Loading ...
Dearborn, MI OKs Moratorium on New Hookah Cafes
A city known for its hookah cafés has banned the opening of any more of them for the next six months amid concern that some establishments are operating illegally and hurting the community’s health.
The move in Dearborn has pleased those concerned about the proliferation of hookah cafés, both legal and illegal, but others say it will hurt business and unfairly targets places popular with Arab Americans. Last year, Troy also cracked down on hookah cafés, restricting hours because officials said they were attracting trouble.
By a 5-2 vote last week, the Dearborn City Council approved a 180-day moratorium on opening any new hookah cafés or cigar bars.
Hookahs are water pipes smoked with flavored tobacco that are popular in the Arab world. Critics say they cause health problems and tobacco addictions among youths.
Dearborn, which has the one of the highest concentrations of Arab Americans in the U.S., has become known for its late-night hookah cafés that serve as gathering spots in the way that bars and pubs did for previous immigrant groups. Observant Muslims in the Arab-American community don’t drink alcohol, and so some gravitate toward hookah cafés to socialize and relax.
Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly Jr. stressed that the city is not targeting the 15 licensed hookah cafés in the city, but the additional 15 or so cafés that don’t have licenses. Some of those unlicensed cafés say they’re using herbs, not tobacco, which they say allows them to operate without state approval.
In 2010, the state enacted a law that clamped down on smoking in restaurants and other food establishments. The move resulted in business plummeting at hookah cafés in Dearborn. After complaints, the state granted exemptions to 300 hookah cafés and cigar bars in Michigan, 15 of them in Dearborn, O’Reilly said.
The exemptions allowed the owners to serve food in hookah cafés, provided it comes from outside or a kitchen not directly connected with the main smoking area.
The state is not giving new exemptions. The only way a new hookah café can open now is by getting one of the existing exemptions transferred, said Angela Minicuci, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Community Health.
The state and county are responsible for defining and enforcing tobacco regulations, but Wayne County doesn’t have enough resources to check whether the unlicensed hookah cafés are actually using herbs, as they claim, O’Reilly said.
O’Reilly said they’re trying to get the state to clarify what exactly an herb is.
“We should slow down the growth of this industry until we have a better idea of the rules,” O’Reilly said. “It’s just a cooling off period.”
Minicuci said, “A number of food-service establishments claim their hookah pipes contain herbal hookah that do not contain tobacco.”
“The Michigan Department of Community Health, along with the Michigan State Police and the Department of Treasury, are currently working to address this issue of herbal hookah,” she said.
Minicuci said the state didn’t have a position on Dearborn’s decision to restrict new hookah cafés.
In Dearborn, some hookah café owners say they’re concerned about the six-month ban.
This “blanket restriction on smoking establishments are not only a violation of the federal, state constitutions, they also send the wrong message to people who are deciding where to eat, live, play and invest,” said Tarek Baydoun, a community leader in Dearborn.
“Elected officials should be working on bringing business into our community,” said Dearborn attorney Majed Moughni. “This issue is a waste of time and energy.”
Dearborn City Council President Susan Dabaja and City Councilman Michael Sareini voted against the six-month ban. Ahmed Chebbani, an official with the American-Arab Chamber of Commerce, also opposes the move to restrict the opening of cafés.
But some Arab Americans support the move, saying that hookah cafés are not healthy for the community.
And O’Reilly said that Dearborn already has the highest concentrations of hookah cafés in the state, and so it’s not as if the city is being too restrictive on them.
“There’s a lack of clarity with the law that needs to be resolved,” he said.
Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press