Regulation On Hookah Bars/lounges

[gakouri]

Recently another town in orange county has started the path to banning hookah lounges.

"The Costa Mesa Planning Commission on Monday evening recommended instituting a citywide moratorium on new hookah lounges, a move that conflicts with city staff's advice to ban the establishments entirely."

http://articles.dailypilot.com/2013-10-15/news/tn-dpt-me-1016-costa-mesa-hookah-lounges-20131015_1_lounges-hookah-parlors-planners-vote

First they stop giving out permits to the businesses.Then in a couple more years, they will aim to ban them entirely. Current lounge owners don't fight it because they are able to reap the benefits of limited competition. This seems to be happening across the nation.

How does everyone else feel about this? I can sympathize with some of the complaints listed in the article. But the planning department can work out zoning laws to keep them away from residential areas. Thereby solving most issues. With the economy not doing well, why regulate a real stream of income?

I don't own a lounge myself but most of my clients are these types of businesses. So it can affect my work. But I also like smoking hookah particularly at lounges. Can we do something to have a voice in the towns? I plan to go to the city counsel meeting to speak against the moratorium. Would anyone in the area like to join? Does anyone have any experience speaking against these laws?

[Pavo21]

i heard about this last week, so something most lounges are doing are selling cheap and wanna go fast. because they are just not wanting to deal or fight with shit. so it just happends that they said that the grandfathered might not be affected, but they are saying withing the like 3-5 years so if u started one 2 years ago ur out. so there are i think 2 that are older then 3 i know sultans which has been there about 6 years and another. but we wil lsee justm eans more business for me so i cant complain.

[Cloud-Hookah]

Its a conspiracy I swear. lol Cigar bars are almost entirely ignored in all of these new bills. Its like their targeting hookah

[gakouri]

but we wil lsee justm eans more business for me so i cant complain.

 

 

Boston did the same thing then eventually passed a law to remove all smoking establishments. Now they all have I think 5 years to be shut down entirely. 

 

@Claud, Cigar lounges have a much older crowd so its less likely that they cause problems.

 

 

What's funny is that they're willing to allow the current lounges (the ones that they have complaints about) to remain open for now, but no more new lounges that could potentially outdo the current ones.

[Chreees]

'Merica.

[mattarios2]

lol 'Merica is right

[fai0607]

It's like this in NY too. I never knew the existence of hookah, nevermind the fact that they have lounges. We are very strict when it comes to public smoking, and now all the lounges that are around are grandfathered.

 

What I don't understand is, if it's confined in a building and there are air filters + natural coals, then why such a strict ban on them? The NY CIAA bans smoking tobacco inside any public establishment, even if the business is centered amongst that. It's really suffocating the culture.

[Pavo21]

'Merica.

 

:)

 

Also i think im fine with cigar lounges, because its a 100000% different type of atmosphere. no loud music or crazy 18 year olds idk just how i feel about it. 

 

all i know is good luck banning smoking place like hookah in California. we are to big of a state to do that.

[Chreees]

'Merica.

 

:)

 

Also i think im fine with cigar lounges, because its a 100000% different type of atmosphere. no loud music or crazy 18 year olds idk just how i feel about it. 

 

all i know is good luck banning smoking place like hookah in California. we are to big of a state to do that.

 

Yeah, good luck with that... Politicians are pretty good at getting what they want, no matter how ridiculous/unfair/crazy it may be.

[mushrat]

When the government decides to do soemthing like this, save what you can and get out. Some day we will return to sanity, but not in the near future. When we do the party is going to be astouding.

 

Believe me, I know what I'm talking about.

[Chreees]

When the government decides to do soemthing like this, save what you can and get out. Some day we will return to sanity, but not in the near future. When we do the party is going to be astouding.

 

Believe me, I know what I'm talking about.

 

It's unfortunate, but I totally agree with you. I was looking at potentially opening a lounge here in TN, but said hell no after going to several that are open here in the state and talking to the owners. They're barely hanging on as it is, and the regulations they must follow to stay open are ridiculous.

 

We have to wait for all of the old farts to die off and then we have a chance perhaps. I say this, but at the same time we have things like legalizing marijuana and legalizing gay marriage that would make you think we're headed in the right direction... Seems a bit backwards, don't it??

[gakouri]

When the government decides to do soemthing like this, save what you can and get out. Some day we will return to sanity, but not in the near future. When we do the party is going to be astouding.

 

Believe me, I know what I'm talking about.

 

Once the decision has been made, i totally agree that there is nothing we can do. But for now its just placed on the voting table. These small anti smoking organizations and residents go to council meetings to complain, and as a result they're the only voices being heard. But we'll see, I'll go there on the 5th and see what the attendance is like and how well people are heard.

[mushrat]

Havign lobied in our state legeslature and gone up against the local health board, you are screwed. They will do anything they have to to get their adgenda through. But good luck.

[Rani]

I'm of the firm belief that all government is evil and that laws are suggestions to be gotten around (my latent 60's child side kicking in finally) so here's what I would do.  It's nearly impossible to regulate any kind of private or fraternal organization.  To give you an example, my local Elks lodge caters to a group of tango dancers who need a place to socialize.  Cabaret licenses are damned expensive so they rent one of our large rooms once a week as part of a  private club.  They use our bar, and we make money off the drinks and they have what is essentially a full night club - music, dancing, bar, etc., going on with zero regulation.  Anyone who wants to go in there just has to join the group as a private member.  So personally I'm not giving up shit.  Laws come with workarounds, because they've all got loopholes.  Just gotta find one that works for you.  Oh, and by the way...... SCREW THE ESTABLISHMENT!!!!

 

'Rani

[fai0607]

After moving out of NY, I hope many states will never follow in their footsteps. Not just smoking-wise but in general. The anti-tobacco company has a huge stranglehold in politics. Now I don't smoke cigarettes, never want to and never will, but they just refuse to be educated on hookah. They keep toting around the whole cancer thing, but little do they know that the chemicals in our foods can cause cancer as well.

 

I understand public smoking laws COMPLETELY. But why try to take down a legal establishment that is meant just for that? You can never fully ban tobacco, but you can sure as hell make it a pain in the ass to get/smoke in an establishment.

[Teddy Zou]

The biggest issue is that the city sees hookah lounges are sources of trouble... which is a stereotype, but stereotypes exist because it's often true. There are definitely a lot of cities going down this route, I got denied for a west hollywood location because the hookah lounge I was going to buy out had already closed down for 3 months. 

 

Let's keep raise the bar on how we run the hookah business and show the city that it is a clean business. 

[Fatalshizot]

In reality it's just a regulation of civil liberties. The government knows what's better for you than you do(or so they think). Does it hurt anyone having an establishment based around smoking? What difference does it make if they serve food? If I wanted to open a business selling turds to people I should be able to, it should be up to the consumer if a business thrives or not. There are sex shops but if you are against that you simply do not go in. Whatever happened to big boy rules? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - [URL=http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1]now Free[/URL]

[Pavo21]

LA county recently tried to ban vapor shops and what not in LA county but it wasn't the local gov or the feds it was residents and so almost all the shop owners showed up and won lol good lcuk

[gakouri]

The biggest issue is that the city sees hookah lounges are sources of trouble... which is a stereotype, but stereotypes exist because it's often true. There are definitely a lot of cities going down this route, I got denied for a west hollywood location because the hookah lounge I was going to buy out had already closed down for 3 months. 

 

Let's keep raise the bar on how we run the hookah business and show the city that it is a clean business. 

 

completely agree.. I just don't like how they're limiting new businesses because of some bad apples. 

 

side note: I like your business model, boba and hookah. Next time I'm in LA, I'll have to stop in. 

[Pavo21]

there is lots of lounges that do everything by the book its the 1 of 10 that are just douche bags and wanna ruin it for everyone else, but that is in every aspect of the world so, all we can do is weed them out and keep us a float, i mean in redondo there was a couple lounges that kept breaking the law by doing what they are not supposed to do and now we are the only lounge there because we want to run a good legit business and have fun with it.

[Shisha Habibi]

Burbank, CA is pretty strict as well. You could literally be standing in front of a hookah lounge, smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk, but because you're not in their "Designated Smoking Area," you could be ticketed. I've heard Pasadena is like that too. Fromy my understanding, everyone trying to open a Lounge in LA is hurting. As mentioned earlier, most of the establishments still around have been grandfathered in. It's increasingly difficult to get an establishment going because of all the logistics with city regulations.

[gakouri]

Here's an update:

 

Went to the city council meeting and after a dreadful 3 hours they finally brought the hookah lounge topic up.

 

4 people spoke. 2 are old seniles, one of which was completely ignorant and racist. "Hookas should go back where they came from"... the third was your usual suspect from the lung cancer association..

 

Then the last speaker was the owner of the Bublyz Hookah lounge on Bristol St.. he practically said everything i had to say. He went through every detail saying that just because one establishment is horribly run doesn't mean you should ban the business type entirely. 

 

Anyways at the end, they decided to pass the moratorium for 45 days so that the planning commission can actually do its job. They want to identify hookah lounges as a business type rather than a retailer or restaurant. But a couple of the councilmen mentioned that banning was out of the question. But you know how politicians flip and flop.

 

so we'll see where it goes!

[Chreees]

Wow man keep us updated on it!

[Cloud-Hookah]

No body should thing they are safe, its slowly spreading nation wide. Even here in Michigan we now have a smoking ban state wide. You can't even have a cigarette in a bar anymore. The only ones not effected is Cigar bars and Casino's, and well of course the hookah lounges grandfathered in.