Forecast Highs

Here’s another one of those stories that illustrates how difficult its going to be to change the culture of smoking in bars and clubs in Tel-Aviv.

Last night I went out with some friends to the popular Gymnasium bar on Ben Yehuda street to unwind after a difficult week. I’ve heard talk about this place from a lot of people lately and it seems to be the ‘in’ place. A friend and I arrived at the door, after 2 full swings around 4 blocks in the Frishman, Gordon, Bograshov area for parking and finally parking in the Hayarkon Street lots a ten minute walk away.

There were about 20 young men waiting to be let in by the selection committee at the entrance. Because I was with a female friend the selector let us bypass those waiting in line and let us straight in. As the door swung open I was greeted simultaneously by a large ‘Smoking is Prohibited’ sing plastered on the wall, and strong whiff of cigarette smoke coming from the bar just down the stairs.

My initial thought was, ok, maybe it’s just those one or two people you find at most bars these days who just don’t give a shit about the law or the right of others to breathe clean air. I ran into a few of those some weeks back. Initially I was right – as I walked down the stairs and into what was quickly becoming a traffic jam of people inching around the bar, not walking, but shuffling and bumping their way through, I saw only a few people here and there with cigarettes.  The place was swarming with people, you couldn’t move.

I never stood still for the entire hour I was there, and not because I was dancing, but because I was caught, literally, in a stream of people moving around me, pushing me out of the way, from every direction. I spoke with a girl who was taking a break from working with HIV-infected people in Botswana, a really important job, something I wanted to know more about. We spoke through the gaps of people’s bodies as they crammed and shifted past us, some holding drinks and cigarettes; she was moved in the current in one direction and I the other. The group of friends I was standing with was literally bobbing and moving like a jellyfish in strong and choppy waves. I’m not opposed to rubbing up against people, especially in Tel-Aviv, but this wasn’t rubbing up against people.

This was overcrowding, this was like those stadium stampedes were people get crushed. Nobody was having a good time, but nobody was willing to leave because, my theory goes, if there are this many people here, then this must be ‘the place’.  And if this is ‘the place’ then I’m in the right place and so even if I feel like a sardine and it smells horrible in here because of the smoke and sweat and beer, and I smell horrible because of the smoke, that’s ok, because I’m where I’m supposed to be: here with the cool people, so there’s no way I’m leaving. Which is what I’m thinking almost everybody at the Gymnasium was thinking – otherwise I can’t explain why so many people stayed. And I also can’t explain why the doormen kept on letting people in.

There were way too many people inside – a death trap for sure if a fire or a fight broke out and there was a rush to get out. With that many people smoking, and a large amount of drunked-up and drugged-up frustrated young men in the room, anything was possible.    

As the night progressed more and more people started smoking. I think the reason that people felt it was ok to smoke was that there were so many people smoking – not as many as you would have had just a few short months ago, but enough nonetheless. The bouncers were outside or at the door. The bar staff were way too busy pouring drinks, flirting and riling up the crowds to ask anyone politely to put out their cigarettes. There was no discernable management at the place, and nobody I felt I could go to and demand that they tell patrons to put their cigarettes out, and call the municipal inspectors if that failed.

By the way, outside the club, on the street, there was a municipal squad car sticking a parking ticket onto a car that had parked on the pavement near the supermarket. The car had a clearly-marked disabled person’s sticker prominently displayed on its front windshield. I know there is now a law being formulated in the Knesset that would make it ok for disabled people to park on the sidewalk near a store or home if there is no other parking available. The fact that this even needs to be tabled in parliament is absurd.

What is also clear is that when the municipality wants to enforce something, like giving out parking fines to disabled people, it does. But when it doesn’t want to enforce the law, like punishing a bar that allows smoking inside, then it doesn’t –  probably because enforcing the non-smoking law is not profitable yet for the municipality. Perhaps if the fines were raised…

The girl I was with, a friend visiting from NY, told me that people just do not smoke in bars there anymore, nobody, its just not done. Is this because the enforcement there is much stricter, or because New Yorkers are generally thoughtful people? In any case, it seems to have seeped into the culture there, and I wonder how long its going to be before it takes hold here.