Though many of us have firmly sided in one camp or the other on whether D.C. should ban smoking in restaurants and bars, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams seems stymied by the pressure to decide. Poor Mayor Williams.
We’ll be thinking about him over the weekend, as he confers with aide Gregory McCarthy, debating the pros and cons of the smoking ban before he shares his decision as to whether to sign legislation on Monday.
DCist wonders how convinced he is by phone calls to support the ban from the likes of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — a guy so wealthy he can buy positive approval ratings — and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, whose voters decided to ban smoking through Initiative 901. Neither of them had to worry much one way or another over blame for the ban.
And we’re not sure he’ll be swayed by the fact that the Zagat people will like D.C. If anything persuades him, it’s that he’ll maintain the support of the District’s non-smokers and secondhand smoke-a-phobes.
