Syracuse Common Councilors are expected to take up a measure today aimed at limiting the number of tobacco and vaping retailers in the city. The move comes just days after the state sales tax on cigarettes rose a dollar per pack. Program Coordinator for Tobacco-Free CNY Karen Johnson told councilors back in July that the city has a far higher density of tobacco retailers compared to the county.
“Onondaga County as a whole has about 411 tobacco retailers," Johnson said. "About half of that is found within the city. So even though we have about one-third of the population in the city, we are seeing close to 50 percent of the tobacco retailers found in the city.”
She says there’s a clear connection to the smoking rate.
“If we look at the areas where we do see the most tobacco retail, those are the same areas where we are seeing the highest rates of smoking in adults. So again, it's the north section, the west section, in the southwest section.”
Tobacco-Free CNY public health educator Antonio Palmer says they're clustered in areas where vulnerable youth have easy access.
“About 50 percent of youth visit stores with tobacco products at least once a week," Palmer said. "So you have to consider a lot of these children that live in these neighborhoods, some of low economic status, go to these stores daily. These are the products that they're seeing each and every day. These are the products that they're seeing their peers, adults, people they look up to use each and every day.”
The new law would prohibit tobacco retail sales within 750 feet of a school, public park, or another retailer. It also creates a cap on the number of licenses the city will issue. Current retailers will be grandfathered in for the first year. After that, Assistant Corporation Council Greg Fair says the stores need to apply every year and must be in good standing.
“They can't owe money to the city in terms of taxes, that sort of thing," Fair said. "They can't be a nuisance property, they can't have outstanding code violations. Those are all going to be requirements for the retailers to get our license.”
Deputy Commissioner of Code enforcement Jake Dishaw told councilors for those reasons, the new law will be another tool to hold certain retailers accountable.
“I don't want to group all of them together, but I don't think it's any secret to anybody in this room that we've seen some troubling incidents at some of these locations throughout the city," Dishaw said. "This could be violent incidents. It could be trash and debris, things that proliferate at some of these locations.”
The city of Buffalo and the town of Salina have taken similar measures to limit tobacco retailers. The council is expected to vote today at 1:00.
