Smoking Ordinance Has Little Effect

Cambridge's three-month-old ordinance requiring restaurants to set aside non-smoking sections appears to have met with wide compliance. But few non-smokers specifically ask for the special sections or seem to mind sitting with smokers, according to a Crimson survey of eight Harvard Square restaurants conducted Tuesday.

The ordinance, which took effect July 1, requires all Cambridge restaurants with a seating capacity of more than 25 to reserve a quarter of their tables for non-smokers. City Councilor David E. Sullivan, who led the drive for the ordinance, said "the ordinance is being followed and carried out well by owners of restaurants."

But while all eight restaurants have made the non-smoking areas available, hardly anyone asks to use them. "Very few [people] actually requests it," said George G. Lye. general manager of The Wursthaus, of his non-smoking section in the back of the Kennedy Street restaurant.

Most restaurants have a policy of asking patrons if they wish to be seated in the non-smoking section. Martin E. Daley, a waiter at Autre Chose on Mt. Auburn Street, said that "everybody says 'yes' right away," but the added that "once they request it and you say its really full, they usually don't care," and sit in the smoking section without complaint.

"It doesn't occur to people to complain," said Anne M. Whittington '75, a member of the Committee on Restaurant Air Quality Standards set up by the Cambridge City Council. "It's only within the last couple of years that I'd remember always to ask for a non-smoking section."

Whittington added that she feels many people are probably tolerant of smoke, even though it annoys them.

Some restaurant managers feel that the ordinance is unnecessary. "I think it's irrelevant in a place this size," said Joan M. Bartley of Bartley's Burger Palace, a 60-seat restaurant on Mass. Ave, where a narrow aisle separates the smoking and non-smoking sections. "I can't see how, if you're sitting in a non-smoking section, you'll be smokeless."

Most restaurant managers report that few patrons seem to care about the special sections. Pizzeria Regina manager Bobby Dandrea noted that only once has a customer complained when someone lit up in the non-smoking section.

Although Thomas Stefanian, owner of Tommy's Lunch, posted non-smoking signs over four booths after the ordinance became law, he has always let people know when he doesn't want them to smoke. "If someone was smoking, I'd say 'Hey, no smoking!' and throw him out," Stefanian said.