[HEY4QDEMS]

Tobacco Free Mass Coalition, said it also would not challenge patrons lighting up on patios. "If the smoke is not indoors, we've accomplished our public health objective,"

What a bunch of phoneys, they won't chalange it because they were WRONG.

When Bar owners voiced there opposition to the smoking ban, the TFMC declared that although bar business will decline "SLIGHTLY", the restaurant business would increase so much that it would more than make up for the lost business in the bars.

Everyone new it wasn't true then and now the numbers are right in their face.
Bar business in Boston is off nearly 50%
Restaurant business in Boston is off 30%.

They won't challenge the Patio Plan because now everyone knows they are a bunch of crusading liars.

[Phantom Lord]

NY's smoking ban is so restrictive that it doesnt even allow smoking on an OUTDOOR patio if their is a canopy over it or an umbrella over a table!!! Seriously.

[ClearCase_guy]

They won't challenge the Patio Plan because now everyone knows they are a bunch of crusading liars.

Correction: They won't challenge the Patio Plan yet. It's probably on their agenda to order smoking banned from all outdoor "public accommodations". They will begin this next phase in their war in 2007. They are biding their time.

[1Old Pro]

Boston restaurant owners say the demand for outdoor patios is becoming a stampede, with restaurants and bars rushing to make plans for outdoor "smoking sections" so they don't lose customers to cities that still allow smoking in bars

No kidding. Now they need to solve that "winter" problem.

[JohnGalt]

I spoke with an area bar manager; he said there will be a fire sale of bars next Feb. and March. The local owners will get out, and the corporate, connected folks will move in scooping up places at bargain prices.

Soon, all the bars will be the same. The dangerous and mind numbing comformity of corporate power melded with government power will crush a once vibrant and honest bar scene.

[Roughneck]

Not good enough.

Blacks used to have their own drinking fountains didn't they?

It's called "discrimination, segregation, degragation" of a whole class of people: smokers.

Why should I pay as much for my meals and drinks and entertainment, then have to go ooutside in the weather to smoke?

Restaurants should be allowed to have smoking with a simple warning on their dood "you may experience second-hand smoke - enter at own risk"

Those that dont like it can....SIT...OUTSIDE!

[Just another Joe]

"There's loyalty, there's friendship, and then there's addiction.

Pam Beale can BITE ME.

I just don't understand why bar owners, tavern owners, restaurant owners, etc expect me to spend my money somewhere that will not, or can not, cater to what I want.
Whether it's smoke free by the owners choice or smoke free because of a smoking ban I will usually not choose to spend my money in an establishment that doesn't allow smoking if I can drive 30 minutes and find one that does allow smoking.
The owners should know this and be fighting to control their own property.

[ladyjane]

Restaurant business in Boston is off 30%.

Retail sales are off more than that. It's the economy in Boston that has just about everyone's business hurting. Laundries and dry cleaners -- any 'luxury' service is hurting. Eating dinner out is a luxury for many people.

[Lucy Lake]

Why can't there be bars for smokers, with all employees being smokers, and bars for non-smokers with non-smoking help? Same with restaurants.

[Publius6961]

I honestly believe that a suit would ultimately be successful to ban all these arbitrary and capricious laws based on fraud.
If a "vote" is all it takes, I want to ban ugly women, fat people, smelly people, butches, gays and other undesireables.
Bring the vote on.

Or ban tobacco entirely.

[Sunshine Sister]

Sure hope it's cooler in Boston. We set a new record temperature here yesterday. 107 degrees with the heat index at 115. No way I'm sitting outside for any reason!

[OldPossum]

I've never been a smoker but after a brief period of opposing smoking it occurred to me that smokers have rights, too. Consequently, I have no objections to people smoking around me.

This sounds so typical of Massachusetts, the ultimate in regulatory states. I feel sorry for bar and restaurant owners who are bearing the brunt of this silliness, but there is a silver lining: Boston's government likely is experiencing a decrease in sales tax revenue.

[swarthyguy]

Menino says he has long championed outdoor seating at restaurants as a way to enhance the city's streetscape,

Dumb Fool.

This'll work great in the Christmas season too.

[Pagey]

Bump for Follow-Up Later

[Great Dane]

We just had an opportunity last night, to see how effective the ban in New York is destroying business, had to stop for dinner, sat on a patio, the bar had all of two costumers, even the patio was empty....... it was too hot and humid to sit there.

[Morgan's Raider]

In some cities that have banned smoking in bars and restaurants, antismoking activists have pushed to extend the prohibition to public parks, sidewalks, and bus stops. Boston's antismoking activists say they have no plans to follow that trend.

Yeah, right. And they only wanted smokers relegated to small area in the back of the plane, too.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- C. S. Lewis