Council approves smoking ban

Smokers, you'd better light up while you still can: Thanks to a 13-2 City Council vote today, smoking will be banned in most bars come September. After much discussion over alternate proposals, councilmembers decided to stick with the ban Mayor Bill White and Councilwoman Carol Alvarado supported, which prohibits smoking in all workplaces (with exceptions for a handful of situations, including cigar bars, tobacco shops, hotel meeting rooms and outdoor patios).

The overwhelming support for the ban is a little surprising, given that there seemed to be so much uncertainty about what the final ban would look like a week ago. In today's vote, councilmembers rejected an amendment from Toni Lawrence that would have exempted bars from the ban, but approved an extension of the ordinance to meetings of nonprofit organizations at their own facilities (those meetings would have been exempt under White's initial proposal). From the Chronicle, you can see how councilmembers voted on the ban and amendments.

Councilmembers Addie Wiseman and Michael Berry, who opposed any extension of the city's current smoking ban, voted against the proposal today.