establishments' entire existence, especially those that have 'built their entire business model around the legal use of those spaces.'
'Eliminating these exceptions will force some establishments to close entirely, or to lose a critical portion of their customer base at a time when the San Francisco hospitality industry has not yet recovered from the compounding crises of the pandemic, downtown vacancy, retail flight, and public safety concerns,' it said. 'The city’s restaurant and bar sector lost hundreds of businesses in the past five years. This is not the moment to pile on additional restrictions.'
The 14 businesses – which include The Stud, Horsies Market & Saloon, and Mothership Bar – also accused the city of focusing on the wrong problem. The local watering holes said that banning smoking does not fix the cost of living or housing crisis, the commercial vacancies caused by drug and homelessness in the Tenderloin District, or the fentanyl crisis plaguing the streets of the coastal city.
For Holbrook, he estimates that 80 percent of his nighttime parklet business is smokers. For El Rio, which has been in San Francisco since 1978, having an outdoor patio saved the business from going under during the pandemic. 'This proposed legislation feels like yet another hurdle for small businesses in the city,' co-owner Lynne Angel told The Standard.
Melgar's office reminded Holbrook that smoking in parklets is already prohibited. The San Francisco Marin Medical Society was the one who brought the matter to Melgar's attention. Senior Director Adam Francis told The Standard he was shocked to learn bar patios were exempt from the smoking laws. 'There hasn’t been the economic impact that everyone is saying is going to happen,' he told the outlet. 'The same arguments were made when they talked about getting rid of smoking in restaurants and restaurant patios. History has shown that that actually hasn’t happened.'
The organization is concerned about patio smoking, as it exposes employees to secondhand smoke and increases the risk of cancer. Around 50 bars will be affected by the ban if it takes effect, SF Gate reported. The Board of Supervisors will vote on the measure on May 18. If passed, the ban could begin early next year.
