Smoking ban leaves lasting effects on Legislative Plaza

By John Rodgers, Nashville City Paper
June 21, 2006

One week after a ban on smoking in Legislative Plaza went into effect, the before and after picture - as well as the previously smoky air - have already become clearer.

As time has passed, smoking bans in most office buildings have become commonplace, with society becoming more averse to tobacco and its secondhand effects.

But in Legislative Plaza, time had stood relatively still. Journalists could still puff away in the lower-level press suite, typing their stories while dragging on Marlboro Reds. State employees routinely went either alone or in small groups to uncarpeted areas - where smoking was allowed in the Plaza - and toked on their brand of choice socially.

And during the legislative session, many lobbyists and some lawmakers did the same.

Catching up to the 21st century

Now, time has accelerated into fast forward and Legislative Plaza is catching up to the 21st century.

"Its time has come," said Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley).

The reason: the General Assembly, whose members routinely snuff out bills that would restrict smoking and tobacco use, passed a bill prohibiting smoking in all state buildings.

Gov. Phil Bredesen, who ceremonially signed the smoking ban into law Tuesday, said - looking back to 1994 when he first ran for governor - that he didn't think this day would ever happen.

"The world's come a long way since then," Bredesen said.

The after-effects of the smoking ban have been sudden and noticeable. The more than 30 ashtrays dotting Legislative Plaza and the adjoining War Memorial Building have been collected and stored. The smoking haze that once lingered over the lower pressroom has disappeared.

"No smoking" signs could come as soon as this week. But the most lasting affect, and the most noticeable, has been on the smokers, who must make routine walks outside to the main entrance of Legislative Plaza.

They often bring some furniture with them as four chairs usually parked inside are routinely lined just outside the door to the Plaza along with two ashtrays. One of those smokers who uses the chairs, Vanessa Cooper, a legislative staffer, said going outside to smoke is not a major inconvenience at this point because of the time of year.

"It's summertime," Cooper said. "When wintertime gets here, I don't know."

But smokers taking a break outside won't have to use the chairs for too much longer.

The state, as part of a $15 million renovation plan to Legislative Plaza, is scheduled to build concrete benches and large planters as part of increased security for the building. The project is likely to be completed before the next legislative session starts, said Lola Potter, spokeswoman for the state's Department of Finance and Administration.

The final design has not yet been completed, but the benches will be placed around the area where the banished smokers now congregate.

Potter and Fitzhugh, the bill's main sponsor, said the smoking ban had nothing to do with the state's decision to build the benches where smokers now congregate.

"This is a project that's been under way for years," Potter said, adding the Finance Department, which coordinates the building commission, "had nothing to do" with the ban.

But in a few months, smokers at Legislative Plaza will likely have a place to put both their cigarette butts and their own. Cooper said she wishes the state would have built the benches first before passing the smoking ban.