Okay, so I guess I should have done a little Googling on my own before
posting the question.  It looks like there is already a list compiled by the
"Association for Nonsmokers - Minnesota".  Thanks to John Harris for
pointing me in the right direction.

http://www.ansrmn.org/stp_s_f.htm

There's also a link on their "Smoke Free Restaurants" page for updating
information about restaurants.

http://www.ansrmn.org/SFRests.htm

Admittedly this site is focused on eliminating second-hand smoke, so they
have a large number of links on related topics, and they're obviously only
going to present their side of the story.  But I still think it has a number
of good objective links and tools that can be used:

1) A list of smoke-free restaurants in Saint Paul.  Note that a restaurant
must be completely smoke-free to be on the list, not just have certain days
or times when smoking isn't allowed.

2) A form for sending in updates for the list.

3) A "Check List" for starting smoke-free restaurant projects, which is
probably the real answer to my original question.  It has a number of good
suggestions for how people can proactively push for smoke-free restaurants
in a constructive manner.

Anyway, there's plenty of information and a number of ways for individuals
to contribute, and they all seem to be in good character.

Jim Ivey
Downtown Saint Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Jim Ivey
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 8:38 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [StPaul] List of Nonsmoking vs. Smoking Establishments in St. Paul


 
While I personally don't smoke, don't want to be around smoke, and would
love to see smoking disappear in downtown St. Paul (where I live and work),
I think the opponents of the smoking ban continue to have a least one good
point that they push... if restaurants will see a benefit from voluntarily
becoming completely non-smoking, why haven't they already?

There are probably various reasons for this, but I'd suggest that people in
favor of the smoking ban put some effort into showing establishments in
downtown St. Paul that there will definitely be a benefit for going
non-smoking, and potentially a detriment for not doing so.  As the opponents
of the ban suggest, we should be voting with our $$$, not with our words on
this list.

So, is there already a list of which establishments are completely
non-smoking, and which aren't?  If there isn't a list, is anyone interested
in starting one?

My wife and I already avoid downtown establishments that have open smoking
areas.  Unfortunately, our approach was to just give up on downtown
restaurants for the most part.  However, if there was a clear list of
restaurants and bars that openly had complete non-smoking policies, we'd go
out of our way to bring them business to show support.

Is this a reasonable idea?  If the list doesn't already exist somewhere,
would someone be willing to host it?  Ideally it would be something that
would get enough public attention to start drawing extra business to those
establishments, and encourage others to join in.

Thoughts from both sides?  It seems like a fair way for proponents to make
their point, while accepting the challenge from opponents.

Jim Ivey
Downtown Saint Paul


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