There are two major events in my life that have had a profound effect on my worldview. The first was being promoted to management, which helped me realize that inefficiency, bad products, and poor service are not inherently intractable problems, but rather are endemic to poor management. The second was living in the South, which showed me that even in a fairly rigid social milieu, people can have the decency to keep their fingers and attitudes out of other people's lives (and be damned polite about it too).
Jim McGuire wrote: > At one point he implied, or perhaps I misunderstood, that > there wouldn't be service in the "smoking room" in bars. > I don't have a problem with that, but who cleans the tables? > And if there's an employee cleaning the tables (wiping them > off, removing empty glasses, etc) how is it that they do this > without inhaling smoke. Are they given gas masks? I found living in Tennessee to be fascinating. I use to sit in the University cafeteria and watch how *everyone* would bus their own dishes and in the rare occasion (sometimes the University hosted conferences from out of state groups) when someone left their dishes on a table, someone would bus them along with their own. All of this predicated by a small sign that said, "Please bus your own dishes." I guess Minnesotans have trouble understanding how smoking rooms might work because their cultural perspectives don't make the solutions obvious. Okay, so maybe we can't expect Minnesotans to be as courteous as Southerners, but then there are also simple procedural solutions: require everyone to periodically vacate the room so that it can be smoke free for employees to enter and clean it. Why is this all so difficult? Nathan Hunstad wrote: > Few want the expense of ventilated smoking rooms. > Do you think every bar and restaurant owner wants to > invest tens of thousands of dollars in one of these rooms? > Ask around and see. I can certainly agree that there are very few bar owners who would be willing to provide smoking rooms on their motivation, but they might if they thought that it would attract customers if smoking was banned. My position is that smoking rooms cost the public almost nothing and to some extent they allow businesses and smokers to make their own choices while protecting the rights of employees and non-smokers. Personally, I'd rather see some bars and restaurants be classified as smoking establishments. Smoking rooms are a compromise solution, one that anti-smoking advocates seem to be unwilling to accept. I find it curious that the Tribune has not reported on how well smoking rooms are working in Vancouver, BC (maybe I just missed it). Michael Atherton Prospect Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
