All the bars in my neck of NYC allow smoking. Sometimes you have to wait to 10pm.
hee hee
Gee, I'm surprised. /sarcasm
Cleveland is considering a ban. And you know that if Cleveland is considering it, the potential for economic disaster is colossal. Even Toledo had the sense to repeal theirs.
My wife and I might prefer smoke-free bars and restaurants, but quite frankly, there aren't any good ones. Bars and restuarants are typically fragile, anyway.
Anyone who has paid attention has noticed that more often than not you'll see the same building used for one restaurant, then another, as various new management comes in to try their luck. Even slight changes in menu, decor, prices, or staff can doom a previously successful restaurant or bar.
...And a smoking ban isn't a "slight change." Yeah, not smelling Marlboros all night long might be preferable, unless the option is losing the restaurant or the bar altogether.
And if I can't smoke the occassional cigar at one such establishment, then I'll probably spend my money elsewhere. In fact, even IF I never smoke at a restaurant, it matters that I could or could not.
So these legislative smoking bans have got to be crushing the businesses that get unfairly trampled by such state mandates. Some percentage of old customers are either going elsewhere, or smoking (and eating and drinking) at home, and that's a percentage of high-spending customers that few bars or restaurants can survive without. These are marginal businesses, so it *matters* if they lose some margin of their customers.
And once restuarants start going out of business due to the bans, then the non-smokers have fewer eating options as well. So everybody suffers.
Spent a weekend at the Raddison in Lexington, Ky recently. Typical small town owned by it's universities with a smoking ban. The hotel bar was deserted,I felt kinda bad waking the hotel bartender up every night to use his wine key. But my wife and I had a smoking room, so where do you think we relaxed.
As FReeper gatherings have proven for years (I remember wondering if ANYONE would smoke there), smokers are nothing but trouble.
This way, they all have to stay home or stand outside shouting into the wind where they belong.
All of the smoking Nazis have to lie,because the fact is,that smoking bans DO decrease a bar's profits.
bump
As I walked into the hospital (to go to work) I actually stopped and read the sign regarding their "smoking" policy. The sign reads: "The hospital does not permit the use of tobacco PRODUCTS on these premises".
I thought it was all about the harmful effects of second hand smoke. If I'm dipping or chewing I sure as he!! am not emitting second hand smoke. It's all about controlling your behavior, hence your freedom to do said behavior.
I'm a doctor, and yes I do smoke. My cigars, and an occasional cigarette (well, more than occasionally...a pack every two weeks or more). My pipe is always at my side in the boat fishing. So, yes I smoke and I know the risks.
This is getting out of hand. If I wanted to dip, no body would know it. What are they going to do slap it out of my mouth...they would TRY that once, just once.