Nonsmoking Paradise

See how the ban on smoking in bars is improving the quality of life in New York.

Comments

[Steve]

One of the more common posts on this site has to do with “unintended consequences”. I think we see another here. Bad law that someone doesn’t think all the way through.

[JD Weiner]

No surprises here. The very first night that the new rule went into effect, I had to run a gauntlet of drunken smokers at a restaurant door. Hopefully the Libertarians can make some hay out of this issue, playing to people like Mr. Pintagro.

[Tuning Spork]

If Connecticut ever adopted a ban on smoking in bars I’d never go to a bar again. And neither would my friends; smokers and non-smokers. We’ll just have to get together at Tex’s house for dinner, snacks, movies and mayhem.

[Anonymous]

I can’t remember which site I read it on, but… It seems the alchohol prohibitionists are taking a liking to this law and helping to lobby this law in various states. Anything that cuts down patrons to bars is good in their eyes.

[Bill G]

My observation in my neighborhood in San Francisco is that initially there were large groups of people smoking outside bars several years ago when the law was enacted, but that the numbers have substantially diminished since then to just a few people at a time in most places.

I’m not sure whether those folks aren’t going out anymore [although I don’t really notice the bars doing less business] or they’re just not smoking as much while out.

[Andy]

I worked in a store here in the UK which finally, and after much discussion, banned smoking in the cafeteria. Sales went up as the regulars went down the road and families came back thanking us for making it a pleasant experience.

I’ve also walked out of a large number of pubs and clubs if the atmosphere becomes too oppressive and smoke filled – it’s unpleasant, makes my eyes tired and drives my asthma nuts. I’m being deprived of the ability to go where I please by smokers and establishments are losing my custom.

All public places should be smoke free.

[Zev Sero]

Bet the people down the road, where all your regulars went, don’t agree. You and they seem to have come to an arrangement that suits you both. They get the business of all the smokers, and you get the business of all the anti-smokers, while the rest of us just go on shopping where ever is most convenient. Bully for both of you. But it would make as much sense for the place down the road to ban smoking, as it would for you to go back to allowing it. Not only would it be bad for them, it would be bad for you too, because you’d have to compete once again for the anti-smokers’ business.

[Andy]

What’s good for both of us is great, no argument there… What mattered most was that our revenue went up as a result, despite certain people insisting it would vanish altogether. I don’t have the figures for the cafe down the road sadly.