Hookah lounge in West Hempstead is denied zoning

The Mazika Hookah Lounge, which had opened over a year ago on the corner of Hempstead Turnpike and Westminster Road, has been denied zoning by the Town of Hempstead due to the lack of proper permits needed to operate the business.

According to West Hempstead resident and civic leader Rose Norton, “They were opened about a year before they found themselves with a flooded basement. The fire marshals went in and saw they were using the basement for part of their operation. That’s a big no-no unless you get a special permit and have access to more than one entrance or exit.”

Norton also said that the business’s owners had not applied for permits to use the location as a place of public assembly, and that the lounge was not permitted by law to serve anything other than canned items, a restriction that it had violated as well.

Christian Brown, an attorney for the owners, said, “This was just a 1,000-square-foot store where people can go and smoke hookah. I’m not saying that’s good for you, but it’s a little ridiculous. I feel bad for these guys. They got ‘jobbed’ by people who were suspicious of the use.”

Brown added that the lounge’s owners, who do not own the property, do not plan to appeal the denial, and will probably open a different business at the same location in the future.

Hookah bars, although increasingly popular with the nation’s youth, have not received a welcoming reception from some village and city governments on Long Island. Last December, hookah bars were banned in the Village of Patchogue, and the City of Glen Cove followed suit in July. Patchogue’s code banning hookah lounges states, “… there are documented health risks associated with the smoking of tobacco or other substances through hookah pipes, including inhalation of higher concentrations of toxins than found in cigarette smoke. Hookah parlors have also been associated with certain illegal and antisocial activities, including underage drinking, and their presence in a community exacerbates the inherent dangers of tobacco use around nontobacco users, exposes children to smoking, and increases the potential for minors to associate smoking and tobacco with a healthy lifestyle.”

“There’s a serious misperception, particularly among young people, that hookah isn’t harmful,” said Carol Meschkow, Nassau County coordinator of the Tobacco Action Coalition of Long Island. “Individuals just don’t realize how dangerous hookah is.”

According to the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hookah smoking has many of the same health risks as cigarette smoking, and the smoke from the fire that burns the hookah is at least as toxic as cigarette smoke.