As the board approaches the inevitable end based mostly on a single poster ruining the experience for everyone, I thought it would be a cool thing to play some of the classics that bigfan likely deleted because, well, the board ran out of thread space?

Anyways, remember the huge uproar about banning smoking in restaurants and bars. Bars and restaurants would cease to exist. Everyone would drive to Indiana to drink. Personal liberty would cease to exist. The Founding Fathers would have literally put us on their knee and spanked every single American citizen.

Instead, pretty much everyone agrees it was the right thing to do and no one even pushes for things to be different even if they smoke.

So, thanks government. You did something right!

I'm sure a lot of restaurants would have remained proudly defiant of their client's wishes as smoking was reduced to the lowest levels in recorded history of the us, with the most pronounced decline among people 18-24.

It wasn't happening before the ban though. Pretty much every restaurant had a smoking section still until they weren't allowed to and every bar I ever went to allowed smoking.

Rick, do you have any idea how many restaurants - small, mop-and-pops, not TGI Fridays - got screwed into spending thousands of dollars on a "smoke-eater," essentially a giant air filter system, in their smoking sections in order to be compliant with the code a year or two prior to the smoking ban?

Why shouldn't it be voluntary? My place would be non smoking. I know that, because I know my clientele.

It was voluntary for decades and virtually every place was either completely smoking or had a smoking section that was only somewhat effective.

It puts all businesses on an even playing field. As you are aware, the margins for restaurants are fairly slim and restaurants are almost certainly not going to turn away clients who smoke if the guy next door is willing to let them. Bars wouldn't even consider it.

The overwhelming choice of exempt places like casinos have been to keep smoking.

You are diminishing the judgement of the owner/operator to stick with their own rules.