The NYC Health Department is intensifying a crackdown on bars and clubs that permit cigarette smoking, and officials may make an extreme example of extremely obnoxious club M2 UltraLounge. The club went on trial last week at a special administrative court that the city uses when it seeks to take away property, and the Times reports that if M2 loses, it would be the first time the city had closed a business solely for violating a ban on smoking.
At the end of January, a number of bars and nightclubs were targeted by the Health Department for allowing cigarette smoking, which has been banned in bars and restaurants since 2002. Other clubs in the crosshairs include The Box, The Imperial, Southside Night Club and Lit Lounge. Though it's long been an open secret that some clubs turn into smokeasies after a certain hour, the Health Department has had trouble infiltrating some of the more exclusive clubs to catch them in the act. So recently the department "has deputized a team of inspectors—many of them younger and hipper-looking than the stereotypical bureaucrat —to work into the wee hours, posing as patrons and hunting for tolerance of smoking byclubs’ employees," the Times reports.
Five of the clubs have settled with the city and paid for any violations, and Lit, the Box, Tenjune and Southside are deciding whether to settle as their trial dates near. An administrative law judge is currently hearing the case against M2, and could rule as soon as Thursday. M2 management insists bouncers had ejected at least two patrons for smoking, and two employees have been fired for selling loose cigarettes in the bathroom. Their lawyer tells the Times, "The law is being misconstrued by the health department purposely to make it sound like it’s an automatic violation for a club having a patron smoking on their premises. All the law says is that we have to make a good-faith effort to inform patrons that they were breaking the law, and not with a nod and a wink." And here is the law [pdf].
