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ch-scene - Re: More non-smoking ideas for music venues

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  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: More non-smoking ideas for music venues
  • Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:44:14 -0400

Hepler sed:

I prefer the idea that the bar be smoking and the
music room be non smoking. That way at least you
don't have 40 people out front smoking while a band is
playing. And that way inclement weather won't have an
effect on smokers. On one hand, non smokers have no
reason to care if smokers have to go out in the rain.
On the other hand, you'd have 20 people huddled under
the awning in front of your door, making it hazardous
if there's a need for evacuation, smoky for people
trying to get in/out of the bar, and generally
crowded.

Smoke, like water, finds its own level. It's not going to restrict itself to the bubble of air around the bar, not unless Glenn installs a physical door between the music room and the barroom, which I don't think anybody would recommend as a viable option. (The separation does seem to work OK at the Cave, but that's a very different space, with an 8-foot tunnel between the two rooms, and in any case I rarely stray far from the front corner of the bar, so it may get smokier back towards the bathroom area & I wouldn't know.)

As far as people out front smoking while the band is playing, once you're in the front room by the bar, you're not really watching the band anyway. And I guess I would suggest that at nonsmoking venues, people seem to manage that horrible choice between smoking & watching the band they paid to see pretty readily.

And while yes, the "smokers gauntlet" one might have to run at the door sounds unsavory, it's far far far preferable to running the same gauntlet inside while getting a drink at the bar or going to the bathroom, or whatever.

Otherwise, I would recommend just
going with a no smoking policy for a month or two and
see how it affects things.

I agree, although I'd say that you'd have to be willing to (a) give it at least 4 months, and (b) aggressively promote the change in policy. Remember how long it took for a lotta people to get over their long-ingrained mistrust of Local 506 when Glenn took over? I had so many conversations where I'd be talking about how cool it was that Local 506 was under new management by somebody who really wanted to book the full range of local bands, and I'd be met with this "ewwww, Local 506 is sketchy, I'm not going there" reaction, as though somehow the physical space itself was tainted. Near as I can tell that has abated somewhat (although I think it may have been replaced by "well, OK, it's not sketchy anymore, but fuck it sure is smoky").

The Local 506 is sort of sitting on the fulcrum point of this issue right now. The Cradle and the Cave are over on the nonsmoking side, and the Wetlands I guess is on the smoking side, although that Orthrelm show was nonsmoking, IIRC, and nobody seemed to mind or even notice. Nightlight can get awful when a bunch of kids are in there smoking, but half the time the smokers seem to voluntarily take it outside, and much like Wetlands I'm not quite sure what the official policy is (I mean, the old Skylight policy used to be "thanks for not smoking too much" but I think they went nonsmoking during the day a while ago, didn't they?). I suppose now that Reservoir is booking shows a few times a month they should be factored in, and I can only assume they're heavily on the "smoking" side of things.

Can somebody please clarify for/on behalf of those venues, if possible?

But so far as I can tell, neither the Cradle nor the Cave has really suffered from their policy changes, and I guess I'm suggesting that if Local 506 were to go nonsmoking, they'd tip the balance to the nonsmoking end of things, such that it would essentially become the norm in Chapel Hill/Carrboro that the majority of rockshows are nonsmoking (since those 3 venues host the majority of rockshows in the area). And once it became apparent that most shows are nonsmoking, acceptance of that fact among smokers would be easier to achieve.

Particularly since, near as I can tell, roughly half of the people smoking at rockshows aren't the full-bore daily addicts, but rather that particularly pernicious subgroup of amateur/social smokers, who say "oh, I only smoke when I'm drinking," or whatever. One would assume that they'd be even less resistant to giving up the smokes at the rockshows.

I suppose I'd like to point out briefly that I'm not proposing a blanket smoking ban for bars, or whatever. I personally can't get within about 15 feet of the OCSC due to the dense cloud of smoke therein, but the thing about regular bars is that one can pretty easily find another bar (like, say, Milltown) that serves alcohol & has a comfortable environment for socializing, and is nonsmoking. Rockclubs are fewer & further between, and this area isn't so big or densely populated yet as to support bands playing 2 shows when they come through, one at the nonsmoking venue & one at the smoking venue.

Ross




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