It's hard to imagine how people would react if the City Council were to ban all Madison shoe stores from selling shoes. Absurd as this hypothetical situation might seem, a similar fate has recently befell this city's cigar bars.

Madison's smoking ban, passed last year, currently includes no exemption for cigar bars. This shortsighted omission has essentially crippled an entire class of establishments within city limits. A cigar bar where one is prohibited from smoking cigars can be likened to a tavern in which one cannot legally obtain libations. In both cases, the very purpose of the business has been forbidden.

Though Madison's broader smoking ban is, unfortunately, safe for the moment, an opportunity has arisen to exercise some common sense.

Tonight the City Council will vote on a proposal from Ald. Mike Verveer that would amend the smoking ban by granting an exemption for cigar bars. His proposed changes would allow customers to smoke cigars inside any bar that makes 10 percent of its total revenue through the sale of tobacco. The exemption would also allow chewing tobacco in restaurants and bars (the current ban on second-hand chew being as ludicrous as a ban on chewing gum, aside from the potential for unsightly stains on shoes and floors), but would not permit the smoking of cigarettes. This is not an attempt to repeal the smoking ban (welcome as such a move would be), but simply a common-sense proposal to mitigate the most extreme of the ill-fated ban's economic harms.

Furthermore, the unique clientele of the cigar bar offers further support for Mr. Verveer's exemption. The broader smoking ban was passed with the understanding that it would protect employees and customers from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke, but such an argument relies on the premise that said individuals expect (and prefer) a smoke-free environment. Those who work in or frequent cigar bars have no such expectation (and no such desire). When one chooses a bar that specifically caters to smokers, he is mindful and accepting of the fact that there will be smoke in the room.

Despite our regrets that it does not go far enough, we wholeheartedly support Mr. Verveer's sensible legislation. While the smoking ban will be left largely intact, at least Madison's City Council is being given an opportunity to correct the lunacy of its prohibition on cigar smoking in cigar bars.