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Brooklyn Councilman Wants to Halt Hookah Bar Proliferation!
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 25, 2010
Modified Oct 25, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 25, 2010
Modified Oct 25, 2010
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The sacred hookah bar—one of the few remaining establishments where New Yorkers can legally smoke indoors—would become even more of a rarity in NYC if City Council Member Vincent Gentile has his way. Gentile, who represents Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, and Bensonhurst, will introduce a bill this week that would ban new hookah bars starting in 2012. Existing hookah bars would be exempt, but the Daily News reports that they would would have to register with the Health Department, and would be barred from expanding or changing locations.
Gentile insists hookah smoke is just as bad as cigarette smoke, and tells the News, "There are some people going there thinking that as long as it's not tobacco, that it's not harmful. It's been established that it is harmful." But hookah smokers reacted scornfully to Gentile's proposed prohibition. "It’s ridiculous," Mamua Jeme, a hookah smoker at El Khayam Cafe in Astoria, tells Thaindian News. "Cigarettes are more of a vice. Hookah is a tradition." And another hookah enthusiast in Astoria points out that while it may be harmful, "everyone I know knows what they’re doing."
Tagged
hookah
smoking ban
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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