Wednesday, February 19, 1997
COMMUNITY BRIEFSClearing the smoke in UC Berkeley bars
Bar patrons will no longer toss back a cold one as they inhale a
neighbor’s tobacco fumes. As Berkeley’s smoking ban went into
effect Friday, tavern owners risk heavy fines if they don’t order
smoking patrons to stamp out or get out.
But bar owners are saying that the ban will be difficult to
enforce and may hurt business.
"There’s not a lot you can do to enforce it," said Winn
Hudspeth, manager of Raleigh’s. "We’re going to put up signs and
make people go outside. I think people will try and smoke and that
will make it difficult on restaurants."
City officials plan to rely on customers’ complaints to enforce
the smoking ban, imposing fines upon bar owners for breaches of the
ordinance. Police officers will not patrol establishments unless
summoned.
Hudspeth said if bars order patrons to extinguish their
cigarettes, problems may arise if customers decide to take their
drinks outside when they smoke. City law prohibits the consumption
of alcohol in public.
"It’s hard on businesses, requiring people to go outside, but
not just outside  out to the street," she said. "We have a
beautiful deck that we won’t be able to let people smoke on."
The city council passed the ordinance in December but delayed
its enforcement by two months to allow bars to ease into the
nonsmoking policy.
The prohibition applies inside taverns as well as on bar
patios.
A prior 1995 state ban prohibited patrons from smoking in
restaurants, theaters and sports arenas. In December, Berkeley
expanded the ban to apply to bars, pool halls and parking garages.
A state smoking ban for bars is scheduled to go into effect
throughout California in January 1998.
According to council member Kriss Worthington, who represents
District 7, where many of the city’s major bars are, said officials
do not want to play watchdog.
"The plan will be gradually phased in; we’re counting on peer
pressure and not the National Guard for enforcement," said
Worthington.
Bachelor’s degree not needed for success
A bachelor’s degree may not be necessary to land a well-paying
job, according to a recent University of Michigan study.
The study listed as many as 23 occupations that do not require a
four-year degree but pay a median salary of at least $33,000
annually.
Louis Glazer, one of the study’s researchers, said he was not
surprised by the findings.
"We weren’t shocked, because we had been hearing this from
employers for years," said Glazer, a member of Michigan Future
Inc.
In recent years, employers have been scrambling to fill
positions that do not require a bachelor’s degree, Glazer said.
These jobs still demand adequate levels of education, however.
"It wasn’t something where people would get a high school
diploma and get one of these jobs," said Donald Grimes, a
researcher at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations who
worked with Glazer on the study.
"Overall, they did tend to have higher levels of training,"
Grimes said, adding that he was "marginally shocked" at the study’s
findings.
The training for people without a bachelor’s degree ranged from
a two-year degree at a community college to an apprenticeship.
Even though the study showed that significant success rates are
possible for non-college graduates, Letters and Sciences Dean Edie
Goldenberg said she still sees value in a college education.
The study considered 158 occupations in the Great Lakes region
and then narrowed them down to 54 that exhibited annual earnings of
$33,000.
Some of these jobs included police officers, electronic
equipment repair, mail carriers, plumbers, fire fighters and
engineering technicians.
Railroad- and ship-worker positions, which earned an average of
$41,415 annually, were high-paying jobs for workers without a
bachelor’s degree.
Compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports