Posted on 01/09/2005 10:43:35 AM PST by SheLion
Skokie's smoking ban went into effect in 2003, but the ramifications were felt at Jack's Restaurant in January.
Owner George Koretos eliminated the eatery's overnight shift and announced the restaurant is no longer a 24-hour restaurant. The well-known eatery at 5201 Touhy Ave., which opened in 1965, set new hours from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week.
Koretos said he was forced to cut the overnight shift because business at that time had dramatically declined due to Skokie's smoking ban
During a typical overnight shift before the ban took place, Koretos said, the restaurant had about 200 customers. After the smoking ban, however, the number of overnight customers dropped to between 50 and 85 on a typical night.
In closing down the midnight to 6 a.m. shift, the restaurant laid off eight restaurant workers.
Koretos said had he known the full impact of the ban, he would have fought against it even harder.
Village Inn owner Randy Miles kept fighting the ban even after it passed in 2003.
In July, a year-long grace period for bars and restaurants with bars - intended to provide owners with time to install completely separate smoking bar areas if they wanted - expired. But Miles argued that his establishment was not nearly as much of a restaurant as it was a bar and he should be allowed to continue to be open to smokers.
Trustees over the summer approved the 25 percent amendment that allowed the Village Inn to stay open to smokers.
No one thought it could happen to them. :(
The impact on businesses has been overwhelming.
As I drive around Buffalo and Niagara Falls I see more and more "Closed" signs.
It's one of the only things that I can think of where you can legally harm someone else without their consent
And the Govenors are yelling about how bad the economy is. Well, they can't have both.
It's the states fault that this is happening. Restaurants, bars, sports inns, taverns.....no smoking? Well, what did they expect?
And don't forget the anti's said they would be able to go out more if there was no smoking. So, where ARE they?
Lies, lies and more lies.
Can I be added to your ping list? Thank you. :)
Right on. I live in DE and I now frequent establishments more often BECAUSE of the ban.
This article refutes your perceptions. It does harm the establishments. Incremental fascism found acceptable in any form is detrimental to freedoms. Whether you smoke or not is the issue and the health effects are unproven. Capitalism found a way to cater to all. When politicians have the power to take away your rights and are emboldened by your acceptance - watch out. When will your rights be stepped on and you get affected? When businesses' close, when purfume is outlawed, when dangerous cars are taken off the street, when drinking is outlawed, when you're not allowed to vote, when your household activities is invaded, when guns are outlawed, when they pass the equal protection act and Rush is taken off the air, when public assemblies are outlawed, when you're not allowed to talk on a cell phone, when fast food goes bye bye?? I could keep going on - which one would affect you?
IF any of those seem silly - better do your research. All of these are under assault. So keep accepting incremental fascism and let big brother look out for you. I won't.
That second hand smoke fraud has been debunked so many times it's getting old.
How the heck do you think we all lived to be as old as we are if that second hand smoke issue was true?
I do go out more. Down with the smokers in public :)
After all is said and done on this subject, the one fact still remains........at least in my part of the country..
No one asked for this. It is borne of the nanny state and its subscribers and their need to 'protect' us.
A closer look would more than likely reveal that they are running out of things to regulate.
The real concern here, IMHO, is not whether or not smoking should be allowed, but whether or not interference with a citizen's right to make decisions on his own should be allowed.
Thank you. I'd pick alcohol AND cars.
By someone getting into a car, I'm in no danger. It's bad drivers, impatient drivers, (insert appropriate adjective here) drivers, that cause a good portion of the accidents. But just having someone enter a car does not affect my well being in the least bit. So your analogy with cars is not the same.
Got you added! Thank you! :)
I'd be ok with (and prefer) that all these anti-smoking laws be passed via refferendum than by local politicians. I think the results would be the same. It would just require a more organized movement.
Ok. The non-smokers and the anti-smokers all said that if there was no smoking, they would all go out more often. If that is the case, why have so many business's across the United States closed after a smoking ban?
Loss of revenue, jobs lost, business's closed.
I won't either.
and the politicans refusing to do anything about it!
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