Nearly two years after the Evanston City Council voted to exempt bars and restaurants from a citywide smoking ban in public places, aldermen will revisit the ordinance.
Evanston Goes Smoke-Free
Jul 2, 2006
Smoking Prohibited In All Work Places, Schools and Public Enclosed Areas (STNG) Evanston, Ill. The city of Evanston is now a smoke-free community as of Saturday thanks to amendments to the Clean Air Ordinance passed in April, according to a release. Smoking is now prohibited in all work places including restaurants and bars, all public enclosed areas and schools, according to a release from the city of Evanston web site. In addition to all work places, smoking is also prohibited within 25 feet of building entrances, windows, air vents, and other openings that lead directly to non-smoking environments due to ordinance amendments passed in June 2004, the release said. Smoking is still allowed in private residences, except when used as a licensed care facility or a home-based business that is opened to the public. Smokers can still light up in designated smoking hotel and motel sleeping rooms as well as retail tobacco stores and private lodges or clubs. Ordinance violations, which are subject to a fine of at least $100, are enforced on a complaint basis, the release said. Violators can be reported to Evanston's Health and Human Services Department at (847) 866-2952. For those wishing to become smoke-free just like the city, the Evanston Health and Human Services Department will be offering two free Nicotine Addiction Seminars. The first program will be offered on July 11 at the Evanston Public Library, with a repeat seminar on July 13 at the Evanston Civic Center, the release said. Read
Mr. Jonathan Perman, Executive Director Evanston Chamber of Commerce Dear Jonathan, I'm so sorry that the Evanston ban passed this time! You still did a magnificent job in defeating their smoking ban the first time. I imagine it gets very tiresome to keep fighting the revolving door tactics from Illinois health control cartels. I would still like to reference the reasoning and statistics you presented through the Evanston Chamber of Commerce to defeat the first Evanston restaurant/bar smoking ban proposal. If that information ever becomes available on line, please let me know. The policies you presented then are still an excellent model for fighting proposed smoking bans in the rest of Illinois and other states. Sincerely, Garnet Dawn The Smoker's Club, Inc. Midwest Regional Director The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter - http://www.smokersclubinc.comIllinois Smokers Rights - http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com/mailto:garnetdawn@comcast.net - Respect Freedom of Choice!
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Public smoking ban OKd, will go into effect July 1
April 26, 2006
EVANSTON -- Bars and restaurants in Evanston will become smoke-free years before Chicago forces patrons of taverns and eateries to refrain from lighting up.
Without much debate, Evanston's nine aldermen voted 8-1 Monday night to outlaw smoking in public places beginning July 1, two years before a similar ban takes effect in Chicago and 8 1/2 months before one begins in Cook County.
The vote represented a reversal for the City Council, which had voted against a smoking ban two years ago. Ald. Elizabeth Tisdahl, who sought the ban, said she attributed the change to Chicago's decision to adopt an anti-smoking measure.
"Chicago led the way and I'm very, very glad they did," Tisdahl said.
Tisdahl and other community leaders who favor the ban said the council was also persuaded to change its mind because of additional research showing the negative health effects of secondhand smoke and the positive effects similar bans had had on businesses elsewhere.
"People understood that [a ban] had not been an economic disaster for bars, restaurants and cities," Tisdahl said. Read
Aldermen ban bar smoking
Amendment passes by 8-1 vote, goes into effect July 1
April 25, 2006
By Laura Olson and Jenny Song
Smokers will no longer be able to light up in Evanston bars and restaurants after July 1.
Aldermen amended the city’s smoking ban at the Evanston City Council meeting Monday. The ordinance passed with an 8-1 vote to audience applause. Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) voted against the ban, saying he was still concerned about negative economic effect.
Cook County and the City of Chicago have passed similar laws but have included longer “phasing out” periods before changes to current policy go into effect.
In Chicago bars and restaurants with bar areas can allow smoking until July 1, 2008, although many have already become smoke-free voluntarily.
Residents advocating the smoking ban wore stickers that read, “I support a smoke-free Evanston.”
But not all residents were in favor of the ban. One man said during citizen comment that banning smoking is an encroachment on civil liberties.
“I see a ‘Big Brother’ approach being sought here,” Evanston resident David Baum said.
Baum said city interference in restaurant regulations is an “intrusion” on private enterprises.
Other residents said the amendments would benefit restaurant and bar employees. Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) voted against the ban two years ago but changed his mind with this proposal.
“I think our hospitality industry will improve with this,” Moran said. “In some respects I wish I had voted for it (before).”
The council also approved a proposal for a condominium development at 2607 Prairie Ave. The developers, Evanston Prairie LLC, plan to build 13 residential units and will have commercial space on the ground floor.
Faced with a shortage of affordable housing, aldermen discussed an ordinance that would require new developments to include units affordable to low- to middle-income households.
The proposed inclusionary housing ordinance would apply to new planned developments of 25 or more units.
Aldermen said securing affordable housing has become increasingly necessary because the development boom in Evanston has gentrified the city. But they disagreed on the details.
City staff recommended that 10 percent of all units be set aside for families earning 100 percent or less of Evanston’s median family income. Some aldermen said they thought the number of units to be set aside should be higher.
“I feel we should go, at a minimum, for a 15 percent set-aside,” said Ald. Edmund Moran (6th). “We’re losing affordable units at a rate that will outstrip 10 percent.”
City officials also recommended that developers should be able to opt out of including affordable housing at a fee of $63,000 per affordable unit required, an amount several aldermen said they felt was too low. The money would be used for affordable housing at another site.
Some residents said this option would be an easy way for developers to avoid creating affordable units in their own buildings.
Evanston resident Carol Balkcom said the opt-out option could lead to more “segregated” housing, with expensive new developments on one extreme and affordable units created at a different site at the other.
Aldermen will continue to discuss the inclusionary housing ordinance at the next committee meeting May 8.
The council did not take action on a proposal to set term limits for community members of the Northwestern University-City Committee. Bernstein said aldermen should examine the committee before making any changes.
Smoking ban, reduced term limit at top of Council’s agenda
April 24, 2006
Laura Olson
Evanston may find itself two years ahead of Chicago if aldermen amend the city’s smoking ordinance at tonight’s meeting.
The amendments to the city’s indoor clean air law, which narrowly passed the Human Services Committee with a 3-2 vote three weeks ago, would ban smoking in bars and restaurants, venues which were previously exempt from the ban.
Chicago’s ban gives restaurants until July 1, 2008 to become smoke-free areas. If the amendments pass the Evanston council, local bars and restaurants will have until July 1, 2006.
The amendments will also include bans on smoking in housing cooperatives and non-regulated places such as apartment buildings or hotels, where smoke could enter regulated public areas.
Several city residents spoke at the April 11 council meeting when the ordinance was introduced, praising the smoking ordinance and the city’s action to take care of its residents’ health.
Ald. Edmund Moran (6th), who voted against the smoking ban two years ago, said he now supports it because of the bans Chicago, Cook County and other nearby communities have recently passed.
“I’d like to see the state (ban smoking), but I’m not confident that they will,” he said.
Alds. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) and Steven Bernstein (4th) voted against the ordinance in the Human Services Committee because of what they said would be negative economic influences on local restaurants and bars losing business to Chicago and other cities that allow smoking.
Businesses today may lose some customers if they become smoke-free, but they will gain more customers by clearing the air in their establishments, Moran said.
Individual restaurants have not contacted Moran about the proposal, he said. The Chamber of Commerce did not ask him to oppose the amendments but did ask for the ordinance’s start date to be changed to be the same as Chicago’s ban.
The council will also consider an ordinance to establish term limits for the Northwestern University-City Committee. The provision, based on the recommendation of the Rules Committee, would limit the two community representatives’ terms to four years each.
The NU-City Committee includes Eugene Sunshine, NU’s senior vice president of business and finance; Ron Nayler, associate vice president of facilities management; Ald. Cheryl Wollin (1st); Community Development Director James Wolinski; and two additional community members.
The committee was created in 2004 after a lawsuit between NU and Evanston over the Northeast Evanston Historic District. Its purpose was for NU to inform the city about future zoning and development plans.
If the proposal passes, community member Robert Atkins will be replaced by a new member, who will serve four years. The other community member, David Schoenfeld, will continue to serve on the committee until May 1, 2008, to stagger the term endings.
The Rules Committee previously discussed expanding the number of community members, but NU did not approve the proposed change. NU does not need to approve the term limit proposal, Wollin said.
“I think that rotating membership will be helpful so more people from the community will be able to be involved,” Wollin said.
If the proposal passes, the new community member will be nominated by Wollin and submitted to the council for approval.
The ordinance was introduced at the April 11 council meeting. Evanston resident Judy Fiske said at the meeting that neighbors near NU support Atkins and Schoenfeld as the community members on the committee and that replacing one of them would be a political move.
Fiske told aldermen at the same meeting that Northwestern bought a house at 1945 Orrington Ave. The purchase upset several aldermen because Northwestern did not discuss it during the last NU-City Committee meeting. Read
Aldermen disagree over housing plan
by Jenny Song
April 11, 2006
Affordable housing will be among the main issues of the Evanston City Council’s meeting tonight, as aldermen consider an affordable-housing development and an ordinance that could require some future developments to include affordable units.
“(It’s) a very big issue in Evanston these days,” said Ald. Edmund Moran (6th). “I’m looking forward to advocating for strong affordable-housing measures.”
The development, proposed by the Housing Opportunity Development Corporation, a not-for-profit organization specializing in affordable housing, will first go before the Planning and Development Committee tonight.
It calls for 27 for-rent units in a four-story building at the corner of Darrow Avenue and Church Street in west Evanston.
The Plan Commission unanimously recommended the Council not approve the proposal, which has been heavily protested by neighbors who said the building would increase crime and decrease property values in the area.
But some aldermen said the Plan Commission’s rejection wasn’t very logical.
“I really don’t understand what the Plan Commission was thinking,” Moran said. “It seemed as though they had bought into the assertion of the opponents of the project that the approval of that project would lead to a concentration of poor people in one project. I have problems with that characterization.”
Moran said 27 units did not constitute a “concentration.”
Ald. Delores Holmes (5th) said the development would be good for her ward and that she would support it despite the Plan Commission’s recommendation.
“I think I’m the better judge,” she said.
Another affordable housing issue on tonight’s agenda is the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, which would require developers of planned residential developments to make some units affordable for households earning less than Evanston’s median household income of $56,335, according to the city’s Web site.
The number of units has yet to be decided. The Housing Commission has recommended that 15 percent of all units for developments of 25 to 99 units be affordable and 20 percent for developments of 100 or more units.
Aldermen also will discuss an amendment to the city’s smoking ban that would include previously exempt bars and restaurants in the citywide ban on smoking in public places starting July 1.
The amendment passed by a narrow 3-2 vote in the Human Services Committee meeting last week.
“I was hoping that we would bring a 5-0 vote to the council, not just 3-2,” Holmes said.
Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) and Ald Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) voted against the amendment. They said Evanston restaurants and bars will lose customers to Chicago businesses because Chicago’s anti-smoking ordinance does not go into effect until July 1, 2008.
But Moran said restaurants in other cities that have gone smoke-free have not been hurt by competition from other cities. Some have actually seen an increase in business from patrons who are looking for smoke-free places to dine, he said.
Deerfield, Wilmette and Park Ridge already have smoke-free ordinances of their own.
“There are now so many smoking bans that the economic disadvantage gets blurrier by the day,” said Jay Terry, Evanston’s director of health and human services.
Early smoking ban moves forward
4-6-06
BY BOB SEIDENBERG, CITY EDITOR
Members of a city committee narrowly backed a proposal Monday that Evanston take the lead and establish a smoking ban in public places, including bars and restaurants, as early as July 1, before Cook County and Chicago's bans take effect.
Aldermen on the City Council's Human Services Committee voted 3-2 in favor of establishing the earlier ban, though several council members voiced concern about the economic effect on Evanston's bars and restaurants if the ban were to precede Chicago's. Chicago's ban is to take effect July 1, 2008.
Aldermen Delores Holmes, 5th Ward, and Edmund B. Moran Jr., 6th Ward, joined Elizabeth Tisdahl, 7th Ward, who first raised the issue, in support of an earlier date.
Aldermen Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 2nd Ward, and Steven J. Bernstein, 4th Ward, while sharing health advocates' concerns about the dangers of secondhand smoke, voted against.
Moran led the way in advocating for the city to act sooner. Moran said he had heard from the Evanston Chamber of Commerce and others advocating a later date because of the impact of moving before Chicago.
Revolution has ended
"But everything has changed," he said, referring to the number of communities that have adopted bans. Park Ridge, for example, has one going in place Sept. 1. Deerfield, with perhaps the strictest, allowed only two and one-half months between adoption and implementation, city staff noted.
"I told them the revolution is over," said Moran. "There are only small-group actions being fought right now. For me there are just no reasons for us to be shy about it anymore."
Bernstein and Jean-Baptiste, less vocally, expressed concern about the effect an early ban would have on the city's remaining bars and restaurants that allow smoking.
"My concern is strictly the revenue, it's a terrible thing to say," Bernstein said. He said revenue generated through places that have smoking are an important factor in the city's budget and funding social programs.
"I would replicate Chicago's (timeline) so we can have a level playing field," he said.
Tisdahl, who first proposed that the city consider the issue, said she was willing earlier to go in line with Chicago, feeling she could get a majority of council members to support that proposal.
Holmes tried to offer a compromise, suggesting the city's ban go into effect in line with the county's, in 2007, rather than Chicago's.
However, Bernstein said Chicago's was the important date, because of the competitive advantage bars and restaurants there would have over Evanston's restaurant industry.
A county ban would not affect cities that have adopted no smoking regulations, even if the legislation is weaker than a ban, as is Evanston's ordinance.
Health advocates, including members of the city's Citizens Health Council, broke into cheers following the committee's vote.
"In my tradition there's a saying if you save one life, it's like saving a world," Margaret McClaskey told the committee, "and I believe you're saving much more than one life."
The matter now goes to the full council. Aldermen are expected to introduce the ordinance Tuesday and could vote April 24 on whether to adopt it.
Evanston may be ready to ban smoking this time
April 5, 2006
Deborah Horan
Evanston residents may be forced to snuff out cigarettes in restaurants and bars months before similar bans on smoking take effect in Chicago and Cook County.
A new proposal to prohibit smoking in public places on July 1 is slated to come before the City Council for discussion next week, two years after a similar proposal was defeated out of concern that businesses would lose too much revenue. The proposal passed through the council's Human Services Committee on Monday night.
The proposed ban, which would apply to all of the suburb's restaurants and bars, would mean Evanston's drinking establishments would become smoke-free 8 1/2 months before Cook County's and two years before Chicago's.
"I wanted to do this two years ago so I'm very happy to see it happening now," said Elizabeth Tisdahl, a committee member. "I will be lobbying hard for the council to pass it."
A smoking ban in Evanston has been controversial because the suburb's economy depends heavily on its restaurants and bars. The hospitality industry is the city's largest source of revenue, said committee member Steven Bernstein. Roughly a third of Evanston's restaurants and bars allow smoking.
Two years ago, the committee voted 3-2 against recommending a ban out of fear that prohibiting smoking would reduce revenues as smokers fled to taverns in Chicago. On Monday night, the committee reversed itself, voting 3-2 in favor of the ban. The City Council is scheduled to discuss the proposal Tuesday and could vote April 24.
Arguing for a ban, committee members cited evidence that smoking bans had not harmed businesses in other locales and in some cases had actually helped increase their profits.
Ed Moran, a committee member who voted against a ban two years ago, said he changed his mind after learning that bars and restaurants had flourished in cities with smoking bans.
"I have developed over the course of the last two years a serious skepticism that because establishments go smoke-free that they lose money," Moran said. "I think the fear that the imposition of such a ban would lead to a serious loss of business has not been confirmed."
Bernstein, who voted against the ban, said he would be happy to see Evanston go smoke-free, but not before Chicago.
"I know in my heart that it's the right thing to do, but I'm a steward of a budget of $140 million, and we need every nickel of it," Bernstein said.
Conversations with restaurant owners and bartenders, he said, had convinced him that smokers tend to be bigger spenders. "The reality is that drinkers spend more money and smokers drink more," Bernstein said. If smokers could go across the street into Rogers Park to smoke, they would, he said. "They're going to vote with their feet."
Tisdahl agreed that bars might lose some patrons. "If anyone desperately wants to smoke, they'll go south for a little while," she said.
But she added: "You may lose some people and gain others."
Lionel Jean-Baptiste, the committee chairman, said he favored a timeline that would follow Cook County's date of March 15, 2007.
"I'm hoping I can win over the majority [of the City Council] so we can have a more middle ground," Jean-Baptiste said.
Stacey Keehan, manager of Bluestone in Evanston, said the bar attracts a fair number of smokers who she fears would head to Rogers Park if a ban went into effect. "I don't think a smoking ban is right," she said. "I think each individual establishment should decide."
John Enright, Bluestone's owner, said he would rather see the ban take effect when Chicago's measure kicked in, which is July 1, 2008. But he wasn't too worried about barring cigarettes from his restaurant.
"I'm not too sure if it will hurt. We won't know that for a while," Enright said. "But if Dublin, Ireland, and New York City can do it and survive, I think we can." Read
City Council to reconsider smoking ban
Chicago ordinance inspires aldermen to discuss effects on health, local businesses
by Jenny Song
April 04, 2006
Nearly two years after the Evanston City Council voted to exempt bars and restaurants from a citywide smoking ban in public places, aldermen will revisit the ordinance.
The Human Services Committee narrowly approved an amendment Monday that would ban smoking in all indoor public places, including restaurants and bars, by a 3-2 vote.
If passed by the full City Council, the amendment would go into effect July 1.
Cook County and the City of Chicago have passed similar laws, but have included longer “phasing out” periods before changes to policy go into effect.
Beginning March 15, 2007, officials will enforce Cook County’s ban, which does not affect areas that already have smoking restrictions, including Chicago and Evanston. In Chicago, bars and restaurants with bar areas can allow smoking until July 1, 2008, although many have already become smoke-free voluntarily.
“The earlier we end (smoking in restaurants and bars), the better opportunity we have to save somebody’s life,” said Ald. Edmund Moran (6th), who voted against the same ban two years ago.
Much has changed since then, he said. The argument that restaurants will lose business because people will eat in another city has been proven shaky, he said. Some restaurants in other cities have reported that they have actually won over customers after becoming smoke-free.
No restaurant owners or representatives from the Evanston Chamber of Commerce appeared before the committee Monday night.
“The revolution is over,” Moran said. “People have accepted the fact that this stuff is murderous.”
Evanston resident Liz Andrews said she sometimes goes to eat in Wilmette and Highland Park, which have smoking bans, to avoid secondhand smoke in bars.
“If Lexington, Ky., of all places can go smoke-free, why can’t Evanston?” Andrews asked. “It defies logic.”
She said the people who work in restaurants and bars should not have to work in conditions that have proven to be hazardous.
“Neither my kids nor their friends — nobody for that matter — should ever have to trade their health for a paycheck,” she said.
Other residents also spoke in support of the proposed law, saying restaurant employees do not have many choices about where to work. An amendment would have a “flavor of social justice,” said resident Mark Simon.
But Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) said the many voluntarily smoke-free restaurants in Evanston give people a choice of where to eat and work. On the other hand, other public places, such as sidewalks, where people cannot avoid secondhand smoke, are not covered by the proposed amendment, he said.
“(Smokers) are going to go outside, and they’re going to smoke in my constituents’ front yards,” he said.
Bernstein, along with Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd), voted against the ban, saying he was still wary of short-term economic consequences. He said Chicago constitutes the main competition for Evanston bars and restaurants and their smoking ban will not go into effect for another two years.
“It’s such a terrible thing to put life and death against economics,” he said. “But that’s what I’m doing.”
IL: Evanston passed a partial smoking ban that prohibits lighting up in the workplace. The ban exempts restaurants, bars and long-term care facilities. The law is not as restrictive as ordinances that were passed in Wilmette and Skokie over the last year. The law is not as restrictive as ordinances that were passed in Wilmette and Skokie over the last year.
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