A whole lot of new bars and restaurants will open up in Champaign-Urbana (well at least Champaign, for now) come August 1.
There are a lot of businesses, particularly in downtown Champaign that I have never been in and that I will begin patronizing after August 1. And I bet I'm not the only one. Nonsmokers like me spend money, too. There are more of us. Really. And we're not busy wasting money buying tobacco, so we have more money for food and drinks.
For a real big belly laugh, check out the whining over at IlliniPundit. It's precious. Especially the comments. You'd think the Champaign Council had just negated all of the 10 Commandments and the entire Bill of Rights in one vote. The apocalypse has arrived!
Sounds like smokers have rights. And business owners have rights. But breathers don't.
It's time for smokers to be locked out of a few bars and restaurants (at least while they're smoking). We nonsmokers have been locked out for years.
Fair is fair, right?
Guess not.
And so it goes.
6 comments:
It's obviously not the same exact situation, but check out how well that worked out for Ireland.
I'm worried about the smaller local bars, like the one I hang out in. I predict a drop in attendance among the regulars (most of whom are smokers) and perhaps a temporary increase in new customers, but I'll be interested to see whether they'll drink...or tip.
Of course, maybe Urbana will surprise everybody and go the free-market route.
I'm sure you - and most conservatives - will never believe me, but it isn't always about the free market and about businesses making all the profit they can. The bottom line isn't the only line that counts. Sometimes it's about people. This is about people. If businesses can't make a fair profit in a way that doesn't exclude or alienate a majority of the population, the problem isn't the majority, it just may be the business.
Thanks Old Guy for your support. We worked very hard on this and it is a form of poetic justice in the blogosphere. Too bad the real IlliniPundit doesn't exist anymore, but I'm sure he knows it passed. It's hilarious to see their whining and payback has finally arrived on that front! Seriously though, this was the right thing for the City to do and about time.
Er, did you just call me a conservative? Wow, that's excellent! I'll quit all my left-wing activism immediately and have so much more time to myself!
Sarcasm aside, for the record, I have been the editor of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War newspaper for a decade, I worked for Greenpeace back in the eighties, and I attended my first antiwar demonstration at age five. And this issue is indeed about people; it affects my friends who own, work in, and gather in a bar that may very well have major difficulties should this ban come to pass.
As a single mom who has never risen above the poverty level, I feel excluded and alienated from swank establishments like Kennedy's; should I be putting my efforts into forcing them to lower their prices so that I can eat there too? As a woman who doesn't eat beef, should I be insulted by the presence of steakhouses that don't offer tasty tofu dishes? Why aren't all of these places catering to me, me, me? Oh, sorry; I seem to have gone all sarcastic again.
The truth is that I happen to like to get together with friends (these would be the "regulars" of which I spoke earlier) once a week over a pint and a smoke, and it'd be too bad if that stops happening just because some people don't like to smell of smoke. Because let's not kid ourselves that that's not what this is all about.
Then have the pint and the smoke at home. Have the pint at a bar and the smoke at home. A business which sells the pint will benefit either way. Smoking, like driving, is NOT a right. When and where society chooses to let you drive or smoke is up to society. Society just spoke. I want a chance to enjoy the same things in our community you and other smokers have been enjoying and denying me and other nonsmokers for decades. I have to surrender my rights to life, liberty and the pursuit ... so you and your friends can have a pint and a smoke? Why? Sure, I have/had the choice to go into the smoke-filled bar any time I wanted. I just had to smoke (first-hand or second hand) if I made that choice. Now you have the same choice and right to go into the same now smoke-free bar any time you want. You just can't smoke inside. What is the difference? What gives YOU the right to restrict MY freedom? Tradition? That's the way it's always been? A conservative? If the shoe fits.... Many people can talk a good (liberal) game, but when it comes down to the bottom line, it seems to be all about MY rights. Property rights above personal rights. Why? I'm from the conservative West. I've heard all this 'property rights' talk all my life. It's just code for I'll do what the hell I want and the hell with you. To too many conservatives, it's all about the bottom line. You can take away my cigarette when you pry my cold, dead ... fingers off the poor bartender who breathed my toxins for decades.
Sorry for ranting, but I've heard enough whining in the past 36 hours to last me a decade. This is my community, too.
Totally agree Ol'Guy! Its our turn...
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