Too late! Columbia City Council already approved the delay.
Now, to take a step back — it’s wonderful that the decision has finally been made — and look, it was by 5-2, not the expected 4-3…
But it’s bad that the current unconscionable state of affairs will continue for three more months. There’s just no excuse for that.
One of my colleagues disagreed with me on that point this morning, saying that it’s reasonable to wait and implement it at the same time as Richland County. But that’s ridiculous. One would only do so out of an abstract sense of administrative tidiness. There is no advantage to be gained by waiting for the county that is not outweighed by the wrongness of exposing city workers to carcinogens for three more months, after you’ve already decided that it’s right to protect them.
There is NO safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. And since any exposure greater than zero is unsafe, three months of unnecessary exposure is unconscionable.
For that matter, since Richland is expected to have a final vote on the subject by June 17, why can’t that ban go into effect July 1? It took what — three days after the referendum (a far less tidy and less predictable instrument than a council vote) for stores to start selling beer on Sunday in Columbia. If you know you have the votes, and you’re working toward it, how much gearing up is necessary to say smoking is now banned in the county? Why can’t it be in effect immediately? I’ll be told time is necessary for notification, but you know, you don’t have to penalize anyone who wasn’t notified yet (like there’s any bar or restaurant owner who won’t know about it the day of the vote, which seems highly unlikely). Enforcement will never be perfect, any more than enforcement of the law against murder is perfect (I mean direct, overt, immediate and obvious murder, as distinguished from the slow kind of forcing people to breathe smoke day after day). Most of the effectiveness of such an ordinance will result from the voluntary cooperation of law-abiding people. There is no reason not to let that begin immediately.
What next — postpone again to wait for Lexington County, or for Cayce and West Columbia. The town of Lexington is now thinking about discussing a ban. Must Columbia wait for them, too? It would make just as much sense to wait for them — especially for Lexington County — as for Richland. That is, unless you argue that waiting for Richland makes sense because Columbia is located within that county — but if that’s your argument, Columbia’s ban is superfluous, unless incorporated areas were to be exempted.
This delay is ridiculous, and it is wrong.