Should Lafayette follow New Orleans’ lead and ban smoking in bars? The council will decide Tuesday along with what some consider a companion ordinance to repeal the ban on “go cups” Downtown and at the Simcoe and McKinley strips.
The City-Parish Council will vote Tuesday on an ordinance for final adoption that would prohibit smoking and the use of e-cigarettes and vaporizers in bars in Lafayette and unincorporated Lafayette Parish. Council members will likely hear an earful from advocates of the ban, especially from local musicians who labor away in smoky bars and nightclubs and feel the lingering effects of second-hand smoke on a regular basis.
The council will also vote for final adoption on what its sponsor, Councilman Brandon Shelvin, has positioned as a companion ordinance to the smoking ban: repealing a prohibition put on the books in late 2010 banning so-called go-cups, that is, plastic cups containing alcoholic beverages purchased in bars which patrons carry out when they leave the bar. Shelvin’s reasoning in fashioning the repeal as a companion to the smoking ban is that if smokers are going to be required to step outside to imbibe their habit they should be able to take their drinks with them.
Councilman Jay Castille, widely seen as a swing vote on the repeal based on his vote on the original ban, has told local media he is leaning toward repealing the go-cup ban if the smoke-free ordinance passes earlier that same meeting.