Seattle mayor backs off hookah lounge closures

There is some backpedaling going on in the Seattle Mayor’s Office.

Instead of cracking down on 11 hookah lounges for violations of the state’s smoking ban, the city will work with the businesses to make sure they are in compliance.

Related: Jason Rantz says hookah lounge ban unfair, but not racist

That decision comes after Mayor Ed Murray said the lounges are connected with violence, including the July 23 fatal shooting of Donnie Chin, a community leader in the Chinatown International District.

“Far too many smoking lounges attract and sustain illegal, violent activity that has no place in our neighborhoods,” Murray said. “These establishments are unlawful businesses that continue to thumb their noses at the law.”

Murray received a lot of pushback from the lounge owners and their patrons, who said the city was targeting businesses run by people of East African and Middle Eastern heritage; people came to protest and voice their dissent during two council meetings.

Does this mean the mayor is caving? KIRO Radio’s John Curley wonders. Essentially, he added, it’s a white mayor who is trying to shut down black-owned businesses.

The city isn’t just dropping the issue. It is working with the businesses so they are in compliance with the 2005 smoking ban. It did, however, suspend an Aug. 31 deadline, when the lounges would have been forced to close. Additionally, they will not be losing their business licenses if they meet the requirements.

Those requirements include lounges becoming more compliant with the smoking ban, by either using vapor instead of tobacco, or by further privatization of the businesses. Lounge owners have said their businesses are private, member-only clubs that are exempt from the smoking ban.

City officials say the decision to suspend the closure of the lounges follows a discussion with their owners, who are willing to work with the city, KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney pointed out. Murray spokesperson Viet Shelton told The Seattle Times that, until recently, the city wasn’t aware of lounge owners being willing to talk about compliance.

Now if a community can rally together to stop the closure of their businesses, can another community stop the city from building unwanted homeless camps?