Good Grief, man - I can't believe anyone would actually make such a statement. Long before the total smoking ban in Delaware, I knew exactly which bars and restaurants were smoker tolerant or non-smoking......and I'm not talking months here, I'm talking years.
The only failing is on the part of the non-smokers.....not enough of them spoke to the owners or managers of their favorite establishments to go non-smoking. Instead they chose Big Brother government - to control the lives of others, including private property owners and small business people.
Actually, there is another failing--one which some marketing person should exploit--a lack of any convenient means, in many places, to find the non-smkoking bars and restaurants which already exist. The logical solution to anti-smokers' complaints would be for someone to publish a guide which lists non-smoking bars and restaurants (or to include a 'non-smoking' section in existing restaurant guides). The publication of such guides would make it easier for non-smokers to find bars and restaurants they'll enjoy while simultaneously encouraging bar and restaurant owners to consider going non-smoking (especially if the guides don't list any non-smoking competitition).
Since I have never actually looked for a non-smoking bar in Delaware, you may be right. OTOH the story was about New York, and I have looked there and in San Francisco area, before the smoking bans went into effect. No luck in either area, but I must admit I gave up after only visiting 5 or 6 bars in both cases.
From your experience in Delaware, what % were non-smoking and in what year? If 10% of the total were non-smoking I would be amazed. Remember 75% of the population is non-smoking, so I would expect 50-75% non-smoking establishments to be a reasonable number.