The New York City smoking ban has been the topic of conversation for months now. M2 Ultra Lounge began its trial last week and has the potential to be the first nightclub closed for violating smoking bans, but besides this spot, undercover investigators are having trouble gathering evidence.
The reason? Well, they’re just not cool enough.
“Some of the clubs where smoking is going on tend to be very, very cool clubs, and a bunch of guys showing up in jackets tend to be very, very uncool,” said Thomas Merriill, general counsel for the health department, in a New York Times article yesterday.
Well, duh. If stylish clubgoers can’t even get past the doorman at places like Tenjune or The Box, why would some creepy, douchey-looking old dude slide right in? Sure these guys can play “undercover brother” at any old Midtown pub, but these easy-access watering holes aren’t the ones dismissing all the rules. It’s the places with velvet ropes fastened tightly that seem to be dodging the bullets.
There’s only one thing the Health Department can do, and that’s to get hotter inspectors. “The department has deputized a team of inspectors – many of them younger and hipper-looking than the stereotypical bureaucrat,” the article reads. This could be an extremely savvy chameleon-like move, or just end up being really, really embarrassing (especially if you coerce one of these guys into rounds of Patron shots at the bar). Either way, we’re interested to see how this plan plays out once it’s put into effect.
