D.C. Smoking Ban Approved

Schwartz said the issue was personal choice and freedom. "Don't make me out that I like smoking, because I don't," said Schwartz, an ex-smoker. "Bar and restaurant workers have a choice of where to work, and patrons have a choice of where to patronize."

The council debated amendments to the bill for more than four hours, rejecting several that supporters warned would weaken the measure, such as exempting businesses of 750 square feet or less.

It also voted down amendments proposed by Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) that would have moved up full implementation to July and tightened the rules for waivers.

The longest debate was over whether to exempt the city's eight hookah bars, where people smoke tobacco out of a shared pipe. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) argued that hookah bars should be exempt because tobacco use is the central focus of their business.

Schwartz then jumped on Graham. "If it's all in the guise of protecting worker health, why would you want to kill off the hookah bar workers?" she said to laughs in the packed council chambers. "The hypocrisy is just astounding."

The council approved the hookah bar exemption, as well as an amendment by Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) to exempt any business that can show that it gets 10 percent or more of its annual revenue from tobacco sales, excluding cigarette machines.

Some ban proponents said Barry's proposal would encourage bars to push tobacco sales to get an exemption. But David A. Catania (I-At Large), who sponsored the bill, said the 10 percent threshold would be very hard to meet.

News of the bill's passage drew sighs of resignation in the polished-wood bar at McCormick & Schmick's restaurant on K Street NW. But even those who grumbled said such bans seem the wave of the future.

Bartender Mark Genberg, a smoker, estimated that three of 10 people who sidle up on an average night are smokers, down from six in 10 a decade ago. Once the ban takes effect, he said, those customers will simply shuttle between the bar and the sidewalk.

Robert Hall Jr., unfiltered cigarette in hand, said he was worried about the ban's effect on plans to double the size of the bar at Olives restaurant, at 16th and K streets NW, where he works as a manager.

"It reminds me of the stories I've heard about Prohibition in the 1930s," he said. "Are we going down a slippery slope, where cigarettes will be completely illegal in this country in 10, 15 years?"

Jon Brothers, 32, a smoker, said he was ambivalent about the ban. "Don't get me wrong. I love to walk into a dive bar and people are smoking cigarettes or whatever," he said. "But I think it's a good idea. It's not going to stop you from going somewhere. I'll have no problem going outside for a cigarette."

Staff writers Lori Montgomery and Debbi Wilgoren contributed to this report.