Niet-rokers compenseren rookverbod niet
Na negen maanden rookverbod in de staat New York wordt her en der de balans opgemaakt. Zo ook in een artikel in de Niagara Falls Reporter.
De ‘grote leugen’, zoals de schrijver van dit artikel zegt, wordt inderdaad niet bewaarheid. Anti’s zeiden, ter rechtvaardiging van het rookverbod, dat de niet-rokers massaal de verliezen door wegblijvende rokers in bars zouden compenseren. Nee dus, er is slechts één eigenaar gevonden die een toename van de omzet meldde, maar dat was dan ook een speciaal soort gelegenheid….
You can argue all day about the impact of second-hand smoke. According to the fanatics, every cancer death in the United States is somehow attributable to the Marlboro puffed by the guy next to you. When people start making up numbers, they’re pretty hard to disprove. If you believe the propaganda of the antis, you’re either already dead or will be within a year.
Likewise, ban-lovers would have you believe that bar and restaurant business is actually up over the dark, dirty days when one could light up in the local gin mill, selectively citing tax figures issued by Albany to back their claims.
Of course, those numbers ignore inconvenient factors like inflation. If the price of a meal or a drink is up 10 percent — a reasonable expectation — over a year ago, then so is the sales tax on that item. Duh.
Besides, Citycide prefers to take the word of the people actually feeling the pain caused by the ban, rather than trust the figures of bean-counters whose jobs depend on making the inane policies of lawmakers seem sensible.
Since the ban was enacted last July, precisely one business owner interviewed has reported an increase in business.
That was a place in Olean called the The Beef ‘N’ Barrel, where the emphasis falls heavily on the former. Not having to have a separate smoking room allowed the owner to more fully utilize the tables near the bar, which few ever utilized for more than a few moments anyway.
Closer to home, few have enjoyed any benefit, no matter how many stories The Other Paper runs about that place in Lockport that never allowed smoking to begin with.
Bars in the purest sense have been hit hardest, but even places thought of more for their food than their spirits have suffered, too. Don’t believe it? Stop by Lou’s Pete’s Market House for lunch some afternoon, or farther up Pine Avenue at the Como just about any time, and ask their owners about what a great help the ban has been to them.
