Rhetoric 3266

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July 5, 2005

City Pages - Stubbed Out

Here is the link to the article in full-

City Pages - Stubbed Out

I am going to just give a quick overview down below and then vent a little:)

The article Stubbed Out, if you didn't read it, is about the effects that the smoking ban is having on the bars, taverns, nightclubs, restraunts, etc. in Minneapolis. Many people would like to cite that the smoking ban is having only positive effects on the businesses, however many business owners feel that this is not the case.

In the article it tells that many tavern keepers and nightclub managers warned that the full effects of the been hadn't been considered. It states that they argued that sending people outside to smoke would create a number of hazzards, like litter and noise, as well as impenetrable crowds at the entryways of most establishments. Most important however is the financial woes that many establishments are enduring.

This evidence from sworn affidavits are contained in the article:

"Revenues at the U Otter Stop Inn are down 65 percent"
"There have been at least three days in which the bar has taken in less than $20 in gross receipts a day."

Other tidbits from article:

Johnny A's on West Broadway saw an 18% drop in April from last year.

Jax Cafe was seeing food and liquor sales up by $30,000 a month (roughly $380,00 in total monthly revenue) from winter 2004 to this past season. But in April when the ban took effect, sales dropped some $64,000 from same time last year.

My Rant:

Now I am not saying that I am supporting smoking in the least. We all of course know that it is bad for you and can easily kill you. However, I also do not feel that it is necessary to force business owners into a ban than they do not support. This is an issue that to me, does not warrant having the city/county stepping in on. It should be every business owners right to allow or not allow smoking in their establishment. If it was for the best of all the businesses why didn't we see non smoking establishments before the smoking ban. Let the smoking ban supporters support the non smoking establishments and the smokers support the smoking establishments. It should be each establishments right to pick which type they would like to be. You can say you support non smoking establishments all day long, but if you don't patronize non smoking establishments you may soon have no establishments to support at all.