Smokers Rally in New York to Protest Ban

March 24 -- Holding a cigarette, taking slow, languorous drags and exhaling puffs of smoke above a just-devoured plate of food in a favored restaurant is comforting and downright essential to a lot of people and, some say, especially to New Yorkers.

That is why a group of smokers, bar and restaurant owners are expected to descend on New York's City Hall today to protest a proposal by City Council Speaker and rumored mayoral candidate Peter Vallone that would further limit smoking in restaurants throughout the city.

Scott LoBaido, an artist from Staten Island, who gained notoriety for hurling fists full of manure at the Brooklyn Museum to protest an exhibition by cutting-edge British artists that includes a dung-spattered Virgin Mary, is leading the protest.

LoBaido first told the media 10,000 would show up for the rally that starts at the South Ferry Terminal and heads a few blocks to Whitehall Street and City Hall in downtown Manhattan.

But the number has since dwindled to "somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000," according to LoBaido, who did procure a permit from the City Parks Department and the First Precinct for the rally.

"Speakeasies are going to come back to New York again," professed LoBaido, referring to places operating illegally where patrons can enter with a secret password. "If no one can smoke anywhere in New York, it will be time for the speakeasy."

What Will Become of New York's Tourism Industry?

One Soho restaurant owner, who did not want to reveal his name, said he ignores the Smoke-Free Air Act and does not have a restricted smoking area in his establishment.

"A lot of my customers are French or sophisticated and they want to smoke after a good meal and if I don't let them they won't come here," he said. "I have only paid the fine a few times."

He said he was planning to stop by the rally.

As for his part, Vallone said that the new law is "critical to protecting employees of establishments where smoking is permissible and that the protestors are misguided in their fury over the proposal."