| Re: Lewisville Council Mulls Restaurant, Bar Smoking Ban |
Poster: Anonymous Posted: 2012/6/20 14:29:12 Austin is smoke free is bars, restaurants, and all public places (including parks). Many people are thrilled and there is no break in the amount of people visiting Austin, nor residents not going out. This place is packed all the time! Many bar owners saw a huge increase in the amount of customers and some even opened more bars after the ban passed. I know one bar owner in particular that said he didn't want to invest anymore money into bars until the ban passed. When it did, he opened 4 new bars within about 6 months. It makes sense economically to ban smoking. Also, if you are looking at this from a business owners perspective, why would you side with 19% of the population who drives other customers away? You don't see smokers not going into grocery stores, gas stations, doctors offices, gyms, post offices, malls, boat shops, hair salons, nail salons, etc because they can't smoke. They use those places just the same whether they can smoke or not. So, the whole "smokers will go else where" comment is really based on very little. Maybe a few smokers will choose to drive to anther city to smoke while having dinner, but very few will do that. I mean really, does your favorite meal become less your favorite if you can't smoke over it? I'm going to make a stretch and say no....their favorite meal will still be their favorite meal. It also makes sense to ban it for public health reasons. I should not be forced into breathing in carcinogens because someone thinks they have a right to pollute the air. The right to breath healthy air is much more important than the ability to buy and use a crappy product in a particular place. |