After five years of legislative scheming and political deliberation, there is still no smoking ban in Philadelphia.
There are no current plans regarding the future of the bill that proposes outlawing smoking in most public areas and places of business.
However, City Councilman Michael Nutter said in a public forum last night that he hopes to see the bill go through before the year's end.
"The mayor has said, and I believe him, that we should have a strong bill passed by the end of the year," Nutter said.
At the forum -- which was organized by Young Involved Philadelphia -- Nutter emphasized the urgency of the issue.
"I think we need to make a decision," Nutter said. "We have basically engaged in a four-year [revision] process and basically negotiated with ourselves."
Penn Law professor Eric Feldman also spoke at the forum and said that though the current smoking code definitely needs to be changed, there are many difficulties with the proposed law as well.
Feldman cited enforcement and execution costs as issues that lawmakers must address.
Jan Zarkin -- the proprietor of Rembrandt's Bar and Restaurant in the Art Museum district, who also spoke at the forum -- said he opposes the ban merely for the economic toll that he expects it will have on his business.
"My issue is not about smoking," Zarkin said. "It is about economics. I don't want to treat my smokers like secondhand customers and send them on the streets."
Feldman, however, argued that this scenario is not a likely one.
"Every single study that is not sponsored by the tobacco industry found the same thing," he said. "Businesses, restaurants [and] bars in cities that ban smoking do not lose business."
Though economics may have contributed to the bill's current stalemate, politics are at work as well.
Nutter said that the council was one vote away from passing the bill this May.
"There were members clearly ready to do something, and all we needed was for the mayor to pick up the phone and make a call," Nutter said.
The recent death of City Councilman David Cohen may further complicate matters, he said, as Cohen avidly supported the ban.
Several other regions, including New York City and the state of California, have already passed some form of smoking ban.
