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For years, the glow of hookah coals helped draw late-night crowds to downtown Redwood City. On Monday, the City Council voted to snuff out that tradition in its tobacco-based form.
The council voted 4-2 to adopt San Mateo County’s tobacco retailer ordinance, ending Redwood City’s local exemption for hookah-serving businesses and bringing the city under county rules that prohibit flavored tobacco products, including the flavored shisha traditionally used in hookah pipes.
Council members Chris Sturken and Marcella Padilla opposed the ordinance. Council member Isabella Chu was absent.
Monday’s vote followed an April 27 meeting in which the council voted 5-2 to introduce the ordinance and set a public hearing for June 8. The ordinance takes effect 30 days after adoption, after which tobacco retailers that want to continue selling tobacco products must apply to the county for permits.
The decision lands hardest on three downtown businesses — The Sandwich Spot, Pasha Mediterranean and RocknWraps & Kabobs — where owners said hookah is not a side offering but a central draw, bringing in customers who also buy food, drinks and tea late into the night.
“This issue is not just about hookah,” said David Kassouf, owner of The Sandwich Spot. “It’s about jobs, small businesses and the families who depend on them.
“If that reason for visiting is removed, customer traffic will decline, sales will decrease, employee hours will be cut, and jobs will be lost,” Kassouf added.
City staff and supporters said the county program is the quickest way to restore enforcement after years of limited oversight. Redwood City has 55 businesses that sell tobacco products, but San Mateo County stopped issuing tobacco retailer permits and providing related enforcement services in May 2022.
Under the county ordinance, Redwood City tobacco retailers can no longer sell flavored tobacco products, electronic smoking devices, tobacco products in pharmacies, or offer tobacco coupons and discounts. The rule also reaches flavored tobacco used in hookah pipes, whether it is sold for use at home or served on-site at a hookah lounge.
That was the sticking point for the three hookah businesses. If Redwood City wanted to keep allowing tobacco-based hookah, staff said, the city would have to create and run its own tobacco retailer permit program, including inspections, compliance monitoring and enforcement.
A blow to three downtown businesses
Much of Monday’s debate turned on whether Redwood City should separate the three hookah restaurants from smoke shops and other retailers accused of selling illegal flavored tobacco or vaping products.
“I have never seen a kid walking on the street with a hookah and two charcoals on top.”
David Kassouf, owner of The Sandwich Spot, on comparing hookah with youth-accessed tobacco products
City Manager Patrick Heisinger said his concern was not the three hookah businesses, which he described as “standout businesses,” but other retailers the city believes are violating tobacco rules.
“I’m not saying all 52 of the other businesses are bad actors,” Heisinger said. “I think we know 15 that are. That’s a lot.”
Opponents said the city was using a countywide ordinance to solve a narrower enforcement problem, with the heaviest consequences falling on three long-standing businesses that rely on hookah as a central part of their business model.
“Do the work, differentiate between irresponsible, unregulated smoke shops and regulated 21 plus establishments,” said Omar Salem.
Kassouf also rejected comparisons between hookah and products more commonly associated with youth access.
“I have never seen a kid walking on the street with a hookah and two charcoals on top,” Kassouf said.
Other business owners said they had built their restaurants around the city’s previous exemption. Ayoub, owner of Pasha Mediterranean, said the businesses invested in equipment, outdoor spaces, permits, furniture and improvements with the understanding that they could continue operating under the city’s grandfathered exemption. Ali Ahmad, owner of RocknWraps & Kabobs, said hookah helped bring people to downtown Redwood City and turned the business into a gathering place.
Hookah as a cultural gathering space
Several speakers described hookah as a social and cultural practice, particularly for Middle Eastern, South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Southwest Asian and North African communities, also known as SWANA. Gabrielle Mihailovich said the businesses are a “home away from home,” while Mohammed Shek of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center said many Arab and Muslim residents do not drink or gather in bars, making hookah lounges an important third space.
“Many of our Arab and Muslim and SWANA community do not drink, so do not go to bars, and many choose the option of enjoying hookah together instead,” Shek said.
City staff said the county ordinance would still allow hookah lounges to offer non-tobacco hookah, but business representatives and supporters said that is not a viable replacement for traditional shisha. Shek compared the idea to telling bars they could stay open but serve only nonalcoholic beer and wine.
Padilla, who opposed the ordinance, said she was struggling to balance public health, personal choice, the city’s budget and the value of cultural gathering spaces.
“Cultural spaces, safe spaces for certain communities are more than just a place to work,” Padilla said. “It’s somewhere where you feel seen, somewhere where you don’t have to wear a mask, somewhere where you don’t have to explain.”
Sturken, who also opposed the ordinance, said the council was being presented with a “false choice.”
“I think we can address each of the issues and needs presented tonight, enforcing our smoking regulations, allowing communities to continue expressing their culture, while also supporting our local economy,” Sturken said.
Why supporters backed the county ordinance
Supporters of the ordinance said Redwood City needed stronger enforcement to prevent youth access to tobacco and vaping products. Tricia Barr, chair of the San Mateo County Tobacco Education Coalition, said she recently bought illegal flavored tobacco products from two Redwood City retailers, including one downtown and one vape shop on El Camino Real.
Barr said the city’s current fines are too low to deter retailers.
“It’s just sort of a cost of doing business,” Barr said.
Blythe Young of the American Heart Association said the ordinance would reduce access to products used by the tobacco industry to attract new smokers.
“The ordinance does not prevent hookah businesses from staying in business,” Young said.
Council members who supported the ordinance said the county program was the most practical way to restore enforcement. Staff said a city-run program would take months to develop, require staff training and force the city to decide who would handle permitting, inspections and enforcement. Economic Development Manager Amanda Anthony said a city-run ordinance would likely take at least six to nine months to develop.
Vice Mayor Kaia Eakin said the city previously asked San Mateo County to preserve Redwood City’s hookah exemption, but the county would not do so. She said Redwood City could not quickly craft a local program to “bust the 15 bad actors.”
Howard, a nurse, said she understood the ordinance would hurt the businesses and affect social and cultural practices, but said her decision came down to public health.
“My first responsibility has to be the public health and safety of the community of Redwood City, and that’s why I will support this,” Howard said. “I’m sorry, but I don’t feel I have a choice in this matter.”
The tobacco discussion began just before 11 p.m., nearly five hours into the City Council meeting, and continued past midnight.
